Fast-tracked nursing degree coming to UNB Saint John
Move comes as province struggles with shortage of nurses
A new three-year nursing degree will begin next year at UNB Saint John.
The pilot program will offer what the government is calling a "condensed degree," alongside the usual four-year bachelor of nursing program.
The province is providing an initial sum of $412,000 to UNB to help start the program and has committed to funding just over $1.2 million, over three years, based on an evaluation.
"The nursing profession is in dire need for more people, and this could speak to that need," said UNB president and vice-chancellor Paul Mazerolle in a press conference Friday.
The new program will mean UNB Saint John will offer 21 additional seats in their bachelor of nursing program and will have three terms per year, instead of two, delivering the same curriculum.
Mazerolle said that three-year degrees exist in the U.K. and Australia and that it makes the degree more accessible to more students.
"Students can get into the workforce quicker, save a bit of money on tuition, do it in three years, but also getting into the workforce to make a difference sooner," he said.
Catherine Hamilton, chair of nursing and health sciences at UNB Saint John, said she envisions the degree will appeal to those students who want to get into the workplace faster.
She said the department put out a survey to nursing students when the fast-tracked degree was being proposed, and 67% said they would have considered the three-year degree if it had been available.
Hamilton said that by consolidating the courses into three years, students will lose their summer breaks, but she sees this as as a benefit. Students previously had their clinical learning, their real-world experience, in the fall and winter right after summer break, and "they've kind of lost the thread of that learning that they've had," Hamilton said.
"What we're finding out is that we can consolidate those clinical courses to go bam, bam, bam, run one right after another, which is going to consolidate learning," Hamilton said, with the hope that students will come out stronger and that clinical time may be able to be reduced.
Challenges to staffing in N.B.
The announcement comes at a time when New Brunswick is struggling with understaffed hospitals.
"The nursing shortage was not created overnight, and it will not be solved overnight," said Arlene Dunne, minister of post-secondary education, but added that the government initiatives for nurse staffing are "moving the needle in the right direction."
At Friday's new conference, Dunn highlighted other ways the government is trying to ease the shortage of nurses, which she said would focus on attraction, recruitment, retention, promotion of profession, enhancing nurse education and work-life balance.
The Nurses Association of New Brunswick, the regulatory body for the profession, announced earlier this summer that 657 new nurses were registered between December 2022 and May 2023.
However, Nurses Union president Paula Doucet said in an interview with CBC News last week that the numbers are misleading, noting that between the two health authorities, only 234 nurses had been hired.
Friday's news release said the new fast-tracked nursing program at UNBSJ comes in addition to other initiatives to help solve staffing issues.
These initiatives include increasing the number of seats available for licensed practical nurses to apply directly to a bachelor of nursing program, expanding nurse practitioner programs at Université de Moncton and doubling the number of nurse practitioner seats at UNB.
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