Canadian nursing programs use APA 7th, and the citations students most often get wrong are not journal articles but clinical practice guidelines, government health documents and organisational reports — sources with a corporate author rather than a named one.
The Sources That Cause Trouble
Journal articles are well covered by every APA guide. Nursing coursework relies heavily on sources that are not, and these are where the marks go.
Clinical Practice Guidelines
Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario. (2023). Preventing falls and reducing injury from falls (5th ed.). https://rnao.ca/bpg
Corporate author, no italics on the organisation, title in italics and sentence case, edition in parentheses.
Government Health Sources
Public Health Agency of Canada. (2024). Canadian immunization guide. Government of Canada. https://canada.ca/…
Canadian Institute for Health Information. (2024). Nursing in Canada, 2023. CIHI.
Where the agency is also the publisher, APA 7th says do not repeat it — omit the publisher entirely.
Provincial College Standards
College of Nurses of Ontario. (2023). Professional standards, revised 2023. https://cno.org
Group Authors in Text
The rule students most often miss. Abbreviate a long organisational name after the first citation:
- First citation: (Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario [RNAO], 2023)
- Subsequent: (RNAO, 2023)
Only abbreviate if the source is cited three or more times. A single citation stays in full.
What APA 7th Changed
- Publisher location removed. No more "Toronto, ON:" before the publisher.
- Up to 20 authors listed in the reference list, not 7.
- Three or more authors use et al. from the first citation. APA 6th listed all on first use.
- DOIs as full URLs — https://doi.org/10.xxxx, without the "doi:" prefix.
- "Retrieved from" dropped unless the content is designed to change over time.
- No running head on student papers.
Currency matters in nursing. Many Canadian nursing programs require sources within five years for clinical content, because practice guidance changes. A perfectly formatted 2011 reference can still lose marks for being out of date.
Citing Clinical Placement Experience
Reflective assignments often draw on placement. Patient information is never citable and must be de-identified — no names, no dates of birth, no unit identifiers, nothing that could identify an individual. Describe the situation generically: "a client in their seventies presenting with…".
Personal communications — a preceptor's advice — are cited in text only and never appear in the reference list: (J. Tremblay, personal communication, March 3, 2025). Check your program's policy first, as some prohibit citing placement conversations entirely.
The Errors That Cost Marks Most
- Title case instead of sentence case in reference titles. APA uses sentence case for article and book titles.
- Missing DOIs where one exists — most databases display it.
- Secondary citation of a guideline you did not open. Read the guideline.
- Alphabetising by the abbreviation rather than the full organisation name.
- Hanging indents missing — APA requires 0.5 inch on every reference.
Frequently asked questions
How do I cite an RNAO best practice guideline in APA 7th?
Treat the organisation as the author: Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. (2023). Title in sentence case and italics (5th ed.). URL. Do not italicise the organisation name, and if the organisation is also the publisher, omit the publisher rather than repeating it.
When do I abbreviate an organisation name in APA?
Introduce the abbreviation in square brackets at the first citation — (Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario [RNAO], 2023) — then use the short form afterwards. Only abbreviate if you cite the source three or more times; a single citation stays in full.
Can I cite a patient from my clinical placement?
No. Patient information cannot be cited and must be fully de-identified in reflective work: no names, dates of birth or unit identifiers. Describe the situation generically. Preceptor advice is a personal communication, cited in text only and never in the reference list, and some programs prohibit it entirely.
Does APA 7th still use "Retrieved from"?
Only when the content is designed to change over time, such as a continuously updated web page. For stable sources, give the URL or DOI directly without the phrase. DOIs are now formatted as full links beginning https://doi.org/ with no "doi:" prefix.
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