Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to follow up on some conversations I’ve had earlier in this House with the Minister of Health and Social Services on the Community Health Nurse Development Program, the NP Program and the Introduction to Advanced Practice. The last two are delivered by Aurora College.
We all know that health and social services in the Northwest Territories is facing some significant challenge. As we move forward, our programs and services here in the Northwest Territories evolved as outlined in the Framework for Change to be more responsive and cost effective and better suited to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Some hard decisions are going to need to be made and we’re going to have to dig in and review our programs to make sure that they are meeting those needs. These training programs -- Community Health Nurse Development Program, Nurse Practitioner Program and Introduction to Advanced Practice -- are no different. We do need to review them. The Minister has indicated that the department is in fact reviewing them.
In reviewing them I think it’s critical that we’re aware of the facts. I’d like to talk about some of the facts here today and I’d like to actually start off first by saying when we were having our previous conversations, I was talking about one position in the Community Health Nurse Development Program. The Minister has kindly reminded me that there were four in 2010-2011, not one as I had indicated, but there was one enrolled when I was having that conversation. I apologize for that confusion.
Since the program was implemented in 2007, 21 individuals were enrolled. Of those, 17 have graduated and are currently working in the Northwest Territories; 14 of them as community health nurses and three in other capacities.
We have 65 community health nurse positions in the Northwest Territories. Of these, 15 are filled and 50 are vacant. Given that 14 of them are from the Community Health Nurse Program, that means 28 percent of all community health nurses in the Northwest Territories accessed employment and were trained via the Community Health Nurse Development Program. This is something we can’t forget when we review the program. Without question, this program is a success.
The Nurse Practitioner Program is delivered by Aurora College and it’s my understanding that the funding for that will end technically in June 2012 when the last of the current students graduate. This program is important and I will be asking the Minister some questions on that when we get to question period. I think it’s important that that program be assessed based on the value it adds and our potential value with putting nurse practitioners in the communities. We can’t forget the value that nurse practitioners will have.
I will have some questions on community health nurses, IAP and NP during question period.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
