Nurses help ease doctor shortage

By Don Plant Sunday, July 27, 2008 Penticton Herald
Interior Health has a new weapon to fight the shortage of family doctors. Fourteen nurse practitioners are now caring for patients in the health region – six of them in the Okanagan. The specialized nurses can diagnose problems, prescribe medications and order tests for patients who might not otherwise get to see a doctor. “It‘s a new, evolving role,” said Fairleth McCuaig, a faculty member at UBC and a nurse practitioner at the Downtown Primary Care Centre in Vernon this summer. “It‘s an exciting role, an autonomous role. I really see it as a growing profession.” Nurse practitioners are registered nurses with two extra years of training at the master‘s-degree level. They can manage common acute illnesses, like ear infections, and chronic conditions, such as diabetes. They order X-rays, blood work and electrocardiograms for heart conditions. They refer patients to surgeons, cardiologists and other specialists. They don‘t replace doctors. Rather, they collaborate with them. McCuaig treats homeless people in downtown Vernon. Except for visits from a family doctor to the centre two mornings a week, she works full time on her own.

Wayne Senner, a nurse practitioner in Kelowna, looks after patients who‘ve undergone thoracic surgery at Kelowna General Hospital. He does the rounds at the hospital and works with three thoracic surgeons at a nearby clinic. “A lot of patients we treat are from out of town and don‘t have a family physician,” Senner said. “A physician doesn‘t necessarily have to deal with (patients‘) problems when a nurse practitioner is quite capable of dealing with those patients.” The shortage of family physicians is especially acute in rural parts of the Interior. A nurse practitioner now works at the Primary Healthcare Centre in Enderby. The nurses aren‘t taking jobs away from doctors, said McCuaig, but expanding their role to benefit patients. “There was a primary-heath-care crisis,” she said. “There are many orphaned patients in B.C. who don‘t have a family physician. “I‘m excited. Nurses are very well educated.”

B.C., one of the last provinces to introduce nurse practitioners, now has 100 working in the province. Linda Sawchenko, who recruits nurse practitioners for IH, said they‘re a “very positive addition” to the health-care system. “A physician colleague told me recently, ’It‘s so nice to have someone else to share the workload with,‘” she said. “It‘s a huge benefit to the public.” The province gave $80 million to all health authorities to expand the role of nurse practitioners. Their salary is about $90,000, plus benefits. The first class of nurse practitioners graduated from UBC and the University of Victoria in 2005. The program is also available at the University of Northern B.C. Health Minister George Abbott expects about 45 nurse practitioners to graduate each year.