Future nurses in B.C.’s Interior will now have more options to get their education closer to home and closer to their families with the addition of 24 local first-year student spaces.
Thanks to a collaborative partnership between Okanagan College (OC) and the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus (UBCO), nursing students now will have the option to complete the first half of the four-year bachelor of science in nursing program at the college. Students will then join other third-year nursing students at UBCO, where they will complete their degree requirements together. This program means that, starting in 2015, up to 134 nursing students will graduate from UBCO each year.
This partnership provides students with more choices for nursing education - and another choice of where they can receive this education. It’s also an investment into a priority health-education program that will result in jobs and will benefit British Columbians now and in the future.
The Province is providing the post-secondary institutions with a combined $2 million in startup funding to get the program up and running this September. The ministry will also provide ongoing funding to support the additional student enrolment.
Since 2001 the Province has invested more than $200 million through the BC Nursing Strategy to educate, recruit and retain nurses.