Whereas the attraction and retention of sufficient medical doctors is an ongoing issue for rural BC communities; And whereas nurse practitioners provide an excellent means of supporting doctors in meeting the needs of those seeking medical care and allowing physicians to focus on more complex and challenging patient health complaints: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM request that the Province of BC provide additional funding for nurse practitioners in rural communities and support their implementation throughout the province.
Ministry of Health There are 426 practicing nurse practitioners registered with the College of Registered Nurses of BC.1 BC has the ability to train up to 45 nurse practitioners per year at the University of BritishColumbia, University of Northern BC, and University of Victoria. Each site has 15training seats. Nurse practitioners are central to the Ministry of Healths new integrated model of care aimed at improving access to primary care for patients across BC. New Primary Care Networks PCNs, including patient medical homes, will provide team-based care with nurse practitioners, registered nurses, licensed practice nurses, physicians and other professions working together to provide quality, safe and patient-centred care. Where PCNs are developed, these will provide immediate opportunities for further implementation of nurse practitioners into both existing and new Community Health Centres andor Patient Medical Homes, thereby increasing primary care capacity and access and demonstrating the positive outcomes NPs have within the primary health care system. The Ministry has identified several existing models of compensation to enable this, including: Nurse in Practice, Population basedValue Based, and salaried funding models. Similar to general practitioners GPs compensation, multiple funding arrangements will be important to attract and retain nurse practitioners across community settings, including rural. Further, the Ministry has developed a Nurse in Practice funding model in an effort to increase practice capacity and net new patient attachments as part of the General Practice Services Committees implementation of the Patient Medical Home. The model aims to expand capacity while improving patient and provider experience through a team-based care approach where a nurse practitioner, registered nurse andor licensed practical nurse functions in a complementary role in the family practice. A number of family physicians are currently working towards integrating a nurse into their practices. Currently, eight family practices in the Central Okanagan and two in the Central Interior Rural divisions of family practice are moving forward with Nurse in Practice. These practices will be able to integrate a nurse or nurse practitioner into their primary care team. Team-based approaches to care will benefit patients in rural areas by increasing the capacity of family practices to improve access and attach new patients to a regular primary care provider. These primary care practices will also be working towards the attributes of the BC Patient Medical Home model as part of their commitment to person- and family-centred, team-based care. 1 College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia. Annual Report 2016-17.