The province’s nurses union says some challenges remain with the province’s Nursing School and what jobs nursing graduates are being offered.
President of the Registered Nurses Union, Yvette Coffey says she’s hearing from nursing graduates who are applying for positions in certain areas, but are being offered nursing seats far from home.
“The stories that we hear from students; ‘I applied for St. John’s because I live in St. John’s area, I work as a PCA, or a home car worker or and LPN while I’m going to school, to bridge to do my Bachelor of Nursing, and they’re telling me that I can’t get into St. John’s campus, I actually have to go out to Gander or Grand Falls.'”
“And then I have other students who live in central Newfoundland being told they have to go school in St. John’s, they can’t stay out in central.”
She says the admissions program needs changes.
“The admissions program just does not make sense to me” says Coffey. “I’ve had conversations with my colleagues at the university and the Centre for Nursing Studies, they don’t control the admissions, but there’s something (that’s) got to be done with that.”
“There’s opportunities, but people still can’t even get to the place they want to go to school in.”
Memorial University says:
Memorial follows the same process it always have: students are asked to rank their choices for admission. The highest-qualified candidates will get first preference, and so on. If a student in central requests central as their first choice, they will generally get it, as we strive to give students their preferences.
