Module 1: Professional Accountability and Prescribing

Lesson 1

Provincial Legislation and Regulations

While health care in Canada is federally funded, administration of health care services is a provincial/territorial responsibility guided by the Canada Health Act (1985). Similarly, the legislation and regulations that govern the practice of healthcare providers falls to the provincial/territorial governments, including NP prescriptive authority related to controlled drugs and substances.

These resources will help learners explore the different governmental regulatory mechanisms that guide NP prescription of controlled drugs and substances, and it may also serve as a useful resource for individuals who relocate to a different jurisdiction from where they are currently practicing or where they completed their initial NP education. It is the individual NP’s responsibility to be aware of the differences across provincial/territorial jurisdictions for all aspects of their practice, including CDS prescribing.

Even though the NCPR was enacted in November 2012, NPs did not immediately have the authority to prescribe controlled drugs and substances, because additional legislative and regulatory processes were required at the provincial and territorial government level in some jurisdictions. Those provinces where NPs are not yet prescribing controlled drugs and substances or where prescribing practice does not involve specific provincial or territorial legislation are not included in the following discussion.