Local nursing program attracting ‘intense interest from around the globe’

The Sault College board of governors approved a new one-year, two-semester Acute and Critical Care Graduate Certificate program for its nursing department at its first meeting of 2021, held Thursday. 

“This is a nursing program that is developed especially for experienced, internationally educated nurses,” said Marilyn King, Sault College Dean of Health and Community Services, addressing the board.

“The potential student is someone who is coming from a country other than Canada and has already earned a four-year Bachelor of Science (nursing) degree from an accredited program.”

“What tends to happen for nurses who are coming from other countries is quite a process for them to become registered in Ontario, using Ontario as an example. The College of Nurses, when they apply, looks at their previous education and work history and they develop a program, different items for them to complete. There tends to be the same types of issues, so this program will answer all of those elements that an internationally educated nurse would require in order to become registered in Ontario,” King explained.

The nurses would still be required by Ontario to write an exam, but King said “this program will give them experiences in acute care and some experience in critical care and what is required to become a specially trained, certified critical care nurse.”

The program will aim to educate its students about the Canadian health care system, expectations for Ontario nurses and prepare them for a required scenario test within a lab setting.

The program will include a variety of theory courses, labs and simulation, as well as some supervised clinical practice and observational experience in critical care and operating rooms.

“Our hope is to attract some experienced nurses through this. Not all of them will necessarily practice in the Sault and area, some may, but it will prepare the graduate in terms of writing the test which is accepted across Canada and the United States. Where they decide to practice after is going to be up to them but we could potentially attract some experienced nurses here (to the Sault and area),” King said.

The board’s approval of the graduate certificate program comes after the college approved similar programs for its nursing department, such as one dealing specifically with gerontology and chronic illness.

The college is confident it will have no shortage of applicants for its Acute and Critical Care one-year Graduate Certificate program.

“What our international (student recruitment) team is telling us is that we’re going to have problems keeping people from the program because there’s such intense interest from around the globe to find programs such as this,” King told the board.   

In an overall sense, approximately 121,000 people work as registered nurses in Ontario.

“As efforts are being made to expand home and community care and enhance inter-professional primary care organizations, job opportunities for this occupation in community care settings will rise. The demand for healthcare is expected to grow as the proportion of seniors in Ontario is projected to increase,” a written report to the board stated.