New northern campus opened for nursing students

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A new academic partnership will soon be bringing a more northern and more Aboriginal face to the nursing profession in Saskatchewan.

As of March 7, the Nursing Education Program of Saskatchewan (NEPS) officially has a northern campus, with 40 training seats funded annually by the provincial government.

While students interested in the nursing degree program are already taking preparatory classes at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (SIFC) campus in Prince Albert, the northern program wasn't officially part of the NEPS program until March 7, when SIFC, the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) signed an academic partnership agreement.

Through this agreement, the students will complete all four years of their degree program in Prince Albert. When new intakes of students are sought each fall, northerners will be given preference for all 40 spots, although the exact geographic boundaries of the target region are still being worked out.

While a four-year nursing program for northerners has been in the planning stages ever since the Northern Health Sciences Access Program agreement was signed in 2000, this agreement goes one step further, making SIFC a full partner in nursing education for the entire province. This means that SIFC will have a say in the curriculum development, the accreditation process and even the hiring of staff for the nursing programs at SIAST and the universities. As well, SIFC's instructional methods and an Aboriginal cultural component will be incorporated into nursing education programs province-wide.

The expansion of the NEPS program to Prince Albert will alleviate some of the pressure on the other sites, Diana Davidson Dick, SIAST's dean of nursing, said at the official signing ceremony. She noted that 292 qualified applicants were turned away for space reasons last year alone.

At the same time, the partnership with SIFC will add substantially to the relevance of the nursing program to nurses working in Aboriginal communities.

"No matter where they (nurses) are educated, they're going to bring that knowledge (of First Nations culture) to where they practice," said SIFC academic dean Jo-Ann Episkenew. "That's ground-breaking.

"They're going to take a curriculum that's just as relevant (in Aboriginal communities as in large urban settings)," and thus hopefully learn to avoid some cultural mishaps, Episkenew said. "I don't think it would fly if you (as a nurse) were to say to an Elder from Wollaston, 'We're going to burn some sweetgrass,' and he's saying, 'But we're all Catholic!'"

Ken Coates, the University of Saskatchewan's acting vice-president (academic), acknowledged that if post-secondary institutions are to provide training opportunities for everyone, they need to stop waiting for the students to come to them, and instead go where the students are.

"It (the agreement) shows the ability and even the need for institutions to step beyond their boundaries," Coates said. "We're finding new ways to bring post-secondary education to where it belongs."

With all of the restrictions northerners face---from monetary shortages to geography-creative problem-solving is a must, as is tenacity, said Prince Albert Grand Council Grand Chief Gary Merasty, who represented the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority (NITHA) at the ceremony. NITHA and its member bands and tribal councils have worked in partnership with the schools, the province, Metis Employment and Training of Saskatchewan and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations for several years to bring the program to this point.

According to Merasty, when people ask him why partnerships work in the North, he tells them that it's because there is a common realization that without collaboration on some of these vital programs, "people get lost . . . things come to a screeching halt.

"We succeeded," he said, "because we had to."