Glossary

Is transferring the responsibility to perform a function or intervention to a care provider (delegatee) who would not otherwise have the authority to perform it (i.e., the function or intervention is not within the scope of practice or scope of employment of the care provider to whom it is being delegated). Delegation does not involve transferring accountability for the outcome of the function or intervention although the delegatee is responsible to successfully perform the intervention or tasks.

Individual who accepts the delegation of an act by a regulated healthcare professional.

Regulated healthcare professional legally authorized and competent to perform an act who delegates their authority to perform that act to another individual.

A professional title attributed to a category of nursing professional that is granted by the individual’s professional regulatory authority.

Are the broad range of personal, social, economic and environmental factors that determine individual and population health. The main determinants of health include:

1. Income and social status

2. Employment and working conditions

3. Education and literacy

4. Childhood experiences

5. Physical environments

6. Social supports and coping skills

7. Healthy behaviours

8. Access to health services

9. Biology and genetic endowment

10. Gender

11. Culture

12. Race / Racism

Ability to integrate multiple data sources and thinking strategies during a patient encounter to accurately identify diagnoses and implement appropriate management plans.

The field of knowledge and practice associated with the development and use of digital technologies to improve health. Digital health expands the concept of eHealth to include digital consumers, with a wider range of smart devices and connected equipment. It also encompasses other uses of digital technologies for health such as the Internet of things, artificial intelligence, big data, and robotics.

An educational program with established admission criteria granting direct entry to graduates from a secondary school, or to mature students. Students adhere to a structured curriculum designed to support them in meeting the educational requirements for NANB’s entry-to-practice competencies for RNs. The curriculum is set by the educational provider. The duration of study is typically four years for a baccalaureate degree. Upon completion of the program, the successful student is granted Bachelor of Nursing degree (BN).

A written order from an authorized prescriber for a procedure, treatment or drug for a number of clients when specific conditions are met. The specifics of the Directive will depend on the client population; the nature of the orders involved and the expertise of the health care professionals implementing the Directive. For more information, click on the following link: Fact Sheet: Directive.

An action or decision that results in the unfair or negative treatment of a person or group due to conscious or unconscious prejudice, bias, or stereotypes. Discrimination can occur intentionally or unintentionally and often reflects unexamined privilege that favors one group over others based on differences such as race, color, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, place of origin, creed or religion, age, physical or mental ability, marital or family status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, social condition, and political belief or activity.

The interpretation, clarification, assembly, and preparation of an authorized prescriber’s order for the delivery to the client. Dispensing does not include the administration of medication. CNNB acknowledges that dispensing is a role of the pharmacist and dispensing by the pharmacist should always be the first option. However, when supported by employer policy, nurses can dispense prescribed medications when pharmacy services are not available. Examples of situations where nurses may be supported to dispense prescribed medication include, but are not limited to:

• when there is no access to pharmacy services (e.g., for geographical reasons or hours of services);
• when there is an urgency to dispense a small portion of the prescribed medications to a client (e.g., initiating a course of antibiotic therapy, and controlling the spread of a communicable disease); and
•  to cover a client’s unexpected short leave from a health care facility.

Any collective mixture characterized by differences including (but not limited to) socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, language, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability status, or veteran status. Diversity focuses on representation.

A nursing action that produces a written and/or electronic account of pertinent client data, nursing clinical decisions and interventions, and the client’s responses in a health record.

Domains or areas of practice are identified within the profession of nursing: clinical practice, research, education, consultation, management, administration, policy development and regulation. The practice domain is fundamental to nursing, and all other domains ultimately exist to maintain and support practice. Registered nurses may practice in more than one domain within the context of their role.

The transfer of a medication from a lawful channel of distribution or use, including by medication tampering. Controlled substances can be diverted anywhere along the supply and distribution chain. Methods of drug diversion include prescription forgery; telephone fraud; drug seeking from physicians, NPs, dentists or veterinarians; Indiscriminate prescribing; theft: external or internal (e.g., by employees); fraudulent orders made for a drug abuser by a pharmacy employee.

Nurses have a professional duty and a legal obligation to provide persons receiving care with safe, competent, compassionate and ethical care. There may be some circumstances in which it is acceptable for a nurse to withdraw from care provisions or to refuse to provide care.

Nurses question, intervene, report, and address unsafe, non compassionate, unethical or incompetent practice or conditions that interfere with their ability to provide safe, compassionate, competent and ethical care. Nurses must be attentive to indications that a colleague is unable to provide such care regardless of the reason. In this situation, the nurse is obligated to take the steps necessary to ensure client safety. Reporting a situation that may compromise client safety is a nurse’s professional obligation.

Situations where verbal prescriptions could be acceptable include (but may not be limited to):

• emergent or urgent situations where delay in treatment would place the client at risk of harm;

• when the prescriber is not present, and urgent or emergent direction is required to provide appropriate client care;

• when the prescriber is away from the client care area where access to the health record is not possible; or,

• when the prescriber is consulting via telehealth without the ability to enter their prescription into the health record.

Empathy involves the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, while compassion is characterized by a proactive desire to alleviate suffering. These are core attributes that define the quality and effectiveness of patient centered care.

Refers to the foundational competencies required of a newly graduated and newly regulated nurse to begin practice safely, competently, ethically, and collaboratively, recognizing that further development occurs through experience, mentorship, and continuing competence.

Nursing education programs that prepare individuals entering the nursing profession with the competencies expected upon initial registration with the NANB.

Practice which supports environmental preservation and restoration while advocating for initiatives that reduce environmentally harmful practices in order to promote health and well-being.

