Health Systems, Policy and the Profession

Nursing has had a longstanding influence on health system programs and policy, but there is a need to extend our reach and become more purposeful and strategic in our actions. To accomplish those aims effectively, nurse leaders must be equipped with a broad understanding of the governance of Canada and its health systems (i.e. the rules book), knowledge of the people, economic factors and politics that influence policy, and insights into the ways policy is developed, legislated, and evaluated.

Responding to those needs, NUR1016 is intended to strengthen the effectiveness of Canadian advanced-practice nurses in the identification, development, interpretation, implementation, and diffusion of health policy issues in settings across the domains of nursing practice. This course leads learners through a high-level examination of the operation of Canada’s health systems, and the structures and processes that contribute to the formulation and implementation of health-care policy, including:

  1. Basics of politics, policy, and health systems. Why does all this matter to nurse leaders?
  2. Canada’s federal/provincial/territorial and Aboriginal governance structures
  3. The governance, structure, and funding of Canada’s health care systems
  4. Canada’s history of health system development and reform
  5. Basic economics and funding of Canadian health care
  6. Population health status and the performance of Canada’s health systems today
  7. Fundamentals of policy development and agenda setting
  8. Factors and dynamics influencing health care policy (including politics, ideas, ideology, institutions, innovation, economics, technology, and globalization)
  9. Priority setting and allocation decisions.
  10. The roles and influence of nurses and other players in healthy public policy and health systems transformation today and in the future

Throughout the course, interpretation of prominent policy issues is introduced through analytical techniques applicable to advanced-practice nursing roles across health-care systems. The interests and actions of key groups who influence public policies will be introduced, with a particular focus on the role of the nursing profession and nurse leaders. To facilitate interactive learning, problem solving and critical thinking, students are required to examine, analyze and discuss current health policy research, commissions, reports and legislation.

In the analysis of policy issues during seminars and assignments, students may focus on policy problems and solutions applicable to their own interests and practice settings.