February 6, 2006

TORONTO - The McGuinty government is improving access to care in communities across Ontario by training as many as 100 new nurse practitioners and placing them where they are needed most, Health and Long-Term Care Minister George Smitherman announced today.

"Nurse Practitioners provide quality health care services to families and communities," Smitherman said. "This initiative is going to allow us to train more of these valuable health care providers, so they can ply their trade in communities where there is a real need for the kind of comprehensive care they deliver."

Nurse Practitioners provide primary health care services, including health promotion, prevention of diseases and injuries, counseling, curative, rehabilitation, and support services. They work collaboratively with other health professionals, including family physicians. Nurse Practitioners assess people for a wide range of health conditions, diagnose illnesses, and monitor people with stable chronic diseases. They are able to prescribe certain medications and order specific diagnostic tests.

The "Grow Your Own Nurse Practitioner" initiative allows health care agencies – such as Community Health Centres, Family Health Teams, long-term care homes and aboriginal health access centres – to use government funding to fill nurse practitioner vacancies. This initiative will:

• Pay the salary of a registered nurse while he or she is pursuing a Nurse Practitioner (NP) education
• Reimburse the nurse for some education-related expenses
• Ensure that the newly educated NP returns to work for the sponsoring health care agency.

The "Grow Your Own Nurse Practitioner" initiative is an exciting opportunity that will attract additional nurses to NP education and practice. "The real benefit of this approach is that it provides a customized, local solution to address the current shortage of primary care providers especially in rural and remote communities," said Willi Kirenko, President of the Nurse Practitioners’ Association.

The government funds about 400 NP positions in several different practice settings and communities province-wide. A minority of these positions, approximately 25 per cent are vacant. Local health care agencies will be eligible for this new program if they have funded NP positions that have been vacant for at least one year. Registered nurses who want to take advantage of the program must agree to work for the sponsoring agency in the community where the NP vacancy exists for at least two years.

"Nurse Practitioners are a key component of our plan for health care," said Smitherman. "We need them out there in our communities, providing Ontarians with the very best kind of care, close to their homes."

Today's initiative is part of the McGuinty government’s plan to build a health care system that delivers on three priorities - keeping Ontarians healthy, reducing wait times and providing better access to doctors and nurses.

For further information :

Members of the general public : (416) 327-4327, or (800) 268-1154

Backgrounder McGuinty Government Invests In Nurse Practitioners 2 pages | PDF format

Backgrounder McGuinty Government Invests in Nurse Practitioners 2 pages | PDF format

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