Vancouver Island University is seeing more seats open up for nurses and health care assistants courtesy funding from the provincial government. (VIU)

By Alex Rawnsley

HEALTH CARE SUPPORTS

More nurses being trained in Nanaimo to combat ongoing staff shortages

Feb 24, 2022 | 5:28 AM

NANAIMO — New, provincially funded nursing positions at Vancouver Island University are seen as a major win to re-stock the stretched-thin health care industry.

The province announced on Sunday, Feb. 20 a range of new seats and additional opportunities for existing professionals to upgrade their qualifications at VIU.

All the positions are permanently funded with regular intakes.

Patricia O’Hagan, dean of health sciences and human services at VIU, told NanaimoNewsNOW the move provides certainly for the industry and those contemplating the sector for a career.

“It allows for long term planning. The ups and downs of people retiring out of health care and the needs to fill health care allows us to plan much better than if you get one time funding,” O’Hagan said.

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The first intake of students will happen in May, when 24 professionals can upgrade their qualifications. Eight new registered nursing seats will open in the fall.

In May 2023, 24 new seats will open to health care assistants looking to move into a licensed practical nurse position.

Further intakes will take place every two years for each program.

O’Hagan said the funding goes a long way for schools and health care facilities to know when people are being trained, how many and when they can expect to enter the workforce.

She added the industry has been preparing for retirements and vacant positions for years.

“People might have retired slightly earlier because of the pandemic, but generally we’ve been waiting and knowing that when people graduate from nursing school, eventually they’re going to retire. We’ve been talking about this demographic shift happening and now its upon us.”

Many of the new and existing positions train out of Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, while spaces are also made available at VIU’s Cowichan and Powell River campuses and their corresponding hospitals.

“The number of students and where they’re placed is very much dictated by a hospital or a long term care facility being in that location and-or the placement experience for the students,” O’Hagan added.

The new spaces announced Sunday come on the heels of 72 health care assistant seats at VIU, awarded in January 2021. Forty were in Nanaimo.

All the accepted students were already employed as support workers and took the program to move into health care assistant roles in hospitals, long term or assisted living care homes.

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alex@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @alexrawnsley