More Nurse Practitioners Working in Nova Scotia

People living in eight Nova Scotia communities will have easier and quicker access to health care with the Department of Health's announcement today of eight new nurse practitioners for the province.

Nurse practitioners will soon be working in Annapolis Royal, Wolfville, Hants North, Advocate Harbour, New Glasgow, the Strait-Richmond area, Inverness and the Musquodoboit Valley.

"This is great news for the people in these communities who won't have to wait as long or travel as far to get the care they need," said Health Minister Jamie Muir. "People will be able to see a nurse practitioner for prenatal visits or baby care, to manage a chronic disease like diabetes, to renew certain prescriptions or for a pap test."

Nurse practitioners work in collaboration with family doctors. They are able to diagnose and treat certain illnesses, order certain tests, x-rays and ultrasounds and prescribe some medications, leaving family doctors with more time to spend with patients who need additional care. They also lead programs in the community to promote good health, like nutrition classes or health clinics for women, that are tailored to the specific health needs of the community.

The province plans to make it easier for people to get care closer to home by encouraging more primary health-care professionals -- such as family doctors, nutritionists, pharmacists, and nurse practitioners -- to work together in teams. Mr. Muir said hiring the eight new nurse practitioners is another step towards achieving that goal, and that more will be accomplished over the next few years.

"Our community has asked for this," said Dr. Barry Giffen, a family doctor with the Musquodoboit Valley Family Practice in Middle Musquodoboit. "A nurse practitioner will strengthen the primary health-care team in this community. That means improving how we're able to manage chronic illnesses for our patients, as well as improving health promotion and community development."

Mr. Muir said nurse practitioners can benefit people in all areas of the province, particularly those in small, rural or under- serviced areas such as the Musquodoboit Valley or Advocate Harbour.

"Adding nurse practitioners to our complement of health-care professionals allows us to be more creative in how we meet the health-care needs of people in these unique areas of our province," he said. "Some communities may not have the population to support a full-time family doctor, but people can still have access to primary health-care services on a full-time basis."

Barb Oke, the province's nursing policy advisor, said Nova Scotia has been setting the stage for nurse practitioners over the past three years, by funding the nurse practitioner education program at Dalhousie and passing legislation enabling nurse practitioners to work in the province.

"It's exciting that we're making nurse practitioners a permanent part of our health-care system," she said. "We've had excellent proposals from the districts with a lot of community support, and it's simply a matter of time before we have many more nurse practitioners serving people's health-care needs throughout the province."

The existing nurse practitioners positions in Pictou, Caledonia, Springhill, Halifax and Long and Brier islands are all permanent positions. As a result of today's announcement, there will be 13 primary health-care nurse practitioners working in Nova Scotia.