Nurse Practitioners in Canada Essay

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History of Nurse Practitioner in Canada

Advanced practice nursing is one of the fundamental components of the Canadian health sector and has continued to experience tremendous growth in recent years (Kaasalainen et al., 2010). Nurse practitioners are among the major professionals in the Canadian advanced practice nursing. Nurses have traditionally been practicing in expand roles in remote and rural areas across Canada, particularly informally. The role of the nurse practitioner was first introduced in the country in the 1960s – 1970s. This introduction was attributable to various factors including the perceived physician shortage, the launch of universal publicly funded medical insurance, increased medical specialization, and increased focus on primary healthcare. Nurse practitioner is one of the advanced practice nursing roles that emerged in Canada in the 1960s and 70s due to the belief that nurses were suitably positioned to meeting the nation’s emerging healthcare needs.

In the initial years of its introduction, the nurse practitioner role in Canada was characterized by widespread controversies on the education and positioning of these nurses in the healthcare system. This contributed to numerous studies that were published and initiatives that were established to help address this issue. For example, two groundbreaking randomized controlled trials that were conducted in Ontario in 1974 and 1975 demonstrated the effectiveness of the role of the nurse practitioner.

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However, integration of the nurse practitioner role in Canada failed in the 1970s regardless of the strong evidence demonstrating its effectiveness. The failure was mainly attributable to the lack of funding for nurse practitioner role, perceived oversupply of doctors, inadequate public awareness of the NP role, lack of proper legislation, and insufficient support for health providers and policymakers (Kaasalainen et al., 2010). Despite the initial failure, most of the graduate nurse practitioners from Canadian university programs continued to practice between 1970s and 1983, but mainly in northern remote health facilities and in community health centers.

The continued practice in turn influenced the emergence of diversity in educational preparation for nurse practitioners with program lengths that differ from several months to two years (Baker et al., 2012). In addition, nurse practitioner education programs in Canada currently range from post-diploma certificates to post-Master’s degrees. Over the past two decades, nurse practitioner regulations and entry-to-practice examination requirements have been established and characterized by greater consistency and shift toward Master’s preparation. Most of the current nurse practitioner educational programs in the country….....

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