Doctors are not the only ones who are able to diagnose an illness, write prescriptions or refer a patient to a specialist — nurse practitioners can, too. Lorine Scott graduated from one of the University of Victoria's first classes of nurse practitioners (NPs) in 2005 and is now executive director of the B.C. She says utilizing NPs more could help with the doctor shortage by easing some of the pressure on family doctors. "In many communities around B.C., there are many patients that are actually getting all their care from nurse practitioners," she told Stephen Quinn, host of CBC's The Early Edition. Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who have completed a masters degree beyond their initial nurse training.

Source: CBC News March 07, 2018 18:56 UTC