RN Education
Continuing Education
How can registered nurses continue to provide competent care?
Canadian nurses are accountable for providing competent nursing care to their clients.
The Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) believes that to provide competent nursing care, a
registered nurse must maintain and continuously enhance the knowledge, skills, attitude
and judgement required to meet client needs in an evolving health care system. Please
click on the link for CNA's Policy Statement on
Educational Support for Competent Nursing Practice
and refer to other pages on the CNA web site for further
publications related to
education.
Nurses maintain their competence in a variety of ways and continuing nursing education is one means of maintaining and increasing knowledge and skills. Two provinces have formal continuing competence programs for nurses. In British Columbia and Ontario, nurses assess their practice, determine needs, and follow through to obtain the experiences they require to develop knowledge skills or attitude.
What are the Canadian requirements for continuing nursing education?
Currently, none of the regulatory bodies in Canada have specific continuing education requirements for practising registered nurses. The regulatory bodies do not assess continuing education programs to assign C.E.U.s (continuing education units). Nurses in Canada do keep records of participation in continuing education for purposes of maintaining specialty certification and in British Columbia and Ontario for continuing competence programs. In most provinces and territories, nurses who have not practised for a specified number of hours within a specified time limit must take a refresher course before being given permission to return to work in nursing.
Where can I obtain information about continuing education programs?
There is a wide range of providers working in the field of continuing nursing education programs including, colleges and universities, employers, nursing interest groups, professional associations, and private companies offering seminars and workshops. Many of these groups publish information about continuing education offerings.
Inquire through the nursing or health sciences programs at your local university or community college as well as through the faculty or department of continuing education for courses, certificate or degree programs.
The Association of Canadian Community Colleges maintains a database of all the programs offered by their member associations.
The Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) has an education database that is updated annually. The database provides information on all nursing degree programs offered through university and college schools of nursing in Canada. It contains specific information about baccalaureate, post-RN baccalaureate, nurse practitioner, master's and doctoral programs. For more detailed information go directly to Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing or e-mail inquire@casn.ca.
The increasing availability of distance education programs has made education accessible wherever you are. For example, the Nursing Management Program offered to nurses across Canada for many years by the Canadian Nurses Association and the Canadian Healthcare Association is now available for university credits through McMaster University.
Provincial or territorial nurses associations may have continuing education information. A list of nurses associations can be accessed here.
Continuing Nursing Education for Credit
It is a good idea always to consider what is available through a degree program. Many nurses prefer continuing education courses that can be credited towards a degree. Even if you are not considering a bachelor's or a master's program at this time, it may be possible to take individual courses without being registered in a degree program but with the possibility of using the credit later. It is important to know that only the faculty that awards the degree can tell you whether or not a particular course would be eligible for credit towards the degree.
Related Links
June 1999
