ManitobaPrairie Mountain Health’s CEO says new nurse practitioners will provide much-needed primary care while allowing people to stay in their communities. In Shoal Lake, the mayor says the new nurse is a welcome addition. NPs have ‘hugely valuable role in rural communities where we have struggled to recruit physicians’: CEOMichele McDougall · CBC News · Posted: Nov 18, 2025 6:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Four new nurse practitioners hired by Prairie Mountain Health (left to right): Stacie Gardiner-Graham, Erin Ryback, Jolynn Harder and Kiersten McNabb. (Prairie Mountain Health )Shoal Lake has been without a doctor since 2022, and the recent hire of a nurse practitioner is good news for the community, says Merv Starzyk, the mayor of the Rural Municipality of Yellowhead.The new nurse practitioner brings their complement up to three, and will help ease the workload on the other two who are providing care for patients at the Shoal Lake-Strathclair Health Centre and the Yellowhead Community Clinic.“We now have three [nurse practitioners], we’re sharing her with Rossburn,” Starzyk said.“The addition of another nurse practitioner is definitely welcome. The gals here were getting kind of swamped with some long hours, because the other surrounding communities are short,” he said.Prairie Mountain Health has recruited three other nurse practitioners along with Kiersten McNabb in Shoal Lake.Stacie Gardiner-Graham has also started seeing patients in Melita and Canupawakpa First Nation.Jolynn Harder is now working at Dauphin Primary Care Outreach Clinic and Erin Ryback is the new nurse practitioner in her hometown, at the Brandon Minor Injury and Illness Clinic.Providing comprehensive and holistic care is what drove Ryback to become a nurse practitioner. She brings experience working in public health and in the emergency department at Brandon Regional Health Centre.“I had worked in a variety of areas and became aware of the gaps in care that patients face, especially those without primary care providers,” Ryback said in a prepared email to CBC.NPs fill rural gapsThere are 31 nurse practitioners in the Prairie Mountain Health Region, and 11 are practicing in First Nation communities. All are registered nurses with a master of nursing degree who have passed the Canadian nurse practitioner exam, among other qualifications.Once they receive their full designation, nurse practitioners work independently providing many services including physical exams, diagnosing common medical issues and chronic conditions, ordering diagnostic tests like blood work and CT scans, and performing minor biopsy procedures.Nurse practitioners can function just as a family physician would, using their full scope of practice, said Treena Slate, CEO of Prairie Mountain Health.“It’s a hugely valuable role in rural communities where we have struggled to recruit physicians,” Slate said.“And having nurse practitioners from those communities, they know the people in the area and they know the circumstances of their community and where they live, which lends itself to very good care,” she said.The health authority is collaborating with six more nurse practitioner students who are currently completing the second year of their programs. They are expected to begin working within the health region in the fall of 2026.CorrectionsWe initially reported that nurse practitioners have a four-year nursing degree. In fact, they are registered nurses with a master of nursing degree, among other qualifications.Nov 18, 2025 1:14 PM ESTABOUT THE AUTHOR Michele McDougall is a news reporter at CBC Manitoba based in Brandon. She previously worked at the Brandon Sun covering health stories in Western Manitoba.
Southwestern Manitoba communities welcome 4 newly recruited nurse practitioners
