The province has unveiled a commitment over the next three years to provide $22.4 million to pay the salaries of 190 nurse practitioners across the province.
That came as splendid news Thursday for Martha MacLeod, the chair of the nursing program at UNBC, who predicts the guaranteed funding will create more jobs for nurse practitioners (NPs) and provide an incentive for more nurses to fill seats in the NP graduate degree program.
The government funding takes the onus off health authorities to pay nurse practitioners, a practice that left many NPs unable to find jobs in their chosen fields.
"Some health authorities created positions and others didn't, so now this is a commitment to fund nurse practitioner positions, " said MacLeod. "One of the reasons we haven't been churning out the numbers is there's been a real concern on the part of nurses that there won't be jobs when they get out, so now this sets up the potential for more people to come in. We know we'll have eight or nine new students coming in the fall."
At a conference in Richmond on Thursday, the Ministry of Health also approved 11 changes to hospital and health professions legislation that will extend medical privileges to NPs that were once the exclusive domain of physicians. For example, it will now be within the jurisdiction of NPs to admit and discharge hospital patients.
"With those legislation barriers resolving, this is excellent for the people of northern B.C.," said MacLeod.
UNBC is funded to accept 15 students annually in a program that takes three years to complete. The program is also offered at UBC (15 seats) and UVic (15 seats). Four students graduated the UNBC program this year, bringing the total to 24 since the program began in 2005. A total of 35 NP students are currently enrolled at UNBC, many of whom are part-time students or are taking courses through distance learning.
The province first created NP positions in 2005 in response to the needs of an aging population to improve access to primary health care. There are now 225 NPs registered with the College of Registered Nurses of B.C. and about 72 of them are not practicing in their chosen field (mostly in the Lower Mainland). MacLeod said none of those 72 are in northern B.C.
The UNBC program is geared to registered nurses who want further education in family practice to fill community health positions specifically in northern B.C., rural and First Nations areas.
Linda Van Pelt, the first graduate of the UNBC program in 2007, will soon begin working at the Prince George Division of Family Practice/Northern Health primary health care clinic for unattached patients. Van Pelt and one other NP will form a medical team with three family doctors, mental health workers, addictions specialists, a pharmacist, social workers and other health services in a one-stop medical centre, set to open later this month in downtown Prince George.
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