Canadian Community Health Nursing Standards of Practice (CCHN ...

eyond the entry level; promote and facilitate collaboration
between education and practice settings regarding the
preparation of new graduates in nursing and the support of
career planning for registered nurses; promote continuing
nursing education; develop mechanisms for assessing and
recognizing learning, for example, by providing prior
learning assessment; and, facilitate access to education
programs targeted to updating competence when such need
has been identified.
3. Nursing educators and educational institutions have the
responsibility to: prepare new graduates with the
competencies necessary to provide safe, competent and
ethical nursing care in a variety of settings; and deliver
nursing education programs in a flexible and accessible
format.
4. Employers of registered nurses have the responsibility
to put mechanisms in place that: foster a professional
practice environment; help registered nurses identify their
learning needs; facilitate access to educational activities;
and, provide support for registered nurses in continuing their
education.
5. Governments have the responsibility to provide the
funding necessary to develop entry-level and continuing
nursing education programs that are effective, appropriate,
efficient and accessible, and that prepare registered nurses
for safe and competent nursing practice. Communication
and cooperation between the ministries of health and
education are required to ensure that nursing education is
responsive to current and future needs. (College of
Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia (CRNNS), 2003)
This toolkit provides a process and associated resources to
assist the above stakeholders — community health nurses,
the Canadian Nurses Association, Community Health
Nurses Association of Canada (CHNAC) and provincial
Community Health Nursing Associations/Interest Groups,
nurse educators, employers of community health nurses, and
governments—to strengthen and support community health
nursing practice in Canada.
The report from a consultant group (TGS Consultants
Incorporated, 2005) provided preliminary information for
the Toolkit. TGS conducted a national survey of
organizations and agencies around implementation
strategies for Standards of Practice and reported that few
respondents had implemented standards/guidelines in their
area. Only 4 of 15 respondents had experience with
implementation of practice standards. Of those who had
begun to develop competencies, none had developed
education tools and supports for nurses (TGS Consultants
Incorporated, 2005). The TGS report identified three types
of resource as potentially useful for Toolkit development: 1)
Continuing competence programs using a reflective
practice approach based on provincial standards for
registered nursing practice (NWT, BC, Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Section 2b); 2) Position description and
interview guide (Saskatchewan, Section 2b), and 3) the
Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) Best
Practice Guideline (BPG) Toolkit.
Although designed to guide implementation of BPGs, the
RNAO toolkit was identified in the TGS report (2005) as
the most comprehensive resource to guide the
implementation of practice standards. Two sections of the
Toolkit, the process steps and the associated resources, are
both necessary to ensure the best use of time and resources
when implementing practice standards. The process steps
work effectively with the associated resources; the resources
on their own will not support a sustainable change in
practice. The process steps are similar to those used to
support change to evidenced based practice (RNAO, 2004)
This Toolkit has been developed to
guide and promote use of the CCHN
Standards according to the stage of
nursing career: nursing education;
post-registration in the first two years
of community health practice, and
continuing community health practice.
Tailored to these career phases, the
CCHN Standards Toolkit is of relevance
to nursing students, community
health nurses, and educational and
community health organizations. Table
1, (Staging use of CCHN Standards in
Community Nurse Career by Setting)
shows the implementation objectives
for each phase of a nursing career.
4 Community Health Nurses Association of Canada