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

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Policy Analysis
• Nursing Research

Background:

• Harm reduction policies and programs have rapidly expanded in Canada over the past five years.
• Canadian researchers have analyzed provincial and territorial government documents on harm reduction.
• This study extends previous work by analyzing policy documents from nursing organizations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present key findings from an analysis of nursing organizations' harm reduction documents.
• To propose actionable strategies for nursing organizations to enhance their harm reduction advocacy.

Main Methods:

• An environmental scan was conducted to collect relevant documents.
• A two-part analysis was performed on 39 documents from 76 nursing organizations.
• Documents were assessed using 17 quality indicators and analyzed for specific harm reduction interventions.

Main Results:

• The majority of documents were press or public statements.
• Supervised injection services were the most frequently mentioned harm reduction intervention.
• Documents averaged 5.6 quality indicators, scoring highest on low-threshold approaches and lowest on acknowledging non-problematic substance use.

Conclusions:

• Six key areas were identified to strengthen nursing organizations' engagement with harm reduction.
• Findings provide a roadmap for nursing organizations to improve their contributions to harm reduction policy and practice.