"Top 5 in 5": CNA responds to the National Expert Commission.

In our last column (Villeneuve and Mildon 2013), we shared the topics of 11 project charters developed by the Canadian Nurses Association to respond to the nine-point Call to Action of the National Expert Commission (NEC 2012). The lead recommendation of the NEC was to move Canada’s ranking on five key population health and health system performance indicators into the “top five” internationally in five years. That recommendation by the NEC was intended to respond to Canada’s mediocre (and in some cases deteriorating) ranking on a number of influential, internationally comparable population health and health system performance indicators. Throughout the tenure of the NEC, its members were troubled by those outcomes when set against constantly rising healthcare spending. Its place as the first recommendation reflects the determination of the commissioners that nurses must join with others to lead efforts required to shift that paradox.