New prescribing powers for Ontario’s nurses

Guest: Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, Professor in the School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies at the University of Ottawa Ontario’s registered nurses will now be able to independently prescribe some medications such as vaccines, medicines to quit smoking and for pain relief or wound care. The government sees this as an effort to tackle Ontario’s acute health care crisis, where more than two million people currently lacking a family doctor. This is the latest in a series of recent moves to expand the role of some health professionals to try and fill the gap, including pharmacists and midwives. We explore what this means for health care. This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Brian Bradley and Saba Eitizaz.