Nurses are the backbone of Canada's healthcare system, providing essential care across long-term care, community health, tertiary hospitals, and mental health services. However, the increasing prevalence of burnout among nurses is threatening the stability and effectiveness of healthcare delivery nationwide.

Patient advocates and navigators are skilled problem-solvers. They know how to find services, build bridges between programs, and help clients move through complex systems. But what happens when there’s no service to connect to? No program open to referrals? No real options left? In many regions—especially those with chronic underfunding or in rural and remote areas—navigators find themselves managing scarcity rather than making referrals.

Healthcare policy in Canada is complex, fragmented, and often confusing—even for those who work in the system. For patients, especially those facing crisis, trauma, or chronic illness, the rules and requirements can feel impossible to understand. That’s where patient advocates and navigators step in. They translate, interpret, and guide—but they’re doing it in a policy landscape that is constantly shifting beneath their feet.

Systemic barriers—like poverty, geography, language, and bureaucracy—routinely block people from accessing the care they need. For patient advocates and navigators, these challenges are not theoretical; they are a daily part of the work. You may know exactly what your client needs, but the system has other plans. These aren’t small inconveniences—they are structural hurdles that delay care, exacerbate illness, and leave people feeling abandoned by the very systems meant to he

As Nursing Week 2025 comes to a close, we want to give a special shout-out to the nurses in their 20s and 30s—the next generation of leaders, advocates, and innovators in Canadian healthcare. 💙

From coast to coast to coast, Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs) are essential to the health and strength of Canada’s nursing workforce—and our communities. For Nursing Week it's key to highlight Internationally Educated Nurses.

Nurses today are case managers, educators, researchers, policymakers, public health advocates, mental health practitioners, navigators, and consultants. We work in hospitals, homes, communities, clinics, corporations — and increasingly, we’re designing the systems we once simply worked within.

We're taking a moment to recognize the incredible nurses across Canada - we're celebrating everything you bring

During Nursing Week 2025, we often think of Florence Nightingale, the “lady with the lamp”—and rightfully so.Her focus on improving the patient environment didn’t just reduce mortality rates; it revolutionized healthcare practice and shaped the very foundation of modern nursing.

Don’t you ever wonder — in Canada, does our healthcare system see us as customers or partners? "Patient Centred Care" is the catch phrase...

Caregivers—whether family members or professionals—face an exhausting and often overwhelming journey. Every day, they navigate a...

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