By Ian Ross
The demand for nurses has never been higher in Canada.
With the gap between supply and demand for nurses expected to balloon to 78,000 by 2011, it's a job hunter's market for Lakehead University students.
"Any one of our graduates that wants to be employed, can be employed," says Karen Poole, director of Lakehead's 600-student School of Nursing.
"There are vacancies across the country and our graduates are being sought after by other countries as well."
Although the need for nurses outstrips the ability of post-secondary schools to provide them, there are limitations for Lakehead. Their intake of students in limited by the number of clinical placements they can find for students.
"There's far more demand than we can actually accommodate," says Poole. "But because clinical placements are an important segment of the nursing education, we are limited by how many students we can place within Thunder Bay for first three years."
Queen's Park has invested heavily in nursing programs, promising all 2007 nursing graduates will find employment in Ontario.
With the average age of a Lakehead nursing class is in the mid to late-20s, many now view the profession as viable career choice.
The pay is nothing to sneeze at either. According to the Ontario Nurses' Association salary grid, starting salaries for Registered nurses range between $23.80 and $26.80 an hour.
Easily the most popular program is their four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing offered with Confederation College with space for 110 students.
About half of their students come from northwestern Ontario with the rest arriving across Canada, plus a few international students as well.
Upon graduation, most return to their home communities in Ontario and across Canada to work in hospitals, chronic and long-term care facilities. Some move into community health units or positions in various Aboriginal health care organizations.
A few explore U. S. opportunities by writing individual state board examinations.
By fourth year, students can select their own clinical placements. A few have headed for Bermuda, South America and some of the poorest regions of India.
"We provide them with the opportunity to experience health care and the role of the nurse within another country with different population and health needs," says Poole. "That adds to everyone's experience in our curriculum because these students come back to share their experiences with their peers."
