Grant: Cat Gr: Policy Research for HST -SPOR-Patient-Oriented Health Care Systems Res.

Canada's nursing workforce is in crisis, due to critical staff shortages and challenges surrounding recruitment and retention. Urgent national calls demand action to improve health system quality and capacity as we move forward from COVID-19. British Columbia (BC) is no exception to these challenges, and health service leaders aim to address these issues in innovative and informed ways. BC's Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) has recently created an initiative to strengthen advanced practice nursing with the goal of developing a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) strategy across the province's specialized health services. CNSs are advanced practice nurses with graduate training and specialized expertise who lead clinical care, system changes, advancement of nursing, and research and evaluation as members of diverse care teams. As part of its strategic plan, PHSA is creating a novel CNS Program at BC Cancer, which entails the implementation and evaluation of 9 new CNS roles across all 6 regional centres. This has led to a unique policy opportunity to collaboratively support evidence-informed system transformation in real time with a range of partners. Our research team of health system leaders, policy decision-makers, renowned nursing scholars, senior PHSA and BC Cancer leaders, and health services researchers will support health system partners in BC to develop a robust, equitable, and evidence-based roadmap for a provincial CNS strategy. We will: (1) gather and evaluate evidence to support nursing policy development and recommendations that address known challenges facing CNS role implementation and growth in Canada; (2) highlight recommendations to implement, evaluate, and sustain the CNS workforce in BC; and (3) develop policy recommendations and actionable strategies that can guide a provincial strategy for establishing an effective CNS workforce that aligns with provincial health system priorities.