ATHABASCA – In an effort to address the shortage of Registered Nurses (RN) in northern Alberta, two of the region’s largest post-secondary schools are teaming up to create an “inclusive” pathway for Licenced Practical Nurses to complete their RN schooling.
The program, which Dr. Alex Clark, president of Athabasca University (AU) and Dr. Glenn Mitchell, president and CEO of Northern Lakes College (NLC), unveiled April 21 at the Academic and Research Centre on the AU campus, will help graduates from NLC’s Practical Nurse program enter AU’s Post-LPN Bachelor of Nursing program.
“What I think is really exciting, is that this program provides an accessible, inclusive pathway. It’s a pathway where you can realize your dreams to be a nurse and make a difference,” said Dr. Clark, who is also an RN. “If you go and study at other universities in the province, nursing programs are some of the hardest to get into, they have stratospherically high requirements. This complements and supplements those pathways that are far less inclusive. It's important for nursing to have people from different backgrounds.”
Dr. Mitchell also highlighted the benefits that Indigenous students will receive, noting that around 50 per cent of NLC’s students are First Nations, Métis and Inuit. Both presidents said that a major benefit of the program was access as being able to complete the program online opened it up to students that wouldn’t be able to pursue their education in a more traditional setting.
Thanks to $923,090 in funding from the provincial government, there will be 60 new seats, 20 a year for the next three years. There will be support required from Alberta Health Services (AHS), since the practical component of the degree still exists, but otherwise the infrastructure for the pathway is already in place.
Part of the inspiration for the project came from exit surveys conducted by NLC for their LPN graduates, according to Dr. Mitchell, who said that 80 per cent have expressed interest in this type of program with AU.
For those who enroll at AU, Dr. Clark says that the program will take three to four years, which is longer than a brick-and-mortar school. The strength of the program is that it will allow students to continue working as an LPN in their communities, while furthering their own careers and education.
“If you think of a traditional program, where it’s three or four years, and it’s full time, if you have a family or a job, they get pushed to the side,” noted Dr. Clark. “Here, they can juggle their work, since they’ll probably be working in the health system, and they can juggle their family, and stay in their community.”
