Chatham-Kent Essex MPP Rick Nicholls has his weight checked during a visit to the Chatham-Kent Community Health Centre in Chatham, Ont., on Thursday, May 23, 2013, by nurse practitioner Tracy Creechan. The three-hour visit by the MPP was part of the celebration of Nursing Week. BOB BOUGHNER/ THE CHATHAM DAILY NEWS/ QMI AGENCY
The disparity in wages that nurse practitioners face across the health care system didn’t go unnoticed Thursday by Chatham-Kent-Essex MPP Rick Nicholls.
During a three-hour stint at the Chatham-Kent Community Health Centre in Chatham as part of Nursing Week, Nicholls said nurse practitioners should be better compensated considering their amount of expertise.
Nicholls said a nurse practitioner in a community health centre earns, on average, $89,000 compared to $124,000 in a hospital or Community Care Access Centre.
The C-K Community Health Centres (Chatham, Wallaceburg and Walpole Island) joined health care organizations across the province as part of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario’s 13th annual “take your MPP to work” event.
The program encourages politicians to shadow nurses in order to experience and better understand the role of RNs in the province’s health care system.
Nicholls saw first-hand the multifaceted roles nurses have in the community and how they use their knowledge and skills to better the health of the population.
Tracy Creechan, a nurse practitioner, said she appreciated Nicholls taking time out from his schedule to visit the centre.
Creechan said her provincial organization, the Nurse Practitioners Association of Ontario, has met with senior health ministry officials who believe progress is being made toward improving the wage disparity issue.
The association is also gearing up for a media and public relations campaign to be launched in June and will be offering political action training to all members.
Although the MPP would like to see better compensation for nurse practitioner.
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Source:Â http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/2013/05/23/nicholls-get-up-close-look-at-health-care
