North Shore to get a nurse practitioner
The recruitment process has begun to hire a nurse practitioner to work with frail seniors on the North Shore.
The new position is possible through a $22.2-million provincial government initiative announced last May that will fund hiring 45 nurse practitioners, including six for the Interior Health Authority.
In October, the government announced new regulations to allow nurse practitioners to admit and discharge patients from health-care facilities and work with physicians and other health-care providers.
Darlene Arsenault, IHA director for primary health care and chronic-disease management, said the North Shore was targeted because it has a growing population of seniors, but fewer necessary medical services.
There are more family physicians on the South Shore, Arsenault said, and that reality, coupled with transit issues that could see seniors riding buses for lengthy time periods to get to a doctor, combined to identify it as an area that needed someone on the ground to do follow-up care.
There are also more assisted-living and residential-care units for seniors on the North Shore, she said, with additional units scheduled to be built there.
The Kamloops nurse will work in conjunction with Royal Inland Hospital staff, community-care nurses and family physicians.
Others in the IHA area will work out of Enderby, Revelstoke, Cranbrook and the Central Okanagan.
COMMENTS
Let's keep comments:
We ask that all participants own their words by logging in with their Facebook account. It's a simple process that will take seconds and helps keep our comments free of trolls, cranks, and “drive-by” commenters.
We reserve the right to remove comments from anyone using screen names, pseudonyms or false identities. Please see our FAQ if you have questions or concerns about using Facebook to comment.