Family nurse practitioner students practice clinical skills during a class at UNBC’s Prince George campus (Supplied by UNBC)
Twice as many students will be able to enroll in UNBC’s Family Nurse Practitioner master’s degree program.
The University has doubled the number of seats available, expanding to 40 seats.
“It’s really exciting for us, that we have this program that’s been really succesful in graduating nurse practitioners and having many of them stay in the North,” said Dr. Catherine Shiller, Chair of the School of Nursing at UNBC.
“We have a very dire situation with our healthcare workforce at the moment and a lot of people are without a primary care provider, so to be able to expand the nurse practitioner program allows us to put many more primary care providers into the community, and to do it faster.”
Shiller noted the program fills quickly each year, and UNBC has a “healthy waitlist” for the program.
“We don’t anticipate any problem in filling the 40 seats which means we’re going to be able to get more nurse practitioners into the communities that need them.”
Family nurse practitioners are advanced practice nurses who have completed a clinically-focused master’s education.
They provide patient and family-centred care to all ages of people in primary health care, acute care, residential care or specialty settings.
“The doubling of nurse practitioner seats at UNBC is part of our government’s plan to expand primary care capacity in the province,” said Minister of Health Adrian Dix.
