Province aims to get more RNs working as nurse practitioners

The Nova Scotia government announced a new incentive program Friday to help more registered nurses become nurse practitioners, in exchange for working in certain communities once they're done their studies.

Nurse practitioners can write prescriptions, order tests and offer diagnosis services, which means in many cases patients don't need to see a doctor.

The province is facing a doctor shortage and more than 50,000 Nova Scotians are on a waiting list for a family physician.

The Nurse Practitioner Education Incentive will cover the salaries of up to 10 registered nurses while they attend a two-year masters program full time at Dalhousie University, said a news release.

Once their studies are done, nurses participating in the incentive program must commit to working in one of the following areas for five years:

• Town of Digby, plus 50-kilometre radius of surrounding area.
• Town of Shelburne, plus 50-kilometre radius of surrounding area.
• Cumberland County.
• Pictou County.
• Cape Breton County.
• Inverness County.
• Victoria County.
• Sheet Harbour, plus 50-kilometre radius of surrounding area.

The program is expected to cost $1.2 million over two years.

Chris Browner has been a registered nurse for 10 years and works at Cape Breton Regional Hospital. He says the new incentive program could change his life. It means he can now go back to school to become a nurse practitioner

"It will make it much better for me going back to school and I think it will also help anybody else who's interested in this who may have been facing some of the same barriers that I've faced in the last 10 years," said Browner.

"This is something I've been considering for probably the last eight years of my career but it was never good timing as far as financing and other barriers were concerned."

Janet Hazelton, the Nova Scotia Nurses' Union president, said attracting nurse practitioners to work in rural areas is difficult. 

"In some cases they just aren't interested to live and work there, but this incentive will require them to do it, that's what's good about this announcement," Hazelton said on Friday. 

The province is also funding an additional 25 seats for Dalhousie's nurse practitioner program. Fifteen will be added this academic year and the remainder will be in the 2019-20 academic year. The program will cost $1.6 million.