Determining fairness on the basis of people’s needs. This means that those who are less fortunate would receive more resources than those who are well off.

The fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement of all people, and the attempt to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented the full participation of some groups. The principle of equity acknowledges that historically underserved and underrepresented populations exist and that fairness regarding these unbalanced conditions is required to assist in the provision of adequate opportunities for all groups. Equity also considers that social groups (gender, religion, socioeconomic status etc.) do affect equality.

A nursing education program that has graduated students and has received an approved or conditional approval status from CNNB.

An environment with the potential to promote moral integrity and moral agency.

A branch of philosophy that deals with questions of right and wrong and of ought and ought not in our interactions with others.

A scheme showing areas for reflection on an individual’s practice and providing steps in ethical decision-making. Normally, this model includes critical questions to consider in reflecting on or in dealing with an ethical situation.

How nurses pay attention to ethics in carrying out their common daily interactions, including how they approach their practice and reflect on their ethical commitments to persons receiving care or with health-care needs.

The deliberate process of integrating the best available research evidence with clinical expertise, client preferences, and contextual factors to guide safe, competent, compassionate and ethical nursing practice.

Practice which is based on successful strategies that improve client outcomes and are derived from a combination of various sources of evidence, including client perspective, research, national guidelines, policies, consensus statements, expert opinion and quality improvement data.

Equalizing people’s opportunities to participate in and enjoy life, given their circumstances, and society’s equitable distribution of resources (in health care this means an expectation of equitable treatment).

In matters of caregiving, family is recognized as those people identified by the person receiving or in need of care who provide familial support, whether or not there is a biologic relationship. However, in matters of legal decision-making it must be noted that provincial legislation is not uniform across Canada and may include an obligation to recognize family members in priority according to their biologic relationship.

An obligation to act in the best interest of another. A person acting in a fiduciary capacity is held to a high standard of honesty and must not obtain a personal benefit at the expense of the client.

The First Nations principles of ownership, control, access, and possession – more commonly known as OCAP® – assert that First Nations have control over data collection processes, and that they own and control how this information can be used.

All the qualities and capabilities of an individual relevant to his or her capacity to practice as a nurse, including but not limited to freedom from any cognitive, physical, psychological, or emotional condition, and impairment from alcohol or drugs.

For the purposes of program approval, foundational practice standards are the more commonly cited CNNB measures related to RN and NP performance issues as identified through the CNNB data.

A person's internal and deeply felt sense of being man or woman, both, neither, or somewhere along the gender spectrum. A person's gender identity may or may not align with the gender typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender identity is not necessarily visible and is not related to sexual orientation.

A neurological scale which aims to give a reliable and objective way of recording the conscious state of a person.

An area of research and practice committed to the application of overtly multidisciplinary, multisectoral, and culturally sensitive approaches for reducing health disparities that transcend national borders.

Education beyond the baccalaureate level, including master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral levels.

An approach directed toward individuals or groups that aims to reduce the harms associated with certain behaviors. Harm reduction approaches greatly reduce morbidity and mortality associated with risky health behaviors. For example, implementing an evidence-based, client centered approach that seeks to reduce the health and social harms associated with addiction and substance use, without necessarily requiring people who use substances from abstaining or stopping.

A patient safety incident that resulted in harm to the patient.

A state of complete physical, mental (spiritual) and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease.

All those who are involved in providing care; they may include professionals, personal care attendants, home support workers and others.

Deliberate attempts by governments to substantially change health policies, structures, and processes with the objective of improving their functioning or performance.

Members of the intraprofesssional and/or interprofessional team and/or community supporting client care. This also includes the health and other government sectors, representatives from private, voluntary, and non-profit groups, as well as Indigenous and traditional healers.

Differences in health status that occur among population groups defined by specific characteristics. Socio-economic status, Aboriginal identity, gender, ethnicity, and geographic location are the important factors associated with health disparities in Canada.

Absence of unfair, avoidable, or remediable differences in health status among groups of people. Health equity is achieved when everyone can attain their full potential for health and well-being.

Health human resources (HHR) – also known as human resources for health (HRH) or health workforce – is defined as "all people engaged in actions whose primary intent is to enhance health."

Differences in health status or in the distribution of health resources among different population groups, arising from the social conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.

The ability to access, comprehend, evaluate and communicate information as a way to promote, maintain and improve health in a variety of settings across the life-course.

The events occurring as a result of a health intervention. They may be measured clinically, self-reported, or observed.

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions.

A critical behaviour or requirement of nursing practice. Without it, client safety would be jeopardized.

Historical trauma refers to the collective and cumulative emotional, psychological, and spiritual wounding experienced by a group across generations (intergenerational), resulting from significant and targeted historical injustices. These events – such as conlonization, forced displacement, Canadian Indian Residential Schools, and systemic racism – are widespread among a specific population, intentionally inflicted by the dominant group, and result in profound and lasting collective distress. Historical trauma is characterized by four interrelated dimensions: colonial injury, collective experience, cumulative effects, and cross-generational impacts (the “4 C’s). Its consequences persist across generations and continue to influence health, well-being, identity, and access to systems and services.

An approach that considers the whole person including their physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, cultural, and social needs rather than focusing solely on a disease or condition.

The time students spend in learning activities in a variety of settings (acute, long term care, and community), and may include orientation, pre and post conferences, and clinical experiences of an observational nature.

The rights of people as expressed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and as recorded in the CNA position statement, Registered Nurses, Health and Human Rights.