Drivers of regulatory reform in Canadian health professions: Institutional isomorphism in a shifting social context

The increase in sources focused on regulatory structures reflects a growing emphasis on efficiency, accountability, and transparency in this field.

“The number of sources focused on regulatory structures have steadily increased since 2010, reflecting a growing emphasis on efficiency, accountability, and transparency in this field [5,12,51,94,198,208].”

Despite trends toward umbrella legislation in some Canadian jurisdictions and the amalgamation of regulatory bodies of different professions, there is little literature comparing regulation across professions.

“Despite trends toward umbrella legislation in some Canadian jurisdictions and the amalgamation of regulatory bodies of different professions [5,198,208], there is little literature comparing regulation across professions.”

Growing emphasis on performance measurement and accountability.

“Given the growing emphasis on performance measurement and accountability [5,12,46,113,115,117,198,205,224]”

Another recent and drastic shift in regulatory governance is the amalgamation of regulatory bodies within and across professions to increase efficiency which is represented in the literature within our review.

“Another recent and drastic shift in regulatory governance is the amalgamation of regulatory bodies within and across professions to increase efficiency which is represented in the literature within our review [5,12,16,52,112,198,208,209].”

These concerns are reflected in the literature as evidenced by sources discussing regulatory accountability and oversight and regulatory philosophies such as principle-based, right-touch, risk-based, or relational regulation.

“These concerns are reflected in the literature as evidenced by sources discussing regulatory accountability and oversight [5,12,46,113,115,117,198] and regulatory philosophies such as principle-based, right-touch, risk-based, or relational regulation [16,51,53,56,196,205,208].”

The strong representation of this topic in the literature is likely driven by recent and upcoming legislative and voluntary governance changes across Canadian regulatory jurisdictions, reflecting the broader trend of regulatory modernization in Canada.

“The strong representation of this topic in the literature is likely driven by recent and upcoming legislative [5] and voluntary governance changes across Canadian regulatory jurisdictions, reflecting the broader trend of regulatory modernization in Canada [12,205].”

Discussions and critiques about these policy trends have shown up in our review, which signals some alignment between regulatory scholarship and practice.

“Discussions and critiques about these policy trends have shown up in our review, which signals some alignment between regulatory scholarship and practice [5,50,95,115,205].”

In Canada, recent legislative changes in British Columbia require health practitioner regulators to implement specific anti-discrimination and support measures.

“In Canada, recent legislative changes in British Columbia require health practitioner regulators to implement specific anti-discrimination and support measures [5,12]”

The included sources speaking to anti-discrimination, anti-racism, or diversity, equity, and inclusion topics focus on this province exclusively.

“and the included sources speaking to anti-discrimination, anti-racism, or diversity, equity, and inclusion topics focus on this province exclusively [5,12,192,216].”