The rules are changing for how health professions are regulated in Manitoba and what tasks various health professions can perform. We should all be aware of these developments and welcome the outcomes of Manitoba’s new Regulated Health Professions Act (RHPA).

I have recently had the pleasure of serving as service chief in pediatrics where I observed first-hand the facility with which young professionals can embrace the concepts of team-based care. When discussing the medication for children with complex needs, the clinical pharmacist provided the direction for that aspect of care.

When complex feeding issues were identified, dieticians and nurses contributed enormous input, and clinical rounds are now joint efforts between physicians, nurses and many others. We have come a long way…now we have to further grasp our future comprised of multidisciplinary health-care teams at every level of care.

In June 2011, the Province proclaimed portions of the new act and created the Health Professions Advisory Council and provisions to allow unregulated health professions to seek to be regulated. The new RHPA will eventually bring together 21 separate statutes for the 22 regulated health professions under one act. It is anticipated it will take up to five years to bring all professions under the RHPA.

As outlined by the Province on its website, the new act will ensure consistent rules for governance, complaints and discipline for all regulated health professions; continue self-regulation; remove barriers to interdisciplinary practice and strengthen accountability between regulatory bodies and the government.

In tandem with the new legislation, regulatory bodies are working on developing profession-specific regulations to bring their professions under the RHPA. Through this process, those regulations, subject to government approval, may include an expanded scope of practice.

As physicians, we should all welcome any expanded scope of practice for members of our multidisciplinary health-care teams.

For example, currently nurse practitioners have the authority to order MRIs and dentists serve pivotal roles around oral systemic health.

Pharmacists are proposing expanded scope of practice to enable them to order tests, prescribe and administer drugs and give vaccines. Registered nurses are proposing providing some primary care services.

It is expected that any change of scope of practice, if approved, will enable health-care providers to practice to their full scope, provide high quality care to patients, improve accessibility to health care and facilitate effective interdisciplinary care that is patient centred.

These changes fit well with the efforts to bring health faculties together under the university’s Academic Structure Initiative. All of these advancements support our ongoing commitment to inter-professional education and the importance of training our students to work in collaborative health-care teams.

What should we be doing as a Faculty to encourage more multi-disciplinary collaboration?

For more information about the RHPA click here