Why nurse practitioners on P.E.I. want their own patient lists

Nurse practitioners on P.E.I. say they want to help decrease the number of people waiting on the Island’s patient registry list by becoming the primary care provider for some of those patients.

As 11,000 Islanders wait for a family doctor, Dawn Reilly says NPs want to be 'part of the solution'

Shane Ross · CBC News · Posted: Mar 06, 2019 6:13 PM EST | Last Updated: March 6, 2019

Dawn Reilly says nurse practitioners can give patients a consistent health-care provider that 'knows them and builds that rapport with them for a lifetime.' (Shane Ross/CBC)

Nurse practitioners on P.E.I. say they want to help decrease the number of people waiting on the Island's patient registry list by becoming the primary care provider for some of those patients.

Dawn Reilly, a nurse practitioner at the O'Leary Health Centre, said that doesn't mean they would replace doctors, but would work within their own level of practice and expertise and continue to collaborate with them.

"We both have that same goal, of making patients as healthy as we possibly can," she said in an interview with CBC News: Compass.

Health PEI hiring 7 more nurse practitioners

Health PEI working on patient registry list as the number of people waiting increases

Nurse practitioners, or NPs, are registered nurses with advanced nursing education. They are trained to do much of the same work as family physicians, including writing prescriptions and referrals to specialists, ordering and interpreting diagnostics, and managing acute and chronic diseases.

About 40 NPs on P.E.I.

When nurse practitioner legislation was put in place in 2006, there were just two working on P.E.I. Now there are about 40 and some have their own clinics.

In December, there were more than 11,000 people on the patient registry who are without a family doctor, according to Health PEI.

Reilly said NPs want to be "part of the solution."

'Shortage of physicians'

She said O'Leary is in the process of assigning patients to NPs as their primary caregiver. By building their own patient lists, nurse practitioners can lower the number of people on the Island registry, she said. It would also allow physicians to care for patients with more complex health needs that are outside the scope of an NP.

"We all know there is a shortage of physicians that's Canada-wide, it's no different here on P.E.I.," she said.

"So if NPs can come in and help lessen that burden of patients sitting on the Island registry that are having to utilize walk-in clinics, they're having to utilize the ER, and they're not gaining any consistent one provider that knows them and builds that rapport with them for a lifetime."