Nurse practitioners would be a source of significant savings for long-term care institutions (CHSLD) in Quebec according to the results of a pilot project deployed in six CHSLDs in which Kelley Kilpatrick, associate professor at the Ingram School of Nursing at McGill University and researcher at the Centre de recherche de l’Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont, part of the CIUSSS de l'Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, contributed. The results of this first study to look at the economic impacts of nurse practitioners have just been published in the journal Nursing Outlook.
“Internationnaly, most studies have focused on quality and safety in long-term care. Little is known about the economic impacts of the care provided to patients by nurse practitioners, especially in Quebec, where the role are still new”, says Ms. Kilpatrick, co-author of the study. According to the pilot project, the savings made thanks to the management of adverse events by nurse practitioners in the establishments would amount to between $ 1.9 million and $ 3.2 million in the six CHSLDs studied, in particular thanks to the reduction in time devoted to the administration of medication-related nursing.
Faced with the aging of the population and its growing needs, it is becoming essential to deploy innovative care solutions in CHSLDs. The study thus confirms the important role of nurse practitioners in the quality of care and in reducing costs.