Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask some questions of the Minister of Health and Social Services about nurse practitioners.
So I've heard from many nurse practitioners in the NWT who report not being able to practice to their full scope and, certainly, we had a lot of gaps in our system that we need filled, and there might be potential for nurse practitioners to fill some of those roles. So my first question is what is the NTHSSA or health and social services doing to ensure that nurse practitioners can practice to their full scope and ability? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If Mr. Speaker would be kind enough to let me respond to this one, so I might need a little bit more time but if not, you can let me know. Because I think a lot of these answers, to fully understand how nurses are regulated are going to take a lot more time than I have left. So what I will say is that nurse practitioners are regulated through CAN. The nurse practitioner scope of practice is defined by legislation and applies to standards of practice through CAN. Operationally, nurse practice is aligned with the role for which they are hired. So, example, a nurse practitioner working in renal care would be expected to practice to their fullest scope within that area of practice; however, this might look quite different for a nurse practitioner working in primary care. I have a lot more information to answer that, so I would be glad to share that with the Member and any -- and all the Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do look forward to further discussion on this. I understand it's somewhat of a complex topic.
Before the team-based approach, nurse practitioners working in primary care in the NWT had their own patients assigned to them. On the current teams, though, the nurse practitioners are not allowed to be the most responsible provider. In some cases, patient have been forced to break their connection with the NT who used to be their provider. So is the NTHSSA planning to allow nurse practitioners to take on the role of most responsible provider once again? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as this has only been implemented in the capital through the primary care clinic, the team-based approach, we are currently, you know, rolling it out in different areas of the territory. But in Yellowknife region right now, the nurse practitioners on the team do provide a full care with their scope to patients that are assigned to them. From the moving to -- from the old clinic space to the Liwego'ati, as it relates to nurse practitioners practice has not reduced their scope and historically nurse practitioners have not had patients specifically paneled to them on their team, but they -- you know, they were part of that panel, and when they changed the paneling, there was a lot of the patients with -- that were working with certain nurse practitioners and physicians were paneled together so that way those changes could extend. But, however, with the model of care with primary care, it is basically through that team approach is to being seen the best health professional that is to their need. And then if it needs to be bumped up to a nurse practitioner or to the physician, that would happen through that plan of care. Again, we can have this more further information and conversation so I don't take out the clock. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'm also told that nurse practitioners are only allocated about $2,000 a year for continuing education, but it often costs significantly more than that to keep up the professional development training they need to fulfill their license requirements. So how will the NTHSSA ensure that nurse practitioners are allocated a sufficient professional development allowance that reflects their level of responsibility and expertise? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, first of all I'd like to say, like, you know this type of feedback is the valued feedback that we have received and that we are examining ways to increase professional development support. With right now what we have is the PDI, which is a fixed current funding envelope for all health care staff, however, allocating more to the nurse practitioners in this right now would actually decrease it to the health practitioners that are in this. The program is -- it's actually related to their jurisdiction. So whether you live in Yellowknife, you may get $2,000 where a core of our nurse practitioners are, so that's why the Member might be saying there's a cap. But, for instance, if you live in the Beaufort Delta, you get additional because it'll take in account the costs maybe to travel to access some training that they may be required to do. However, this has been taken in account, and we are trying to find ways to work it into our new people strategy to look at all of the professionals. We even have a nurse practitioner lead that is looking at job descriptions to ensure that, you know, the things that are needed and to be able to provide on -- in-house training as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
