Marketing Baccalaureate Entry to Nursing Practice in Canada

Abstract

Marketing in Canadian nursing is a recent innovation. Unlike the United States, where marketing is intrinsic to an entrepreneurial health care delivery system, Canadian health care professionals historically have had little reason to engage in marketing activities. Recently, however, several Canadian professional nursing associations have begun to develop specific marketing programs to promote baccalaureate entry to nursing practice. The purpose of this article is to explore further how the concept of social marketing might be applied to the position of the Canadian Nurses' Association (CNA) that, by the year 2000, the minimum education for entry to practice should be a baccalaureate degree in nursing. The perceived need for marketing, what constitutes social marketing, constraints of social marketing, rationales for social marketing in nursing and strategies for marketing the entry to practice position will be presented. Recommendations about strategies for marketing the entry to practice position will be based on published policy statements of involved interest groups. These recommendations will focus on the marketing roles that might be assumed by professional nursing associations and university faculties of nursing.