{"id":48371,"date":"2024-07-19T16:55:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T19:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/?p=48371"},"modified":"2024-07-19T16:55:59","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T19:55:59","slug":"sackville-hospital-clinic-offers-some-primary-care-services-to-help-fill-the-gap-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/sackville-hospital-clinic-offers-some-primary-care-services-to-help-fill-the-gap-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sackville hospital clinic offers some primary care services to help fill the gap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Nurse practitioner Darla MacPherson and Sackville Memorial Hospital facility manager Sarah Brown, in one of the exam rooms at the hospital’s ambulatory care clinic. Photo: Erica Butler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A new nurse practitioner clinic is offering services out of the Sackville Memorial Hospital\u2019s ambulatory care clinic to those without a family doctor or NP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What started out as a series of PAP test clinics has morphed into something with a wider range of services, including drivers medicals, handicap parking forms, medication refills (other than narcotics), blood pressure checks, and routine lab testing with follow up. Nurse Practitioner Darla MacPherson says that while she was working in the hospital\u2019s emergency department, she coulld see the need for an \u201corphan clinic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI could see people, women in particular, coming in who had not had their physicals done for a long time,\u201d says MacPherson, \u201csome who had abnormal PAP smears. And I was like, oh, something has to be done about that. This can’t go on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So MacPherson got permission to run a temporary PAP clinic out of the hospital\u2019s ambulatory care section. But it didn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat very day of starting the PAP clinic, I said to Sarah [Brown, the Sackville Memorial Hospital business manager], in the parking lot, there are people coming to my door all the time looking for med refills, because I’m a Sackville girl, and everybody who knows me knows I’m a nurse practitioner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She told Brown, \u201cthe need is there. I\u2019d love to help out in that way.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As both Brown and MacPherson recall, \u201cit was an immediate yes.\u201d And then, the clinic became an immediate success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been so well received,\u201d says MacPherson. \u201cI am booked up until September.\u201d That\u2019s when the clinic will ramp up, doubling its hours to one day per week, up from twice a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not permanent, but ‘as long as we can’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The ambulatory care clinic at the Sackville Memorial Hospital is normally for patients referred from the ER or their family physician for specific appointments, to do things like infusions, dressing changes, or stitch or staple removal. It\u2019s also used by visiting specialists to see patients in Sackville. It\u2019s not usually a place for primary care services, like what\u2019s happening and is planned to grow across the parking lot at the new Tantramar Primary Care Clinic. That Clinic is also operated by Horizon, but through a different part of the organization, with long term plans to grow to house a number of primary care prividers and other health care professionals. Over at the hospital, MacPherson\u2019s NP clinic is more of an add-on, being offered because those involved saw a need and a way to fill it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTypically, we don’t offer primary care at a hospital,\u201d says Brown. \u201cThat’s more of a community clinic, similar to the Tantramar clinic, setting. But where we have the space, the resources, the staff, and the ability\u2013and obviously need and interest\u2013then we are happy to offer that as long as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacPherson says she is loathe to commit to a timeline, but predicts she will be there at least a year, and otherwise \u201cas long as my health holds out, and my brain keeps firing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacPherson is retired, having put in her 40 years, starting out working as a nurse in the labour and delivery ward at the Sackville Memorial Hospital. She then went on to work in Nova Scotia, became a Nurse Practitioner, working as a manager and VP with the health authority. But being an NP is her calling, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love it. It’s my heartbeat. I just love helping people and having the ability to do that,\u201d says MacPherson. She describes the role of nurse practitioners as ‘advanced registered nurses’, with the added skills of diagnosis, prescribing, and ordering and interpreting tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNurse practitioners are much closer to the physician,\u201d says MacPherson, \u201calthough nurse practitioners come from the nursing mindset\u2026 We listen to the whole person\u2026 It’s a very holistic, supportive approach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make an appointment with the nurse practitioner clinic is at the Sackville Memorial Hospital call the hospital\u2019s ambulatory care clinic at 506-364-4248.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hear this story as reported on Tantramar Report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n