Dignitaries, staff and students from USask College of Nursing and Lakeland College gathered at Lakeland’s Lloydminster campus for the announcement, followed by a tour of the Musgrave Agencies Nursing Labs.
Those interested in becoming a registered nurse have a new, local schooling option.
The USask College of Nursing has partnered with Lakeland College to offer its Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program in Lloydminster.
Local nursing instructors will teach the hands-on portion of the degree in the modern Musgrave Agencies Nursing Labs provided by Lakeland College.
“It is an amazing day and I am ecstatic because I personally have spent a long time trying to ensure we would get nursing here at this campus,” said Lakeland College president and CEO Alice Wainwright-Stewart.
“At one point in my career, I thought—’I’m not sure this is ever going to happen,’ but you get the right people in the room and you get the right people thinking and anything can happen.”
Bringing the program to Lakeland has been on the table for more than a decade, so it was an exciting day as Lakeland College and USask students and staff made it official.
Wainwright-Stewart said Lloydminster MLA Colleen Young played a big role in reaching the goal.
“I think probably a catalyst was Colleen. Colleen could see the logic, and she also knew information we didn’t know about where there were other seats in the province, so she could go to bat for Lloydminster.”
The Musgrave family also played a vital role in bringing the BSN to Lakeland, by sponsoring the new nursing labs.
“I also want to say thanks to the Musgraves, their vision has really helped us a lot,” said Wainwright-Stewart.
Currently, there is room for 16 students in the program, but the goal is to increase that number.
“It’s hard to give you hard numbers right now, but absolutely there’s a few factors that we have to take into consideration,” said Dr. Solina Richter, USask College of Nursing dean.
“Lab space is one component, and then also clinical placements. The theoretical piece is, of course, not very difficult because we deliver it via interactive media.”
Nursing students were also on hand at the big announcement. The fact that they can continue their education locally is ideal for third-year nursing student Cassandra Surina.
“It’s really beneficial that I didn’t have to move too far. I’m from the Vermilion area, so I was able to stay close to my family and my friends and complete my degree program at the same time,” said Surina.
“In this program, there’s only about 15 of us in our class, which is really nice. It’s easy to learn and all of our classes are online but we do a lot of them through video conferencing and then we do our labs all in person.”
“All of our instructors are from Lloydminster as well and so they teach us in the lab and then they also teach us in our clinicals in the hospital.”
The first Lakeland College BSN graduates will receive their degrees in 2025.
