How a satellite site is making nursing education more accessible in Labrador

Students in Labrador now have the option to receive their nursing education in the Big Land. 

The faculty of nursing at Memorial University offers its degree program in nursing through a satellite site in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, allowing local students to pursue their profession while staying closer to home.  

At the Labrador Campus, lectures are delivered on site and remotely, with nursing labs taking place in the community. Clinical courses offered in-person at a health-care facility in the region.

CBC Radio's The Signal had the opportunity to visit the state-of-the-art nursing skills lab at the Labrador Campus last month.

Program co-ordinator Kathy Gillett and skills lab instructor Marie-Pierre Doré demonstrated how the manikins — medical simulation tools, not to be confused with the fashion-oriented mannequins of stores — allow students to get practical experience before they move into the field.

Manikins are realistic, anatomically correct and capable of simulating real-life medical scenarios.

"These manikins and this equipment allows the student to practise what they would do in real life and get hands-on practice before they go to clinicals,"  said Doré.

Gillett said the lab is a good place to learn new skills without risking harm. 

"It's a safe place to do it," Gillett said. "It's a safe place to make mistakes."

In 2022, the Newfoundland and Labrador government opened three satellite nursing sites across the province to increase the number of seats in MUN's nursing program by 25 per cent. The expansion aims to train and retain nurses in rural areas of the province. 

The other satellite sites are in Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor. 

Gillett wanted to be involved with the program when she first heard about it because it is good for her community. 

"We have problems keeping nurses — in rural areas, especially," she said.

"So we really believe that if we train our own, we will be able to maintain the numbers that we need to do the work in the hospitals." 

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