P.E.I. hires more nurse practitioners as thousands of Islanders await family doctor

P.E.I. has hired newly graduated nurse practitioners, as the province aims to connect more Islanders with a regular provider.

CHARLOTTETOWN — P.E.I. has hired 10 newly graduated nurse practitioners, with most set to join primary care roles this spring as the province works to connect more Islanders to a regular provider.

The hires include 10 of the 11 graduates from the University of Prince Edward Island’s largest-ever nurse practitioner class. Seven will work in primary care in Charlottetown, Summerside and Montague, while three will take specialty roles in seniors care, acute care and specialty care services.

The move comes as 33,870 Islanders remain on the provincial patient registry waiting for a family doctor or nurse practitioner.

“I noticed the gap in service which so many Islanders had,” said Chantal Smith, describing what drew her to the role.

Her path began as a registered nurse in community mental health, where some of her patients struggled without a regular provider when medical management was needed.

Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who have met additional education, experience and exam requirements set by provincial and territorial regulators. At UPEI, applicants to the stream must already have at least two years of clinical experience.

Ashton Martin said she was motivated by similar pressures after seeing the strain while working in other provinces. She completed her undergraduate degree at UPEI and decided returning to the Island for the nurse practitioner program was a natural next step, especially since she planned to stay and practise in P.E.I.

“What that translated into was full emergency rooms, oftentimes both in rural settings, and in larger cities,” Martin said. “And when I saw that, I kind of sat back and thought to myself, what can we do to try to improve things?”

The scope of practice for what nurse practitioners are allowed to do varies across the country. On P.E.I., it includes managing their own patient panels, diagnosing health conditions, prescribing medications, ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests and developing treatment plans.

“We have one of the widest and biggest scopes of practice in the country,” said Smith. “There’s a lot we can do to help support our system.”

Nova Scotia’s regulator states nurse practitioners can prescribe all medications, including controlled drugs and substances, and order all laboratory and diagnostic imaging tests. Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta also clearly set out broad authority around diagnosis, prescribing and testing.

Laura Smith said she pursued the program to build on 23 years of experience after first working as a licensed practical nurse and then as a registered nurse. She said nurse practitioners and NPs and family doctors have different educational paths, but there is significant overlap in what they can do, and the former bring a holistic approach that’s also needed.

“It’s pertinent to the care of Islanders,” Smith said. “I feel like we’ll be able to panel patients, pull them off the registry and decrease wait times in emergency rooms.”

Smith said that could also mean more preventive care, earlier treatment of chronic disease and more support to help Islanders stay at home longer rather than moving sooner into long-term care.

Health Minister Cory Deagle said it’s hard to predict exactly how many Islanders could be attached to a provider or taken off the patient registry as a result of the latest hires, but said the additions should help strengthen services.

“I wouldn’t say they’re just plugging gaps,” Deagle said. “It’s a team effort. Everyone ties together. Our family doctors are very important. All of our health-care providers have a role to play in terms of our system.”

He added that hiring nearly all the graduates reflects the province’s effort to recruit from its own talent pool and keep those workers on the Island.

“We have to support them in the work that they do,” Deagle said. “We want them to work here for their entire career.”