City Lights News
Highlights and Events February 1997

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Deadlines event publication: Printed Edition before the 15th of every month and Electronic Edition before the 20th of every month. Information and publication of events: Stephen Serenelli tel./fax (306) 922-1831 or E-mail to City Lights BBS (306) 763-1777 or Internet E-mail or write to: 978-2nd Street East, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan S6V 0G4 Canada

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Visiting Nurse Program

The Prince Albert Co-operative Health Centre is a complete health centre offering a wide range of services and programs. The Health Centre has faced the challenge of shrinking health care budgets and increasing demands on services by implementing new methods to deliver quality, cost effective health care. One of these programs is the Visiting Nurse Program, designed in 1972 to allow clients (members or non members) being treated by a Community Clinic physician to be cared for in their own homes.

The Program involves doctors and nurses working with clients, but the focus is now wider - shifting from the purely medical needs to encompass the social needs of the client and the family unit. The Visiting Nurse is part of a multidisciplinary team committed to a holistic health care approach. The Nurses provide medical treatment as well as an assessment of how the client and the family are coping with any emotional or financial problems. In terminal cases, the Visiting Nurses are part of a palliative care team made up of physicians, health professionals and volunteers providing services and support to those who have chosen to die at home, pain free and with dignity.

Coping with the health care demands of our aging population often means placing seniors in hospitals and care homes. In Canada, the rate of institutional care for people over 65 is one of the highest in the world. Recent Medical Care Insurance Branch (MCIB) statistics showed that approximately 20% of the total caseload of the Co-operative Health Centre was over age 65 and that the Centre sees twice as many people in this age group than the other primary care providers in Prince Albert. The Visiting Nurse Program enables seniors to remain independent, and at home.

Because hospital care for any age group is costly and people respond better to medical treatment when they are in familiar surroundings, the new trend in health care is moving toward fewer hospital admissions and shorter hospital stays. This trend has led to a change in the caseload of the Visiting Nurses to include more acute care and also to an increase in the use of the Health Centre's Minor Surgery Department and van services. The Visiting Nurse Program has three full time nursing positions, providing approximately 600 client services per month. The Nurses participate in weekly discharge planning rounds at both hospitals and palliative care team case conferences. They provide pre-arranged visits on Saturday and Sunday along with their weekly routines.

The Prince Albert Co-operative Health Centre Visiting Nurse Program is an innovative and flexible program which provides needs assessment, information, crisis support, medical care and treatment, moral support, counselling and health teaching. Visiting Nurses encourage clients and their families to do as much as they can for themselves to facilitate independent living.

More information on this program may be obtained from Linda McKay, Head of the Visiting Nurse Program, from Community Clinic physicians, nurses and staff of the Co-operative Health Centre, tel. 763-6464.

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City of Prince Albert on the Internet

There is more to see on the Internet every day, more of Prince Albert that is - with the addition of the City of Prince Albert Web Site to the City Lights News Net. Everything you want to know about the City is there: geography and history; education, recreation and cultural facilities; transportation; business development; market area; bylaws; demographics; property and business taxes, and last but not least, communication with City Hall through e-mail. Prince Albert has joined the ranks of many other cities and towns who are taking advantage of the Internet to show off a little, highlighting the advantages and pleasures to be found in living here. The City of Prince Albert Web Pages also provide links to other web sites which furnish relevant information or services such as current local weather conditions, a picture gallery, provincial funding and grant programs for business, just to name a few.

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