HomeNews & TopicsHealth Care PolicyHistoric changes at the Canadian Nurses Association

Historic changes at the Canadian Nurses Association

Published on

By Mike Villeneuve

Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) members reached a landmark decision on June 18, 2018, at their annual general meeting in Ottawa when they voted overwhelmingly to open membership to all regulated nurses in Canada. Since its founding in 1908, CNA has been the national professional home and voice of registered nurses (RNs) and more recently, nurse practitioners (NPs), who are all RNs. Currently, CNA represents some 139,000 RNs and NPs across all 13 Canadian provinces and territories, including nurses living in hundreds of Indigenous communities. The June 18 vote opened the door to welcome licensed and registered practical nurses (LPNs/RPNs) as well as registered psychiatric nurses (RPNs) — courageously setting the stage for a new future for CNA and professional nursing in Canada.

Nurses are being called on to optimize their scopes of practice. They’re expected to deliver new kinds of care in new delivery models that respond to the need for managing chronic diseases, supporting Canada’s aging population, and dealing respectfully with palliative and end-of-life care. As an association, CNA represents nurses in the face of ongoing regulatory and legislative changes across the country. The vote was a game-changing decision for nursing and, ultimately, for the people of Canada. It answers the call for real collaboration within and among nursing categories as the profession is confronted with this complex menu of challenges.

Employers, governments and the public can be confused by the number of nursing categories. What do the titles mean? Who can do what care safely? The public needs nurses to explain their practice and the value different categories of nurses bring to different care settings. And they expect nurses to speak forcefully and with unity in their public advocacy work for better health, better care, and better value for Canadian tax dollars. With their vote, members chose to increase CNA’s national leadership and political force to speak on behalf of the whole family of nursing.

The vote means that any of the more than 400,000 nursing professionals in Canada will be able to join CNA. Like RNs and NPs, practical nurses are employed in all Canadian jurisdictions. These professionals are regulated as LPNs everywhere except Ontario, where they are titled as RPNs. They are educated at the community college level and have similar scopes of practice as RNs, but typically deliver care that is more predictable, less complex and less urgent than would be provided by an RN.

Registered psychiatric nurses are regulated only in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Yukon. They are educated in a mix of college and university programs and deliver a broad scope of practice not unlike RNs but with deeper training in mental health, as implied in the title.

Nurses urge government to ensure new funds reach the bedside

CNA now must review its governance and membership models to evaluate the structures that need to be put in place to reflect the unique and collective needs of these different regulated nursing groups. There is a lot at stake here. The CNA board and operational team must move forward prudently, consulting with all the categories of nurses about their needs and the best ways to support each of them. Careful and ongoing planning is required if the association is to tailor specific programs and services for each category while marshalling the power of unity when a strong collective political voice is needed. CNA must continue to translate evidence into practical solutions and provide sound advice to governments, employers and Canadians, particularly on ways to deploy the right number and mix of nurses — and in what circumstances a specific category of nurse is warranted.

In a 2010 commentary, Steven Lewis famously said, “Nursing’s combination of numbers, reputation and reach should translate into power and influence over how health care is financed, organized and delivered. Yet politically, the profession punches below its weight. The country is the worse for it.” He was right. CNA and the nurses of Canada have responded. To achieve the triple aim of better health, better care and better value, Canadians must have access to the right provider delivering the right care in the right place and at the right time. By working together more strategically as an inclusive, united, national professional association, a new CNA holds the promise to deliver a more powerful advocacy punch as we work together to deliver on those formidable goals.

Mike Villeneuve is the Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Nurses Association.

Latest articles

Common drug interactions with over-the-counter medications

TJ, a 45-year-old male with symptoms of a common cold (sore throat, headache, runny...

Easing the Transition to the Cloud. Modernizing made simple with integration support.

Across Canada, most hospitals and healthcare authorities recognize the need to modernize their systems....

Rovolutionizing geriatric care: Meet Canada’s leading Universal Health Hub (UHH)

Universal Health Hub (UHH) is the only Health Care Organization in Canada which is...

National efforts to guide safe, effective, and equitable use of opioids for quality pain management in children

No one should experience untreated pain. Yet, in Canada, two out of three children...

More like this

Wait times in healthcare often linked to diagnostic testing – adding more doctors and nurses alone won’t improve that bottleneck

There is an emerging consensus that Canada’s healthcare system is in crisis.  Stories appear in...

Physician work hours, especially for male doctors, have declined since 1987

Physicians in Canada, especially male physicians, are working fewer hours than they did three...

No longer just tobacco and opioids: B.C. plans commencing more class actions to recover health care costs involving virtually any product

On March 14, 2024, the province of British Columbia proposed broad multi-government class action...

Wait times in EDs are nothing new – and that’s the problem

The respiratory virus season is upon us, and those working in the emergency departments...

Ontario hospitals play critical role in Canadian health care advancements and innovation

Twenty Ontario research hospitals have been celebrated for their excellence in health research and...

Too much paperwork is hurting physicians, and health care

Few of us look forward to administrative tasks. For physicians, however, relentless paperwork is...