Nursing students head into Manitoba hospitals under new employment program

Manitoba is turning to nursing students with the hope of eventually addressing the persistent staffing shortages in hospitals.

Third- and fourth-year nursing students will soon join in-patient care care teams within surgical, medicine and mental health units, Health Minister Audrey Gordon said on Monday while announcing the undergraduate nursing employee program.

"The contributions of Manitoba nurses — and all nurses — have never been needed more than over the past two years, she said.

"We know that the pandemic has put an enormous strain on nurses and that we must continue to add to this important workforce. We need to staff-up in our nursing complement and I think this is a really good start for us."

While new to Manitoba, the UNE program is already in place in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. It gives senior nursing students the opportunity to work in their chosen career prior to their graduation, under the guidance and supervision of a registered nurse or registered psychiatric nurse.

"This initiative allows our nurses of the future to gain some real clinical experience and build real connections with care teams within our province," Gordon said.

The program will start with just over 60 students across the province but there is the potential to involve closer to 500, said Lanette Siragusa, chief nursing officer for Manitoba Shared Health.

"We want to start slow. We want to make sure we evaluate as we go and make sure the supervisors are having a good experience as well as the students, so that it's successful," she said.

The hope is to have the first students in their clinical placements by the end of this year. Regular evaluations will allow the number of nursing students to be gradually built up over time, Siragusa said.

Students will only be placed in units where there is already stable staffing numbers in order to build their success, she added.

They won't fill current staff shortages in the short term, but Gordon said the hope is they become permanent staff at some point and help address that issue.

To apply, nursing students must be enrolled in an approved nursing program leading to entry to practice as an RN or RPN. They must also have a minimum of 450 hours of clinical practice and have completed a clinical placement in that specific area of care — medical, surgical, or mental health — said Siragusa.

The positions pay $27 an hour and offer casual evening, day and weekend shifts, with the opportunity for students to pick up full-time hours during their summer and winter holidays, Siragusa said.

"It's paid work [and] experience while they are completing their studies," Siragusa said. "This will help them to build an understanding about how to function within the profession and among the clinical teams."

UNEs also have a membership with the Manitoba Nurses Union, which means the hours they work count toward their seniority, "giving them an early advantage when they graduate and start looking for a position in the health system," Siragusa said.

"As nursing students, we learn in the classroom, we learn in the skills lab, we learn when we do our clinical placements and our practicums," Siragusa said.

"But nothing really replaces the experience of contributing as a team on the unit with patients."