New Pathways to a nursing career for Aboriginal students at U of S
- | March 20, 2015
The University of Saskatchewan College of Nursing
created the country’s first Aboriginal nursing program, the Native Access
Program to Nursing (NAPN), in 1985, when there were only 35 Aboriginal
baccalaureate-prepared nurses in Canada. The program began with a nine-week spring orientation to nursing,
modeled after a similar program provided by the Native Law Centre. In 1997 however,
the access program model gave way to a focus on local recruitment directly into
the nursing program and retention to graduation through advising and
support. NAPN remained the most
successful program in the country for recruiting Aboriginal nursing students,
with 29% of all Canadian Aboriginal nursing students studying in
Saskatchewan.
When the College of Nursing moved from a two-provider
model to an indirect entry Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program
in 2012, it was time to re-examine the NAPN program and its name. After extensive consultations with community
stakeholders and students, the College of Nursing decided upon a new,
aspirational name to describe the services it offers to its Aboriginal students
at its six sites across the province: La Ronge, Ile-a-la-Crosse, Prince Albert,
Saskatoon, Regina and Yorkton. The University of Saskatchewan Community of
Aboriginal Nursing - or UCAN for short – will officially launch on March
13th.
The core of UCAN has been and will continue to be
student support and advising, and the College of Nursing has been able to
attract a student body that is 15.4% self-identified as Aboriginal. But the new
program will also see the College look upstream, by offering services aimed at
getting Aboriginal students through the high school science requirements and
through the pre-professional year of Arts and Science; and downstream, by
offering a mentorship program with the Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada
that aims to see successful nursing students become successful Registered Nurses
as they transition to the workforce.
“We’ve never had a problem attracting Aboriginal
students to nursing,” said College of Nursing Dean Lorna Butler. “Where we’ve had challenges, is in getting
them successfully through the door with some of the tougher prerequisite
courses. We’re now putting more
resources into science and math success at the K-12 level, including easy
access to bursaries for tutorial support in high school chemistry and math for
rural Aboriginal students.”
“We know how important it is for Saskatchewan’s health
care system to be representative of the people it serves. UCAN will position us to get to where we need
to be as a province, by offering Aboriginal students a pathway into the College
of Nursing and then out into the health care workforce.”