Welcome

Dear colleagues,

As co-chairs of Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario's (RNAO) 2015 Nurse Practitioner Knowledge Exchange Symposium, we are pleased to present the revised Nurse Practitioner Utilization Toolkit. This online and evolving resource is designed for nurse practitioners (NP), hospital administrators, and various stakeholders who want to improve the safety, quality, flow and value of hospital services by increasing timely access to NPs, across both inpatient and outpatient settings.

This unique toolkit, written from the nursing leadership perspective, provides essential information to inform NP utilization in hospitals. Key legislative and regulatory documents, which enable NPs to admit, treat, transfer and discharge hospital inpatients are provided alongside various tools for NP implementation and evaluation. Key early hospital adopters share sample communication strategies, hospital bylaws, practice documents and presentations which can be downloaded and customized to achieve an efficient and seamless implementation of the authorized NP roles. In addition, guiding documents from international jurisdictions provide a broader context and perspective on the optimal utilization of NPs in hospitals.

What's new:

• Updated summary of relevant legislation and regulation affecting NP practice
• Summary of evidence regarding the quality of NP care of hospital patients
• Economic analysis of integrating NPs into care of hospital patients, including a cost-benefit analysis
• Updated jurisdictional review including  international guiding documents from New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States
• Analysis of models of care that integrate the NP role into the care of hospital patients, and
• Case studies from hospitalsthat have successfully implemented NP admit, treat and discharge authority.

We expect over the coming years, that increased NP utilization in hospitals will lead to the development of highly innovative and collaborative models of inter-professional care delivery. This enabled NP capacity will ultimately drive and deliver the best value and highest quality care for patients, thus setting the stage for Ontario to take the lead and reach new heights both provincially and nationally in health and health-care services.

With warm regards,

Doris Grinspun, RN, MSN, PhD, LLD(hon), O.ONT.           Chief Executive Officer, RNAO	Michelle Acorn,NP PHC/Adult, GNC(C), DNP Past President, NPAO Lead NPLakeridge Health, Whitby, Ontario PHC Global Health NP Coordinator, University of Toronto