RN, PhD; Associate Professor, School of Nursing, Queen’s University
Presenting on: Thursday October 21
Session Title: Regulated Nursing in Canada: Moving Forward to More Inclusive Nursing Voice
Session Description: Regulated Nursing in Canada is a complex landscape, where Licensed/Registered Practical Nurses, Registered Psychiatric Nurses, Registered Nurses, and Nurse Practitioners all provide nursing care within the boundaries of their professional role. While nurses value intraprofessional practice, many nurses report confusion about the different designations and roles. The lack of unity and historical power structures entrenched within the profession over many decades has also resulted in significant challenges for regulated nurses to come together under one inclusive voice. It is undeniable that longstanding tensions and rivalry sometimes get in the way of delivering the best care. There is a growing motivation and recognition of the need to strengthen nurses’ understanding of intraprofessional practice with the goal of clarifying and advocating for better working relationships among nurses. In this workshop, the current landscape of nursing in Canada will be discussed. Participants will be invited to participate in a guided discussion of what they envision as their dream intraprofessional team all the while exploring the benefits to nurses, patients and their work environments. Participants will be challenged to courageously consider the next steps in moving forward with meaningful change to assure a more inclusive and unified nursing voice, something the authors argue is currently lacking.
Speaker Biography: Dr. Almost is a strong advocate for healthy practice environments and collegial workplace relationships and has conducted extensive research in this area over the past 20 years. In 2018, she joined the Canadian Nurses Association as the Scholar in Residence and through this collaboration wrote the sentinel report, Regulated Nursing in Canada: The Landscape in 2021. Released in February 2021, the report has garnered significant attention across the country, and is serving as a critical resource for the profession and others to provide a clearer understanding of Canada’s four regulated designations of nursing and inform future work on intraprofessional practice.
Carmen Hust
BScN, MScN, PhD (c); Nursing Professor, Algonquin College
Carmen is a full-time nursing professor at Algonquin College and a coordinator in the BScN program. She obtained her BScN at the Université de Montréal er MScN at Villanova University in Pennsylvania and doctorate at the University of Ottawa. Her, research focus is qualitative in nature focusing on resilience in nursing students with mental health concerns. She has been a nurse at the bed side, nurse-manager, and nurse educator in the United States, Australia and Canada. The nursing profession and domains of practice are of particular interest to Carmen