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Education/training

Bridging program for RPMs

This year marks the start of a new bridging program at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) for registered practical nurses who want to become RNs.

DAVID CHILTON

[ 2005-10-19 ]

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There are 36 students in the first class, 35 women and one man, in the two-course bridging program that runs until December. In January, the students will then be slowly integrated into regular RN studies at UOIT.

Mary-Jean McGraw, an academic associate and a teacher in the bridging program at the Oshawa university, says the courses are a chance for the RPNs to see if the pursuit of a nursing degree is a career move they want to make. (Beginning this year all registered nurses must have a degree -- the BScN.)

"Many of them (RPNs) have families, they have work situations they want to maintain just for financial support, and this is a big step for them to make," McGraw says.

"Many of them are more mature and so for them it's a challenge coming into a university setting. They've been in community college but the expectation is a little bit higher when they get to the university setting in terms of the kinds of academic material they'll be dealing with."

The two bridging courses are offered one day a week -- on Tuesdays -- from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. The program was designed that way to minimize the disruption of the RPNs' routines, McGraw says. Following the completion of the two courses, students can opt for full-time or part-time study. McGraw says it will take a full-time student about three years to finish her degree. Part-timers will need five to six years to get their BScN.

The 36 students in this first class are mixture of ages, experience and backgrounds. Some are in their 20s and others in their late 40s or early 50s. A couple of them were RNs before emigrating here and want to return to the sort of job they held before coming to Canada.

As UOIT is a "laptop" university, McGraw says one of the things these students will have to master is the computer. They will use them in the courses to study, to discuss certain topics, to send in assignments and, of course, to consult their instructors -- including McGraw -- by e-mail. The cost of the bridging program is $1,285. That includes the laptop, software, computer support and so on. Full-time costs are $6,000 a year; part-time study is pro-rated.

Gertrude McMaster is an RPN who graduated from Sir Sandford Fleming College in Peterborough in 2004. She says she's taking the bridging program to upgrade her qualifications to move ahead in her career. There are also economic reasons for the switch, McMaster continues, explaining there are opportunities for RNs in the Peterborough area, where she and her husband have a farm. UOIT also credits her two years in college, says McMaster. If she had enrolled in the BScN program at Trent University in Peterborough she would have started from scratch.

Jessica Scala also graduated as an RPN in 2004 -- from Durham College, UOIT's campus mate in Oshawa. Scala, who will study full time starting next year, wants to become an RN so she can travel and use her skills overseas. As a registered nurse there are more opportunities to go abroad, she says, and work for organizations such as the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

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