Nurse Practitioners Training Here

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From L-R  Nurse Practitioner students Rayleen Swansen, Linda VanPelt, Robin Johnson, Julie Tipping and Program Co-Ordinator Eileen Owen-Williams

Consider them the first line of healthcare in remote  and rural B.C.  They are the Nurse Practitoners,  Registered Nurses who have taken extra instruction,  which gives them the credentials to  perform duties normally only allowed  for physicians. They can write a prsecription, stitch a wound,  diagnose and treat an illness.

In B.C.  there are three universities offering Nurse Practitioner programs, UNBC, UBC and UVic.  The beauty of the program as its being offered through UNBC is that much of the instruction is through distance education, meaning the Nurses can continue working in their home communities.  Three times during the course of the fulltime program, they will come to UNBC for workshops, seminars and lectures.  Yesterday the students spent the day in Fraser Lake doing, splinting, casting and sutering.

The program courses have  special "threads" says program Co-Ordinator Eileen Owne-Williams "Rural and remote health,  aboriginal health, mental health, addictions and substance use and abuse,  and injury prevention ar the five  threads of this  program"

There are 15 student seats available at  each  of three Universities, and the program is funded by Health Canada. 

The Nurse Practitioner program is considered an excellent way to address issues arising from a lack of access to primary  health care in small communities.  Owen -Williams says  research in the U.S. where the Nurse Practitioner program has been running for  40 years indicates  succeessful  and positive impacts on rural communities  with reduced mortality and morbidity rates.  "The focus is on prevention" says Owen-Williams who  explains the NP takes a Holisitic approach to patient care.

Will they  replace G.P's?  No.  "The Nurse pratictioner is part of the health care team,  the Physician is a specialist in medicine, the Nurse Practitioner  specializes in nursing" says Owen-Williams.  The two are meant to compliment each other, and should improve access to health care for  many  in rural  and remote communities.

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