Nursing program gets $4.5M shot in arm
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Updated: September 11, 2009 10:56 AM
She talks, she coughs, she reacts to a nursing student’s treatment.
Or in this case to Advanced Education Minister Moira Stilwell’s ministrations as she used her medical skills to check the condition of a $20,000 computerized doll/patient in a new nurse training facility at UFV’s Health Sciences Centre.
The demonstration followed Stilwell’s announcement Wednesday of $4.5 million for an accelerated three-year bachelor of science nursing degree program starting at UFV this year.
“The world is facing a critical shortage of nurses,” Stilwell said. “By giving students options to complete their degrees more quickly, we can have them in the workforce faster and ensure British Columbian receive the health care they need.”
There are 64 students in the existing four-year program at UFV, and 24 more can now be registered in the “fast-track” program, Hannah MacDonald, UFV’s Health Sciences director, said after the Wednesday announcement.
Licenced practical nurses can also enter the new program midway and complete a degree in just two years.
Stilwell, who has a background in radiology and nuclear medicine, said the government is funding “double the number of nurse training spaces” that will add more than 4,000 spaces and produce a record number of graduates.
UFV president Dr. Mark Evered said one of the strengths of the Fraser Valley university is the choice of options it offers nursing students.
“Some students can study year-round to complete in three years, while others may need the four years to accommodate summer work or family obligations,” he said.
The new training facility has six patient bays with life-like computerized dolls that have a pulse, speak, and react to treatments administered by nursing students.
For years the students practiced on classmates or mannequins, but the life-like dolls can simulate conditions ranging from cardiac arrest to an asthma attack.
MacDonald said a higher-level doll costing $80,000 will be used in the lab when it moves to the new campus at the Canada Education Park.
That move won’t happen until the sale of the north campus, which is still the subject of ongoing negotiations, an official at the Chilliwack Economic Partners Corporation said.
B.C. government funding at UFV has totaled almost $61 million since 2001.
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