Prince George, B.C. – Northern Health has recruited seven nurse practitioners since last summer but the search continues to fill another eleven vacancies.

Nurse practitioners are registered nurses with a graduate level nursing degree in advanced practice.  They can serve as a primary health care provider and refer patients to physicians and specialists, prescribe medications, do physical exams and check-ups and provide prenatal care, among other functions.  Any member of the public who might see a doctor for an acute ailment or chronic disease could also see a nurse practitioner.

Nurse practitioner lead at Northern Health, Helen Bourque, says the seven people recruited are now serving Quesnel, Burns Lake, Mackenzie, Chetwynd, two in Fort St John and the final one in a community in northwestern BC.  She says “the first one (recruitment) was in June of 2015 with three more that began in September, one in November and two in December.”

Bourque says finding these recruits has not been a simple task.  “It’s been a lot of work over time with a concerted effort from myself and the recruiter that I work with to target conferences, students and to answers any call of potential applicants.  So really, engaging with applicants as early on in the process as we could and then going to the schools where those students are and having conversations with them and helping them to understand what we can offer in terms of the position in Northern Health.”

Legislation that permits nurse practitioners to work in BC was passed in 2005 and since then there has been a demand across the province for their services, in part due to a shortage of physicians.  Bourque says “Northern Health had its first (nurse practitioner) hire in 2005 and over time as the ministry has provided more funding for the role, we’ve been able to have more vacancies and more employment opportunities for NPs.  Every health authority has this opportunity, Northern Health is unique in that many of our settings are rural and remote.”

She says “it’s hard to bring professionals to rural and remote places, right?  We need to engage people, to engage families, and to help them understand that there are jobs north of Kamloops.  You know northern BC has a way of life that perhaps a person can have some work/life balance and that’s for all professionals, not just for nurse practitioners.”

Has it been difficult trying to recruit people to northern BC?  “Yes, absolutely,” says Bourque, “and so we’ve had to spend some time and energy to figure out what can we do to engage with people, to advertise differently, to target students, to find out who are the people who are ready for a difference and ready for a change?  Because not everybody is ready to move to a smaller community.”  She says creating the nurse practitioner lead position was one of the crucial steps taken by Northern Health to focus the work, structure and supports for the nurse practitioners within the organization.

Bourque says the seven recruitments fill some spots but there is much more to be done.  “Absolutely, it’s ongoing work, we still have open vacancies right now that we’re actively working on.”  She says there are eleven vacancies, “some that are maternity leaves and so on and others that we’ve had open and just haven’t been able to fill.  So we’re working really hard to fill those.”