Primary care nursing competencies in Canadian undergraduate nursing programs: A national cross-sectional survey

AIM: To assess the extent to which Canadian undergraduate baccalaureate nursing programs have incorporated Canadian competencies for Registered Nurses in primary care into their curricula. BACKGROUND: Canadian competencies for Registered Nurses in primary care have several benefits, including their ability to inform primary care education in undergraduate nursing programs and to assist in building a robust primary care nursing workforce. DESIGN: We conducted a national cross-sectional survey of undergraduate baccalaureate nursing programs (n = 74). METHODS: The survey was conducted between April-May 2022. We used a modified version of the "Community Health Nurses' Continuing Education Needs Questionnaire". Respondents indicated their level of agreement on a 6-point Likert scale with 47 statements about the integration of the competencies in their program (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). RESULTS: The response rate was 51.4%. The overall mean across the six competency domains was 4.73 (SD 0.30). The mean scores of each domain ranged from 4.23 (SD 1.27) for Quality Assurance, Evaluation and Research to 5.17 (SD 0.95) for Communication. CONCLUSIONS: There are gaps in how these competencies are included in undergraduate education programs and opportunities to strengthen education for this growing workforce in Canada.