From CBC: We check in on three key battleground states ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections: Michigan, Arizona and North Carolina. Matt Galloway talks to Zoe Clark, political director at Michigan Radio; Jeremy Duda, a politics reporter for Axios in Phoenix; and Irving Joyner, a law professor at North Carolina Central University. Then, there are calls for nurse practitioners to take on more health-care responsibilities, to support Canadians without a family doctor. We discuss the role they might play — and why some doctors are pushing back — with Susan Prendergast, president of the Nurse P ..read more

In 2019 the NPAA recognized a need to make connections not only with para-government organizations, but with government itself. This prompted a process to select a lobby organization, in order to make inroads into the Ministry of Health and effectively leverage government stakeholders. Alberta Counsel was the successful lobbying group of those who applied, and have been incredibly helpful as the NPAA Board advances the advocacy priorities for NPs in Alberta. And hence our journey with Pascal began and here he shares his story.. Title: VP of Corporate Development and Government Relations ..read more

Tell us a little about yourself and your current practice.  I have been happily married for 27 years to my husband Paul and have one grown daughter, Catherine and son-in-law, Jaydon. I am from Nova Scotia and moved to Alberta in 2005 to take a position as an NP with the Stroke Program at Foothills Hospital. In 2010 I took a position in Supportive Living caring for our Seniors. I carry a panel of my own clients as well as work in collaboration with physicians working on the site. I provide coverage on the days the physicians are not on site. Our team of NPs currently do on call as well for ..read more

Practice Area: Complex Care Transition Program  Years of Practice: 3 years as an NP    What prompted you to consider moving into an Advanced Practice role in Nursing?   I was tired of working in a world of bureaucracy and seeing so many gaps in the health care system. My experience as an RN was working in the hospital, tele triage and then, most recently, public health which I thoroughly enjoyed but couldn’t foresee spending the remainder of my career there. So, I returned to school to pursue an Advanced Practice Role in Nursing with a plan to work in primary care and hopef ..read more

By Daris Klemmer Part 1 author Daris Klemmer in action So here I am again the oldest NP taking on a slightly not exciting topic. However, I believe NP governance to be of great importance especially as more and more NP roles are created within our major health organization in Alberta-AHS/Covenant and the potential for a great number of NP positions within the primary care private world. First of all, what is governance and why is it important to NPs? Governance in healthcare refers to “a broad ethical and philosophical debate within society leading to values and cultures in an organization, an ..read more

Describe your setting: location, volumes, demographics etc. Airdrie Urgent Care Centre (AUCC) is a 13 bed Urgent Care and is the only acute care accessible for citizens of Airdrie and surrounding areas including north Calgary, as there is no hospital. On a usual day, the AUCC will see anywhere from 90-110 patients and sometimes up to 140 patients per day.  Patients are all-ages ranging from newborn to the elderly.  Patient presentations range from life-threatening illness to acute on chronic flares of chronic disease in addition to simple non-urgent health care needs. AUCC has patien ..read more

What prompted you to consider moving into an Advanced Practice role in Nursing?  I had always been interested in furthering my education after I completed my BScN.  Once I started as a new grad RN in Denver, CO I worked with some NPs and decided that was something I was interested in pursuing one day! How did you decide where and how you practice?  I was a staff RN at Alberta Children’s Hospital and began my NP training. I did not know exactly what opportunities would arise, but I knew I wanted to work in Acute Care in Pediatrics.  At that time my program provided the oppo ..read more

What prompted you to consider moving into an Advanced Practice role in Nursing?   To be honest my dissatisfaction with the health care system prompted me to move into an Advanced Practice nursing role. I felt like I was not making a difference to my patients in my job. I previously worked in the hospital, and I felt like I was always applying a band-aid to problems and not able to work with patients to get to the root of their health problems.   How did you decide to practice where and how you do now?  As my passion is primary health care, it was easy for me to decide ..read more

Practice Area: Ambulatory Care Number of Years in Practice: 16 Describe your entire practice area. I have 2 areas of practice at the Strathcona Community Hospital within Ambulatory Care.  I have an independent NP led minor fracture follow up clinic that runs 1.5 days per week. I also the rest of my clinical time doing an Emergency Department Transition/follow-up clinic. NP Shereen Grubb reviewing x-rays How did you become interested in orthopedics? I spent 9 years working in urgent care in Sherwood Park that saw a significant number of MSK/fracture type injuries. I had a young family and ..read more

Why/How did you make the transition from RN work through your advanced degree and into NP practice? As an RN and entering into my advanced degree, I chose the NP stream to work directly with patients. I specifically focused on pediatrics as I wanted to work with the family unit. The otolaryngology NP role was open as I finished my studies. While it was more specific than I intended to focus on, the opportunity for a supported learning environment in a specialized tertiary care facility that families access throughout Western Canada was a huge draw. I was lucky to receive great support from oth ..read more