Darcie Watson has a goal — she wants to find a job in nursing.
She’s not alone in that quest. The school of nursing at Thompson Rivers University is filled with young people eager to enter a field that is seeing long-time workers “retiring in droves,” Health Minister Terry Lake said.
Lake joined Watson, TRU president Alan Shaver, Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone and TRU nursing dean Donna Murnaghan at a press conference in one of the school’s labs — outfitted with six stations similar to a ward room at a hospital — to announce an infusion of $1.5 million to seven post-secondary institutes to add spaces in health-education programs to meet immediate needs.
At TRU, that means $356,000 to add 43 students to the university’s health-care assistant program.
In addition, recognizing the value of the university’s respiratory-therapy program, Lake announced an additional $100,000 for it, money coming from the Provincial Health Services Authority.
Lake — who noted he had taught anatomy to nursing students at the university before embarking on his full-time political career — said TRU “is an extremely important partnership in our goal” to fill the demand for nursing staff in the province.
Shaver thanked the MLAs for the money, noting he’s hoping to see more — and very soon — to expand the nursing program. Murnaghan echoed Shaver’s optimism, saying she’d like to add a practical-nursing program to the school.
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