Nurse practitioner models of care in rural northern British Columbian emergency care settings

Emergency room congestion and long wait times have become prevalent in emergency departments across Canada. Emergency care providers in the Northern Health Authority region of northern British Columbia also struggle to provide quality emergency care in the face of challenges that impact access to timely emergency care. Nurse Practitioners are a new class of health care provider in British Columbia that have the skills and knowledge to provide care for many of the patients who present to Northern Health Authority emergency departments. The question posed in this project is as follows. Would a model of emergency care utilizing the NP role increase patient access and decrease wait times in British Columbia's Northern Health Authority emergency departments as compared to the current model of care? The focus of this project is a review of literature related to the role of Nurse Practitioners (NPs) in emergency department settings, as well a consideration of NP models of emergency care that would increase access and decrease wait times for quality emergency care in the Northern Health Authority. The results of the literature review support the addition of a NP model of care to emergency care setting in northern British Columbia. As Nurse Practitioners are deployed across British Columbia and the Northern Health Authority, continued assessment, analysis, planning, pilot project implementation, change management, evaluation and research related to NP roles in emergency care settings are pivotal to the successful implementation of NP models of emergency care in the region.--P.ii.