It’s not news to anyone that Ontario is and has been suffering from a primary care provider shortage. Thousands of residents have been without providers for years now, and many lack continuity of care with the health services they receive. The notion that Ontario needs more healthcare providers is correct; however, it goes beyond that. We need to make sure that we have better healthcare teams that will be servicing Ontarians for years to come.
That means thinking differently about how those teams are structured, who is best positioned to lead them, and how we can make the most of every provider’s skill and scope of practice. Nurse practitioners (NPs) are particularly well suited to play a leadership role in these teams.
Moving beyond recruitment
The problem that Ontario is facing a shortage of healthcare providers is undoubtedly one that recruitment can help. By increasing spots in NP master’s programs, medical schools, and other healthcare professional degrees, this will bring up more healthcare professionals and connect more patients with providers.
But the solution doesn’t end there. If we add more people to a system that is not designed to make the best use of the workforce it already has, we risk treating a system-design problem simply as a workforce-supply problem.
Ontario has a highly skilled and diverse healthcare workforce. The challenge is that we do not always organize that workforce around what patients actually need. This is where NPs can play a critical role, not only as providers delivering care, but as leaders who can help design and coordinate teams around patients’ needs and ensure each professional is practicing to the full extent of their training and scope.
From workforce shortages to workforce design
Healthcare is rarely delivered by one person or profession alone. Whether it is in hospitals, primary care clinics, specialized clinics, or even online, there are so many individuals and professions that go into giving you the care you need. A patient may interact with an NP, physician, nurse, pharmacist, social worker, physiotherapist or other allied health professional throughout their care. Each brings a different scope of practice and perspective. Yet we often continue to plan healthcare as though these professionals exist in separate silos.
This is an ongoing example when it comes to recognizing the scope and ability of NPs in Ontario.
What does a better healthcare design look like?
There is no single model that will work for every patient or community, because healthcare needs exist on a spectrum, from short to long-term care needs. Better team design starts with accepting that care should be organized around patient needs, not professional availability or traditional role boundaries.
A relatively healthy patient with acute concern, such as a minor infection or short-term illness, may only require a streamlined care pathway. In many cases, this could be effectively managed by an NP or primary care provider, with access to diagnostic services and pharmacy support as needed. The goal in these situations is to have timely access and avoiding unnecessary escalation into specialists or emergency care.
In contrast, an older adult managing multiple chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, and frailty require a very different approach. Their care is rarely about a single diagnosis; it is about coordination across multiple systems. This may involve a primary care provider overseeing overall medical management, a NP providing ongoing clinical follow-up and medication management, a pharmacist, a physiotherapist, and a social worker or community support worker helping to address housing or caregiver strain. Without coordination, this type of patient often experiences fragmented care and avoidable hospital visits.
The point is not to replace one profession with another, or to suggest that any one role is interchangeable. It is to recognize that healthcare outcomes improve when each professional can contribute at the top of their scope, within a clearly defined and coordinated team structure.
This is where NPs have an important role to play, particularly in primary care and community-based settings. NPs are trained to assess, diagnose, order, and interpret diagnostic tests, prescribe medications, and manage a wide range of acute and chronic conditions. Just as importantly, they are trained in holistic, patient-centred care that considers various health related factors together. In team-based models, this positions NPs well to both provide direct care and help coordinate care across disciplines.
Throughout my career as a NP, I have seen the difference that can be made when providers are empowered to work to their full scope – the results are patients are seen more quickly, and we see positive impacts trickle across communities. I have also seen what happens when the system does not make effective use of that expertise, when patients are waiting for services that could have been delivered earlier, or when care is duplicated because roles are not clearly defined.
When a healthcare professional is underutilized, the loss is not just that individual provider. It means longer wait times for everyone, increased pressure on emergency departments, and missed opportunities for early intervention. Most importantly, it is a lost opportunity for the patient who experiences delays or gaps in care that could have been avoided.
Rethinking Ontario’s healthcare priorities
For years now, the government and public alike have recognized and spoken about how we don’t have enough healthcare providers in Ontario to treat and provide adequate care to patients. This is and should continue to be a priority, however, it is worth rethinking and expanding our priorities to include how should our healthcare teams look, how can we make the most use of our current staffing availability, and what care model will work best for patients across Ontario?
These are the questions we need to be asking if we want to see meaningful change in how our healthcare teams are designed and improve access and efficiency across the broader healthcare system.
We will inevitably see better use of our existing workforce, a more engaged and fulfilled workforce that is empowered to practice to the full scope of their expertise, less burnout by reducing over-reliance on any one profession, better continuity of care, and more sustainable workforce planning grounded in an understanding of what effective healthcare teams actually look like.
NPs and patients alike recognize that this change is needed. We need a healthcare system that makes full use of NPs and the expertise they bring to patient care. Ontario needs a healthcare system that empowers NPs to lead and deliver care where patients need it most, in team-based models amongst other healthcare professionals.
You can support Ontario NPs and patients by:
Signing our petition: https://www.change.org/fundingforNPs
Send a letter to your local MPP and Minister of Health Sylvia Jones: https://www.npao.org/push-politics-may-2026/
Share your story as a NP or as a patient of an NP:
