New regulations will allow nurse practitioners to open private practices without the oversight of a doctor.

The choice remains with the patient. The services of nurse practitioners are not covered by the provincial healthcare.

Lynn Power, executive director of the College of Registered Nurses hopes this will take some pressure off of the over-taxed healthcare system. She says it would be a fee for service arrangement, similar to seeing a physiotherapist or massage therapist.

Power says that health insurance companies are recognizing nurse practitioners more and more so it is part of an evolution.