Truemors
This may be one answer to the shortage of doctors. Somtimes a person cannot even find a doctor accepting new patients, and when they do it may take time to get in to see her or him.
Nurses can take more time for the total assessment. Just spending time and talking is the first step to healing.
Every patient is seen by the doctor after the bulk of tests and assessment is done by the nurse.
DR. HARRIS CROOKS was so busy seeing patients at his Hatchet Lake office that he was considering scaling back his family practice.
Registered nurse Phyllis Blades had worked for years in the neonatal intensive care unit and was ready to give up shift work.
But instead of taking a step back, the two dove into a partnership that has allowed them to provide better care to more patients.
"I went from being overwhelmed with the patients I had to being able to actually accept new ones, and my practice remains open four years later," Dr. Crooks said in a recent interview.
The two were early beneficiaries of a collaborative model that’s becoming more popular as health professionals strive to manage patients’ chronic illnesses and keep them healthy at home.
A Capital district health authority program is helping other doctors and registered nurses develop similar partnerships with results that seem to be pleasing everyone involved.
There are now 21 teams of family doctors and registered nurses working in the area served by Capital Health and 15 more in other parts of the province.
Comments (0)