We are a collaborative research project with partners in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom with funding and support from British Columbia’s Ministry of Health & Interior University Research Coalition.
Our Work
Nurse Bridging Education: Optimization, Innovation, and Sustainability Across the Nursing Continuum
This project is a collaboration between the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), Thompson Rivers University (TRU), Northern Health (NH), Okanagan College, and the University of Kent. Its focus is on developing a bridging framework for career progression within nursing and midwifery in British Columbia (BC), Canada.
Our aim is to help post-secondary institutions, health authorities, regulators, and other contributors identify pathways that support career progression and registration attainment to enchance nursing and midwifery human resource capacity by providing efficient, evidence-informed, equitable access to supplementary education and training.
We will report on agreed bridging principles and implementation mechanisms that promote best educational practices and use resources efficiently and effectively to help BC nurses and midwives at all career levels.
Our aims
- Identify the architecture that informs the key principles of bridging programs across nursing and midwifery in BC and internationally
- Understand, at the provinical level, the barriers and facilitators to bridging as experienced by BC contributors
- Compile the principles agreed upon through expert opinion and how these could be applied across BC partnerships
Our approach
Bridging education is one approach to reducing the nursing health worker shortage. Bridging programs build on relevant previous education and experience to advance individuals throughout their nursing careers. Such programs exist to prepare nurses to meet next-tier or entry-level competencies to achieve the requirements for specialism or registration. Bridging approaches provides a vehicle for return to nursing for Canadian nurses, newly arrived Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs), and IENs who wish to join the workforce. Bridging education can also utilize existing educational infrastructure, enhance professional mobility, and help individuals build their career.
Three-phase approach:
- Rapid review of current literature and policy on bridging
- Deliberate critical conversations with contributors and the recruitment of an expert panel
- Two-round Delphi methdology study to achieve consensus on bridging principles
Bridge Education © 2025 by Sanders et al,. is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0