Upcoming changes to regulations will allow nurse practitioners to open their own private practices. Current regulations require nurse practitioners to have a consulting doctor to vouch for them in order to practice.

Services like writing prescriptions, requesting blood work or X-rays, even diagnosis of some illnesses can be done by a nurse practitioner.

Lynn Power, executive director of the College of Registered Nurses of NL, says the new regulations will grant them more independence while reducing redundancies within the healthcare system. She says this will provide another option, rather than waiting to see a family doctor or going to an emergency room.

Power says that it is the nurse practitioners’ choice. They have to want to go into business, and be willing to take on all the risks and responsibilities that go along with it.

She says that this is just one part in the evolution of healthcare and that it is all about working as a team.

The changes come into effect on September 1.