Advancing the educational agenda

This timely paper provides a thought-provoking analysis of current advanced practice nursing education in Canada. It comes at a critical juncture in the evolution of Canadian healthcare services and the redefinition of nursing roles. Increasingly, multiple sectors of society are calling for more nurses with advanced practice preparation and for a wider range of advanced practice nursing specialties. Advanced practice nurses (APNs) are being proposed as a solution to a financially overburdened national healthcare system, the increasing complexity of healthcare services, and a crisis in access to primary healthcare. Thus, governments seeking greater fiscal efficiency, medical specialists needing sophisticated collaborative support, and healthcare consumers see APNs as the way forward.