The province is rolling out $115 million in funds over the next three years to create 200 new nurse practitioner jobs over three years.
Speaking at UBC鈥檚 Vancouver campus Wednesday, Health Minister Adrian Dix said that the funding was part of the province primary-care strategy.
鈥淣urse practitioners are highly trained healthcare professionals and they鈥檙e essential members of any real primary care team,鈥� said Dix.
鈥淭hese new positions will mean a total of 626 nurse practitioners working in communities throughout the province.鈥�
More details on the strategy are expected to be announced by Premier John Horgan Thursday.
The province had previously said it would be moving towards nurse practitioners as a patient鈥檚 first point of contact with the medical system, as the health ministry .
READ MORE:
READ MORE:
READ MORE:
Dix said that the 200 new nurse practitioners will fill the gaps for the many thousands of B.C. residents who don鈥檛 have a family doctor or nurse practitioner.
鈥淭here are, in B.C., 780,000 people who are unattached to a primary care provider,鈥� said Dix.
鈥淎 third of the people who visit emergency rooms say that they wouldn鈥檛 go to emergency rooms if they could go to a clinic on that day.鈥�
Fiona Hutchison, president of the BC Nurse Practitioners Association, said that nurse practitioners were originally introduced in B.C. in the early 2000s to help with primary care.
鈥淣urse practitioners have a background in registered nursing and have gone on to clinically-focused, masters-level education,鈥� said Hutchison.
That allows the to 鈥渁utonomously assess, diagnose and manage acute and chronic health conditions.鈥�
In B.C., nurse practitioners are also .
Just over a million dollars will go towards creating 30 new nurse practitioner seats at B.C. universities.
Of those, 15 will be at UBC, 10 at the University of Victoria and five at the University of Northern B.C.
More to come.
Like us on and follow us on .
