Collaborative care experience could be key to recruitment

Published Wednesday May 12th, 2010
A6
By ADAM BOWIE
bowie.adam@dailygleaner.com

Providing new medical professionals with an opportunity to work in collaborative-care clinics is one way to boost recruitment, says a member of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Robert Hatheway, who's involved with the chamber's physician recruitment efforts, said feedback from visiting medical students and other health-care professionals indicates there's a strong interest in working in these kinds of facilities.

It would allow physicians to work with nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers and other health professionals in a joint medical centre.

"There are a lot of efficiencies in having the collaborative-care clinic," he said.

"But the big thing is, if that's what the new graduate wants in a working environment, then we would be wise to try to provide that. It would certainly help with our recruitment efforts."

He said having professionals work in a shared facility cuts down on costs for office space, supplies and staffing, and it also encourages them to improve care for their patients.

"The big advantage of the collaborative-care clinic is the intellectual horsepower that you have under one roof," he said.

"Often you'll have some senior physicians there with some practising junior physicians and it's a great way to bounce ideas off different people. That type of communication is very important for diagnoses, treatment planning."

Hatheway said adding nurse practitioners, nurses and other health professionals to the setting would help expand these services.

"If the nurse practitioner has the ability to manage the less-complicated medical problems - freeing up the physician's time for the more complicated problems for which they are trained - then I see that as a win-win," he said.

Margaret Dykeman, nurse manager at the Community Health Clinic on Brunswick Street, said she worked in collaborative care clinics years ago in the United States.

"We all had our own client base and we all did our own thing and when we got to the end of our scope, we'd say, 'Hey, Doc, come and help me. I need you,'' she said.

Dykeman said nurses, nurse practitioners, doctors, social workers and other health professionals work together at the Brunswick Street clinic, often joining forces to meet the needs of a patient.

"We have a lot of professionals under one roof," she said.

"On top of that, we have professional students coming here from half a dozen different allied health institutions. So within the student body and the staffing body, we have a collaborative process going on."

She said officials from the clinic also sit on the city's community action board and work with the regional health authority and the public health department to close gaps in the system for many of the region's most vulnerable citizens.

Tracey Rickards, a registered nurse at the Community Health Clinic, said collaborative-care facilities give patients improved care and allow medical professionals to combine their talents.

But she believes health professionals have to do more work to educate the public about how these kinds of facilities can be beneficial.

"We've got a whole lot of education to do before the public recognizes that collaborative care includes more than just physicians, and the role that (a nurse practitioner) can play," she said.

"Lots of people say, 'I need to see a doctor,' and I'll say to them, 'You know, you could get all of those things taken care of if you went to see a nurse practitioner.' So a lot more education must go on before the general public will fully understand what's available and start to seek out (nurse practitioners) for services."

Since this is National Nursing Week, Rickards said it's important to note that nurses, nurse practitioners and licensed practical nurses will soon be playing a bigger role in the delivery of day-to-day health-care services.

"I think we really need to recognize the fact that the community is where health care is going to be provided, by and large, within the next 20 years or so," she said. "Hospitals are simply not set up to provide all the health care that we need.

"We need to change our focus, where we stop treating and start preventing."