Nurse practitioners seen as ‘short-term solution’ to Sask. family doctor shortage [Video]

As about 200,000 people in Saskatchewan are without a family doctor, nurse practitioners (NPs) could be the short-term solution.

NPs are registered nurses with advanced training. They can examine and diagnose patients, perform procedures, develop treatment plans, and prescribe medications.

“People will argue about this, but at a minimum, they can do 80 per cent of what physicians can do,” adjunct professor of health policy at Simon Fraser University Steven Lewis told CTV News.

On Tuesday, the provincial government announced plans to hire 25 new NPs and fund the province’s first nurse practitioner-led clinic, as a pilot project.

Lewis says this announcement could have gone further, but will get people who need primary care “through the door.”

“Nurse practitioners practicing more or less by themselves are certainly a short-term solution to get those thousands of people who don’t have a regular source of primary care, a medical home,” Lewis said.

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