Health Care Assistant (HCA), Access to Practical Nursing (APN), and Practical Nursing (PN) Curriculum Guides

The Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills initiates and oversees reviews of the Health Care Assistant (HCA), Access to Practical Nursing (APN), and Practical Nursing (PN) curriculum guides. BCcampus leads the project management of these reviews under the ministry’s direction.

Currently BCcampus is project managing a major review of the HCA, APN, and PN provincial curricula. These reviews are scheduled to take place every five years to ensure the curricula remain in alignment with the standards of practice and competencies as determined by the British Columbia College of Nurses & Midwives (PN and APN curricula) and the B.C. Health Care Assistants Core Competency Profile (HCA curriculum).

This graphic provides a high-level description of the process for the HCA, APN, and PN curricula revisions.

HCA, PN, & APN Curricula Revisions Process

Recommendations Collected

Steering committees share recommendations from the sector.

Gap analysis survey circulated (HCA only).

Subject-matter experts consult with key stakeholders in the sector (PN & APN only).

Subject-matter experts and instructional designer write recommendation reports.

Recommendation reports shared with the sector.

Revision Work Begins

Subject-matter experts and instructional designer update the PN competency map (PN & APN only).

Subject-matter experts and instructional designer revise the curricula based on recommendations and reach out to stakeholders as needed to answer specific questions.

All changes are tracked and documented in the revision manuals.

Review and Copyediting

Competency map is shared with educators to review (PN & APN only).

Draft curricula and revision manuals are shared with the steering committees to provide feedback.

Subject-matter experts incorporate feedback.

Draft curricula are sent for copyediting and then to the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills and steering committees for final review.

Publication and Sharing

Copyeditor, subject-matter experts, and BCcampus Open Education team publish the curricula and revision manuals to Pressbooks.

Published curricula and revision manuals are shared with steering committees and communicated to the sector.

As part of this revision cycle, the current HCA, APN, and PN curriculum guides will be removed from SoLR and published in Pressbooks into the B.C. Open Collection. Historical documents will be available through this project page once removed from SoLR. Additionally, as the supporting curriculum supplements are updated for the APN and PN programs, they will also be moved from SoLR into Pressbooks. The Health Care Assistant Program: Supplement to the Provincial Curriculum Guide was updated in 2021 and is now in Pressbooks.

Below are all links related to the HCA/APN/PN curriculum guides and supporting supplements, including historical copies.

HCA Provincial Curriculum

It is anticipated that the revised Health Care Assistant Program Provincial Curriculum (2023) will be published in Pressbooks by the end of Spring 2023.

Current Health Care Assistant Program Provincial Curriculum (2015)
- The Health Care Assistant Program: Supplement to the Provincial Curriculum Guide (revised 2021) is now available in Pressbooks.
The Proposed Changes to the Health Care Assistant Program Provincial Curriculum summary report is now available. Supplement materials, such as video resources, can be found through this link under “Supplementary materials.”

PN Provincial Curriculum

It is anticipated that the revised Practical Nursing Program Provincial Curriculum (2023) will be published in Pressbooks by the end of summer 2023.

APN Provincial Curriculum

It is anticipated that the revised Access to Practical Nursing Program Provincial Curriculum (2023) will be published in Pressbooks by the end of summer 2023.