OTTERBURNE, MB — Assiniboine Community College announced yesterday its plan to open another rural rotating site for its Practical Nursing diploma in Otterburne. This program, in partnership with Southern Health-Santé Sud, will be housed on our Providence campus, beginning in September 2022.
Providence President, Kenton Anderson, supports the initiative to train more nurses in Manitoba and to begin addressing the shortage of health care providers in our rural regions. He expressed how pleased our institution is to work alongside of Assiniboine and Southern Health-Santé Sud. “Together we can accomplish more. We are pleased to welcome you to Providence, Assiniboine Community College!”
In addition to our Otterburne location, Assiniboine has opened two other rural sites – one in Arborg and the other in Morden. Each site will have capacity for 25 students. A significant provincial investment in nursing has made this expansion possible.
Advanced Education Minister, Jon Reyes, spoke about how the Manitoba Government has pledged to use $19.5M to add 259 nursing seats to five post-secondary institutes this year, with a multi-year plan to add 400 seats overall.
“Our Skills, Talent and Knowledge Strategy calls for programs to ensure people have more access to post-secondary education in Manitoba in sectors with high labour demand, such as health care,” explained Reyes at yesterday’s press conference. “Assiniboine’s rural rotating nursing sites are an important contributor to the province’s goal of increasing nursing seats in the coming year, and I am confident these programs in Otterburne and Morden will help address the need for nurses in Manitoba.”
Applications for the Practical Nursing diploma (two-years) are open until May 23, 2022. All qualified applications received by the deadline will be assessed for admission. Initially, only those living within the Southern Health-Santé Sud Region will be considered for admission on the Otterburne site.
The demand for Assiniboine nursing graduates continues to be high; 100 per cent of practical nursing graduates surveyed from the 2019-20 academic year said they had jobs, making on average more than $53,000 a year.
Important updates, information, and checklists for prospective applicants are available at assiniboine.net/nursing.
