In 2009, I was recruited as a faculty lecturer and was asked to take on the fledgling Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (NP) program at the School of Nursing. At that point, a small cohort of students, both locally at McGill and remotely in Abitibi, had completed their theoretical training and were to start their 6-month consolidation practicum. The initial integration of these novel practitioners into the clinical setting was challenging. Many physicians were unconvinced of the contributions NPs could make, patients were reluctant to receive what was seen as inferior care, and the entire Quebec healthcare system was unsure of how to maximize the use of these advance practice nurses that had expanded scopes of practice. In the initial years, there was a need for advocacy for this new role, educating our fellow healthcare colleagues and the public as to the capacities of Primary Care NPs and most importantly, instilling a sense of identity in these new practitioners that would give them the strength and conviction needed to face the tribulations that come with being pioneers.
As a program, we were able to capitalize on the strength of our relationship with clinical partners, supporting clinicians in integrating students into their clinics and generally, to act as ambassadors on governmental and professional committees. In 2019, after a decade in this role, the cohort size of NP students had grown 10-fold. Our graduates were sought out by institutions, desperate to hire NPs as a way of improving the quality of care offered to Quebecers. Our program received full accreditation from the College of Physicians and the Order of Nurses twice. And lastly, using the Primary Care NP model, the first graduates of our two new NP programs, focusing on acute care pediatrics and mental health, were seeing the light of day. Looking back on my experience, it is only through the support of the McGill community and the determination of these courageous students that we were able to achieve such success. I am proud to have contributed to what I believe is, in small part, an answer to improving Quebec’s access to primary care.