Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 12/05) - New guidelines that are finally catching up to nurse practitioners might help get them into Northern communities, health officials say.

A few years ago it was thought that nurse practitioners were the answer to addressing long waits to see doctors in Northern communities, but there are few working and living in the Northwest Territories.

The Registered Nurses Association of the NWT and Nunavut has 22 nurse practitioners registered in the two territories, but most are relief nurses who fly into communities from places like Alberta for shifts of a few weeks at a time.

There are only two permanent nurse practitioners in Yellowknife, one in Hay River and one in Fort Smith. Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who have additional training to handle tasks normally performed by a physician.

They can prescribe medications, make diagnoses and tell them to patients, order tests and do a number of other procedures without referrals to a physician.

This is why they are essential for small communities, said Bobby Villeneuve, MLA for Tu Nedhe.

"I think a lot of communities are asking why they don't have them. This is one of the areas the government is short-sighted on," said Villeneuve.

"I know it's been a long time in the making and pretty slow moving right now."

Officials at the nurses association said part of the problem has been a lack of regulations which has made it difficult to create job positions.

As a result, many nurse practitioners are still working as registered nurses.

Nurse practitioners were first regulated in 2003, but they needed a physician to sign off on all prescriptions.

The new guidelines, effective Aug. 2005, have clearer definitions for the roles of nurse practitioners.

In the NWT, they are trained at Aurora College. The program started in 2001, but there have only been eight graduates. The biggest hurdle has been raising awareness, said Denise Bowen, chairperson of the health program at the college. This year, however, there are seven new students.

"It's been getting more popular," Bowen said.

Areas that have nurse practitioners say their services are a welcomed addition.

"They are fitting wonderfully into the system," said Gregory Cummings, the CEO of the Yellowknife Health and Social Services authority.