The BC-CfE is proud to celebrate National Nursing Week 2020. The theme for this year’s week is Nurses: A Voice to Lead – Nursing the World to Health.
Nurses, whether they’re registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, or nurse practitioners (NPs), have been a huge part of the success in implementing the BC-CfE’s groundbreaking Treatment as Prevention¨ (TasP¨) strategy, which forms the foundation of the UNAIDS 90-90-90 Target to end AIDS globally by 2030.
The BC-CfE and the College of Registered Nurses of BC have a relationship dating back decades. Among the most challenging roles taken on by staff of the BC-CfE is outreach nursing. These dedicated nurses connect with clients in vulnerable communities, working alongside social workers, peer navigators, physicians, pharmacists, mental health teams, and housing support workers to form support networks for our clients.
With the opening of new BC-CfE locations at 611 and 625 Powell Street, in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, BC-CfE nurses now have more resources to support clients. Our nurses’ holistic approach to improving health includes helping clients find housing, helping with income stability and nutrition, and connecting them to other social and health care resources in the DTES.
Many of our clients, especially those living in the DTES, are marginalized and have endured terrible traumas. Our nurses build trust-based relationships with these vulnerable people, helping with their complex healthcare needs including substance use and mental illness, and it’s these relationships that are key to the BC-CfE’s client-centered approach.
Nurse Belinda LeBlanc is the Centre’s Clinical Operations Manager. She started with the BC-CfE last September and works at our Powell Street locations. She says, “Nurses at the Hope to Health Clinic work collaboratively on the multidisciplinary clinical team providing acute care, proactive care, chronic disease management and mental health services.”
The majority of her career has been a combination of healthcare administration and clinical work. LeBlanc says, “Working for the BC-CfE has allowed me to be immersed in team-based, patient-centered primary care. It’s a model I strongly support and it’s improving patient outcomes, increasing provider and patient satisfaction, and reducing costs to the system.”
The BC-CfE not only relies on nurses like LeBlanc for their clinical and administrative roles, but also works to expand the roles of NPs wherever they may work in our province.
The Nurse Practitioner Training in HIV Prevention and Treatment program offered by the BC-CfE’s Clinical Education and Training Program gives nurses the opportunity to expand their skillsets. Upon successful completion of the two tier program, NPs are qualified to prescribe and monitor antiretrovirals (ARVs) for HIV prevention.
NPs who complete this training help to improve access to ARV treatment and HIV prevention strategies, like PrEP and PEP, for people living with HIV or at risk of acquiring HIV. And they can do so within the many remote and rural areas of our province, bringing care and TasP¨ to underserved groups. For more information on this training program can be found at: https://education.bccfe.ca/nurse-practitioner-program/.
The BC-CfE’s nurses help to improve quality of life and longevity for people living with HIV in BC, while also increasing the provincial capacity to prevent new HIV infections.
For this, and for all of the work they do to care for those who need it, the BC-CfE honours its nurses and nurses all around the world.