On June 4, 2025, the BCCNM board approved revisions to three nursing practice standards: Consent, Privacy and Confidentiality, and Documentation. These revised standards take effect Aug. 5, 2025.
Review the revised standards:
Consultation
A thorough review and analysis of the Consent, Privacy and Confidentiality, and Documentation practice standards was undertaken to ensure alignment with legislative requirements and evidence-based practice. This included jurisdictional and literature scans, website evaluations, data trend analysis, as well as extensive engagement with key audiences—including Indigenous audiences, health authority partners, and surveys of both registrants and the public.
Key changes
Consent: Outlines that consent must be voluntary, informed, and made by a capable individual. It includes expectations for obtaining informed consent, and additional expectations related to written consent.
Privacy and Confidentiality: This standard outlines expectations for collecting client personal information, conditions for access of client personal information by others, actions to take to safeguard personal information, and actions to take when there is a privacy breach (when information is shared inappropriately).
Documentation: Outlines additional expectations on documentation including transparent error correction, highlights the importance of cultural safety and non-discriminatory language, affirms clients' right to access and request corrections of their own records following organizational policies and processes, and introduces a new section on the use artificial intelligence (AI).
Questions?
Connect with our Standards support team.