Langley’s two post-secondary institutions are both doing their part when it comes to the nation-wide shortage of nurses.
Trinity Western University and Kwantlen Polytechnic University both have faculties dedicated to educating new nurses, with TWU enrolling 62 new students a year for its main program, and KPU taking in 364 new students a year across four separate nursing programs.
Provincial funding in recent years has enabled an expansion of the KPU program, said Sharmen Lee, dean of the faculty of health at the university.
Part of that expansion has been a number of programs beyond the main four-year nursing education program.
One is the graduate nurse, internally educated program, which take nurses who were trained and certified overseas and puts them through a one-year course that enables them to practice in B.C.
That one-year program takes in 140 students a year.
“It’s recognizing that they are already nurses,” Lee said. The course is focused on bringing them up to speed on equipment and protocols in use here in Canada, although depending on their backgrounds, they may already be familiar with most of what is used in local hospitals.
There’s also an advanced entry program – an accelerated course for students who already have some relevant credits and can complete their bachelor of nursing degree in 27 months, with no semester breaks.
The course is taught in a hybrid format, partly online, and partly at the Langley campus for labs and hands-on work. That now takes in 80 students a year, and it’s very competitive, said Lee.
“We have more qualified applicants than we have available seats,” she said.
They’re also reviving an optional program that was a casaulty of COVID travel restrictions – a Global Studies program that will see students spend two weeks in Guatemala or Tanzania this year.
Students who take part will be working on the “field school model,” embedded in local communities where they will help local medical professionals with checkups, medicine distribution, and health education. They’ll also be coming up with and implementing local projects based on how they can help the communities they will be working and learning in.
While TWU doesn’t have as many nursing students, it’s expanded as well in recent years, with programs offering a masters and now a PhD in nursing.
“The PhD was a big initiative,” said Dr. Sheryl Reimer-Kirkham, dean of the school of nursing. As it just started in 2022, it hasn’t yet graduated its first doctorate student.
TWU’s nursing program started in 1993, a time when the province was having some similar issues to today’s shortages.
“When the government reached out, we were in another era of nursing shortage,” said Reimer-Kirkham.
At the time, UBC had been graduating nurses since 1919, but there were no other post-secondary programs in the Lower Mainland.
TWU at first had nursing classes of between 25 to 30 a year, but more than doubled that in 2010.
Expanding the program now would require new facilities and construction at the school.
As a Christian school, TWU builds spirituality into its nursing training, said Reimer-Kirkham. That can mean a variety of things. The dean recently went with a group of students who were visiting numerous religious sites along No. 5 Road in Richmond, stopping at Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, and Sikh centres.
“In each place, the students learned from the faith leaders,” said Reimer-Kirkham.
Learning about how people’s specific faith practices are important to them in a hospital setting forms a valuable part of their training.
“Nurses are obligated to care for the whole person, and that includes the spiritual aspect,” she noted.
The next phase for TWU’s nursing program may be similar to KPU’s global studies – Reimer-Kirkham noted that in the past, TWU was known for global health and travel projects, and they’re looking to re-engage with those ideals again soon.
