Transforming and Supporting Patient Care - Health Professions ...

17Chapter 1 – An Introductionwell as among their members, is essential to harness the full capabilities ofall practitioners to deliver the best possible service to patients.Enabling professionals to perform more tasks independently, consistentwith their competence, will enhance their ability to work with others inhealth care teams. Professions will be able to take on new or altered roles ina collaborative environment as barriers that keep them from practicing totheir full capacity are removed.Moreover, increased transparency and clarity about scopes of practice willraise awareness of the abilities of various professions and open up newcollaborative possibilities in care settings. It is HPRAC’s expectation thatthe renewal and refinement of scopes of practice will promote mutualrecognition of and respect for professional roles, creating a climate for theoptimal use and mix of health professionals. In HPRAC’s view, the revisionof professional scopes of practice at the regulatory level is one importantway to strengthen interprofessional care at the clinical level.HPRAC has also reviewed the scope of practice of nurse practitioners andsubmitted its findings and recommendations in a separate report to theMinister in March 2008. 19 The seven professions HPRAC has reviewed arethose whose members work in settings where interprofessionalrelationships already exist and appear to have significant potential forfurther development. They play key roles in achieving health care systemgoals such as better management of chronic disease, improved access toprimary care, reduced wait times and aging at home strategies.How HPRAC Reviews a Profession’s Scope of PracticeIn spring 2007, HPRAC issued a paper on the definition of a scope ofpractice and the process for conducting a scope of practice review. Thishas served as a roadmap for each of the reviews conducted to date.What is a Scope of Practice?As HPRAC has emphasized, and as the Health Council of Canada hasobserved, the scope of a profession cannot be encompassed entirely in onedocument. 20In Ontario, the legislative framework for the health professions comprisesthe RHPA and a series of profession-specific Acts. Each profession-specificAct includes a scope of practice statement as well as the controlled acts theprofession is authorized to perform, the title or titles restricted to membersof the profession and other provisions.When HPRAC reviews a profession’s scope of practice, it analyzes the scopeof practice statement and the controlled acts authorized to the profession.In addition, HPRAC examines the implications of the harm clause containedin the RHPA, which prohibits everyone except health professionals acting19HPRAC. A Report to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care on the Review of the Scope ofPractice for Registered Nurses in the Extended Class (Nurse Practitioners). March 2008.20Health Council of Canada, A Review of Scopes of Practice of Health Professions in Canada: ABalancing Act, November 2005: 7.HPRAC Critical Links January 2009