The College of Nursing and University College of the North (UCN) celebrated the 25th anniversary of their unique partnership at UCN’s facilities in Thompson and The Pas on March 12 and 13.
The College of Nursing and UCN have collaboratively delivered UM’s bachelor of nursing program to students in The Pas and Thompson since the fall of 1998, when UCN was known as Keewatin Community College.
Since then, over 540 nurses have graduated from the UCN cohort and many of those nurses continue to work and live in Manitoba’s northern communities. This is great news, as the need for nurses throughout the province has increased significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Using an integrated approach, the same curriculum is delivered at UCN’s northern sites and the College of Nursing’s site in Winnipeg. This includes the expansion of the College’s virtual reality simulation training to The Pas and Thompson.
Dr. Netha Dyck, dean of the College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, called the 25-year partnership a “remarkable accomplishment that is unique across the country.”
“We are proud of our amazing graduates and their contribution to quality health care. It is inspiring to reflect on what we have achieved collaboratively including the implementation of a new curriculum, achieving provincial program approval and national accreditation, the integration of simulation and more recently virtual reality into our curriculum, and engagement in collaborative research,” she told UM Today.
