SYDNEY — Cape Breton University has extended the deadline for applications to the nursing program for Indigenous and Black students to midnight Friday.
CBU announced in February 2020 that it would double the capacity for the popular nursing program, expanding to 142 seats spread over two intakes. This May will be the first time the program has a spring cohort.
Nursing program director Willena Nemeth said the proposal to the provincial government for the increased seats specified a strong focus on Indigenous and Black students and the result has been a doubling of seats put aside for those demographics, from 10 to 20.
Nemeth says the program is very competitive and in the past, the university typically received roughly 350 applicants for the 70 seats. But with the announcement of the additional seats, applications went up to 700 for September.
She says they were able to fill the new May cohort from the waitlist from the September applications.
But Nemeth says the seats specified for Indigenous and Black students have never been completely filled due to a lack of applications, something she's hoping to change this year by extending the deadline.
"This is something that's been identified with our provincial government partners in education and health, the need to diversify the nursing profession, and ways to support, encourage and actively inform African Nova Scotian and Indigenous students who may have an interest in coming into health care," said Nemeth.
"The reason for that, of course, is the more diversity we have, the more comfortable our diverse population will feel as they access health care and they bring that diversity and that understanding of their culture and ways of knowing to the workplace, which also educates others that they work with."
L'nu and Black students must self-identify on their application to be considered for the designated seats. Those that meet the minimum requirements for the program are ranked to fill the seats, rather than being ranked amongst all of the applicants.
Nemeth says there's been an effort to Indigenize the program's curriculum and incorporate a two-eyed seeing approach, which brings Western science and traditional Mi'kmaq knowledge together.
Gail Tomblin Murphy oversees the nursing program for Nova Scotia Health and says these designated seats are an important step to ensuring that the nursing workforce represents our province.
"We know from evidence that nurses who are trained in their communities tend to stay in their communities and this can lead to building that capacity around a stronger nursing workforce and nurse leaders in communities, and I think CBU definitely has had great examples of the impact of their program and what can happen in communities in the eastern zone," said Tomblin Murphy.
Ardelle Reynolds is an Indigenous Affairs reporter at the Cape Breton Post.
