How Do Nursing Organizations Measure Up on Harm Reduction? An Environmental Scan

Abstract

In the past five years, we have seen a rapid expansion of harm reduction approaches, programs, and policies in Canada. To keep up with the changing policy landscape, a number of Canadian researchers have undertaken projects that seek to analyze policy documents published by provincial and territorial governments. Building on this important body of work, we undertook a similar analysis using documents published by nursing organizations. To present key findings and propose ways that nursing organizations can strengthen their position on harm reduction. We conducted an environmental scan with a two-part analysis. To complete the first part, we used the 17 quality indicators. To complete the second part, we analyzed the documents for specific harm reduction interventions. A total of 39 documents were collected across 76 nursing organizations. The majority of the documents were press or public statements (n = 22), and the most frequently mentioned intervention was supervised injection services (n = 31). On average, documents met 5.6 quality indicators. Documents scored highest on indicator 12 (discuss low-threshold approaches to service provision) and lowest on indicator 3 (acknowledge that not all substance use is problematic). Six areas were identified to strengthen nursing organizations' position on harm reduction.