The Alberta government’s Nurse Practitioner Primary Care program is showing early signs of success, with 33 nurse practitioners already practicing independently in communities across the province.
The Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Program was launched in April, allowing nurse practitioners to practice comprehensive patient care autonomously, either by operating their own practices or working independently within existing primary care settings.
Since being announced the program has garnered a total of 67 applications submitted, with 56 approved.
Of those, 33 nurse practitioners are now practicing autonomously in communities throughout Alberta, including in rural locations such as Beaverlodge, Coaldale, Cold Lake, Consort, Morley, Picture Butte, Three Hills, Two Hills, Vegreville and Vermilion.
This amounts to roughly 30,000 more Albertans now having greater access to the primary health care they need.
To participate in the program, nurse practitioners are required to commit to providing a set number of hours of medically necessary primary care services, maintain a panel size of at least 900 patients, offer after-hours access on weekends, evenings or holidays, and accept walk-in appointments until a panel size reaches 900 patients.
