Introduction / Rationale: Canada's healthcare and education sectors are focused on delivering occupational therapy services and education at a provincial level. Despite being a world leader in occupational therapy with over a hundred years of Canadian practice, there are currently no national occupational therapy scopes of practice or standardized curricular guidelines supporting the profession. With the recent release of sixty areas of practice documents (2025), led by the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT), there is now a basic understanding of what is uniting the profession from coast to coast to coast. Further advocacy is needed to work towards nationalizing the profession in education, regulation, and practice.
Objectives: 1) To review opportunities to nationalize the profession in Canada from an education, regulation, and practice perspective, based on approaches taken in other countries with similar practice contexts. 2) To share recent advocacy efforts that have supported the first objective. 3) To discuss the impact on professional identity because of these efforts.
Methods / Approach: Literature will be reviewed demonstrating the current and proposed state of affairs in Canadian occupational therapy education, provincial regulatory scopes of practice, and opportunities for uniting professional practice across the country.
Results / Practice Implications: A shift to nationalizing occupational therapy education, regulation, and practice would have a profound impact on the profession in Canada
Conclusion / Contribution to the occupational therapy profession: There is opportunity to unify Canadian occupational therapy practice which would be beneficial for both Canadian therapists and those wishing to practice in Canada.