The province is introducing a new program to help attract more students to consider a career in nursing.

Starting this September, students will be able to avail of a new tuition relief program at select campuses.

The province has set aside more than $2 million over a two-year period for students who are starting the first year of a nursing program.

Eligible students will be able to receive up to $8,000 in tuition relief during the first two years of their schooling.

The funding is being provided to select post-secondary institutions to help reduce the cost of tuition for those students.

Among the eligible programs and institutions are the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at satellite sites in Gander, Grand Falls-Windsor and Happy Valley-Goose Bay, as well as the practical nursing programs at the Centre for Nursing Studies and College of the North Atlantic.

Health Minister Tom Osborne was expected to elaborate on the new program during a news conference today.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen nurses from Jamaica will soon be working in the province.

Since arriving in May, the 13 nurses have been bridging the training they received in Jamaica as enrolled assistant nurses.

On Monday, they will begin two weeks of supervised clinical practice in long-term care within the eastern urban zone in St. John’s, followed by six weeks working side-by-side with licensed practical nurses from the city to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, after which they will be employed as LPNs.

Joanne Pelley, vice-president and chief nursing information officer with NL Health Services, says plans are underway to recruit more nurses from Jamaica.

The 13 will join the approximately 450 internationally-educated nurses now in the province’s health care system.