Manitoba government investing in over 250 nurse training seats in post-secondary schools

The Manitoba government is working on getting more people into nursing programs in the province.

Premier Heather Stefanson, along with Skills and Immigration Minister Wayne Ewasko and Health and Seniors Care Minister Audrey Gordon, announced Wednesday the province is investing $19.5 million to add 259 new nurse training seats in five post-secondary schools in Manitoba.

The schools would include:

· 15 new seats for combined bachelor of nursing and licensed practical nursing seats at Universite de Saint-Boniface;

· 55 licensed practical nursing seats at Assiniboine Community College in Portage la Prairie;

· 32 registered nursing and registered psychiatric nursing seats at Brandon University;

· 120 registered nursing seats at the University of Manitoba; and

· 37 seats at University College of the North.

Manitoba post-secondary institutions currently have over 800 nursing seats and the province said the 259 new seats are part of the government's commitment to adding 400 seats as part of a multi-year plan.

"We know that this pandemic has put an enormous strain on our nurses and our health-care system," said Stefanson.

"We believe it is important to offer programs closer to home. This not only increases access to opportunities for students but also supports health-care facilities in communities who recruit graduates of these programs."

“We know additional seats are required to ensure we support the labour needs of our health care system, and the addition of these seats builds on other commitments to address the nursing shortage in Manitoba,” said Gordon. “This includes recent incentives to increase intensive care unit nurse capacity, supporting internationally educated nurse applicants to begin practising in Manitoba, introducing the province’s first undergraduate nursing employee program and adding 60 new full-time nursing positions to ICUs at Grace, St. Boniface and Health Sciences Centre hospitals in Winnipeg and in Brandon.”

Dr. Sophie Bouffard, president of Université de Saint-Boniface, said the school is excited to receive some of this investment.

“This investment will allow us to increase program seats by 30 per cent in our bachelor of nursing program and by 50 per cent in our practical nursing diploma program. This new source of financial support will strengthen USB’s ability to produce a greater number of top-quality bilingual graduates that are highly trained to meet the health needs of Manitoba’s general population in addition to those of Manitoba’s Francophone communities – a unique and significant response to the shortage of registered and practical nurses in the province which the Government of Manitoba aims to combat.”

The province said these new seats are scheduled to be in place this year.