In terms of the innovative project, and more specifically the nursing clinic for primary health care nurse practitioners, PHCNPs, we are at present the only clinic in Quebec that offers a partnership with physicians and NPs, to supervise ours students. This means that the students see real patients, in real time, from the university community. At present, we are considered to be the only NP school/clinic in Quebec.
Perhaps the biggest problem, as you noted, is the partnership with physicians. In general, our students do their training placements in medical clinics or GMFs, family medicine groups. Perhaps the biggest difficulty I have had to overcome is getting physicians, on contract, to come to the PHCNP clinic to work in partnership with our nurses. So that was something novel. As well, we had to initiate talks with the MSSS, Quebec's health and social services department, and the FMOQ, Quebec's federation of family practitioners, so that this "first" could happen. Essentially, there are not a lot of physicians who teach nurses directly.
I address the last point in my presentation. At present, we serve the university's employees and students. Of the UQTR students, at the hospital, about 20% of the patients we see are foreign. They come from outside Canada. Many in that 20% represent an orphan clientele: they have no family physician because they are from outside Canada. And there is an excellent partnership with insurance companies to provide payment for their health care.
At present, we are really serving a significant orphan clientele. The plan is for the clinic to be open two days a week within a fairly short time. We plan to open it later to the orphan clientele in the Trois-Rivières region, region 04, where there are, for example, a lot of patients with chronic illnesses who are not under the care of a family physician. This is really with the goal of providing a service to a population that is not receiving it at present.