BACKGROUND
Significant reforms are occurring in health practitioner regulation across Canada. Within the nursing profession, growing workforce challenges and health system demands have accelerated the pace of changes to nursing regulation policies and practices. There is significant political investment to modernize and harmonize nursing regulation across Canada, and evidence is needed to guide regulatory decision-making. To better understand the current state of scholarship and the gaps that exist, a comprehensive understanding of the available literature informing nursing regulation in Canada is first warranted.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of the review is to examine the nature, extent, and range of literature focused on nursing regulation in Canada.
METHODS
The review will be conducted in accordance with Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines for scoping reviews. We will search electronic databases including Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection. We will also search for grey literature using the websites of Canadian nursing regulatory bodies, nursing organizations, and other leading Canadian regulatory organizations. No limitations will be placed on year of publication. The review will include papers that explore nursing regulation in Canada, including topics such as education program accreditation or approval, licensure, standards of practice and code of conduct/ethics development and enforcement, continuing competence, discipline and conduct, nursing regulatory models, governance, and reform. We will extract data using a pre-developed tool. Data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics and conventional content analysis.
RESULTS
Results will be presented using evidence tables and a narrative summary. Reporting will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). This scoping review protocol is expected to be completed nine months after the publication of the protocol. The results will be disseminated through conference presentations and a publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
CONCLUSIONS
The findings will provide a comprehensive overview of the state nursing regulation literature across Canada and inform the development a focused research agenda.
CLINICALTRIAL
Open Science Framework: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/BM7JV