U of Manitoba nursing students worry strike will keep them from graduating, working
4th-year students' community, clinical rotations suspended during faculty association strike
Nursing students at the University of Manitoba are worried they won't be able to graduate in the spring because their clinical and community rotations have been suspended due to a faculty strike.
Fourth-year students are required to finish 1,450 hours in clinical and community settings in order to graduate with their bachelor of nursing and become licensed as a nurse — a requirement set out by the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba.
About 100 fourth-year nursing students are set to graduate in the spring, but their community and clinical placements are now on hold, along with most theory-based courses.
Members of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association — which represents 1,200 professors, instructors, archivists and librarians at the university — hit the picket lines Tuesday morning after contract negotiations reached an impasse.
The faculty association has been fighting for higher wages for its members, arguing that low wages are causing persistent retention and recruitment problems.
The instructors who lead the nursing students are members of the faculty association, according to a university of Manitoba spokesperson.
'Anxious and uncertain': student association head
Manitoba desperately needs new nursing grads, says the head of the U of M Nursing Students' Association.
"I think it's really unfortunate that nursing students aren't able to continue their nursing education in a time when we have a nursing shortage in the province and we're still in the midst of a global pandemic," said Gillian Laninga, who is a third-year nursing student.
The Manitoba Nurses Union has said there are 2,000 vacant nursing positions in the province. The province is spending millions in an attempt to fill the gaps with agency nurses.
Laninga says fourth-year students found out Wednesday their clinical and community placements are on hold. They would normally be doing their community placements now, gaining work experience and practice hours in public schools, seniors' centres and other outreach facilities.
"Like a lot of nursing students, [I'm] just feeling anxious and uncertain about what this really means for the rest of our studies for this semester," she said.
"I also feel for our professors and instructors as well — the situation that they're being put in is frustrating for sure. I do have my full support for UMFA through this time."
The dean of the U of M's college of nursing said the college will "work closely with the students to assist them to complete the program in spring 2022."
"We are committed to ensure students will complete the requirements related to the theory, skills, and clinical courses, in order to progress into the senior practicum," a university spokesperson wrote on behalf of Netha Dyck, the nursing college's dean.
The college will "leverage every opportunity" to help students and "will work closely with the students to assist them to complete the program in spring 2022," the statement said.
The university will be hosting information sessions with students in the coming days to share information and address their questions, it added.
'We need every single nursing student': NDP
In a statement, a spokesperson for Manitoba Health and Seniors Care wrote that the government is monitoring the situation, but respects that the university and UMFA are still in negotiations.
"No one wants further disruption to students and families already dealing with the pandemic, and we urge both sides to continue their efforts to find common ground," the provincial spokesperson wrote.
But the NDP's health critic said the government is standing in the way of competitive wages at the U of M.
"The government absolutely needs to stop interfering, they need to stop mistreating faculty, they need to get out of the way to allow negotiations to happen so that faculty can get an agreement that works," said Uzoma Asagwara.
"We need every single nursing student that is prepared and positioned to finish their studies to graduate. We need them in our health-care system. We needed them in our health-care system many months ago."
The president of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association, Orvie Dingwall, said the union made a "reasonable and fair proposal" to the university Thursday afternoon "that would address recruitment and retention issues, including in the overburdened college of nursing."
She also said UMFA members helped pass a motion at the university senate that would require the university to accommodate students whose education was affected by the strike.
Laninga said even though the university has assured the fourth-year students the strike won't affect graduation, there are still concerns, given how "dynamic and fast-changing" the labour dispute has become.
She said not only are students missing out on practice hours and experience — the community settings they would normally be working in are missing out on their help.
Ultimately, she said students want to get working in Manitoba's health-care system.
"That will be very unfortunate, if we're prevented from producing new nurses into the working force in such a time of need."
With files from Austin Grabish and Erin Brohman