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McMaster, Mohawk and Conestoga collaborate, students study at the school of their choice

Trio unites on nursing degree

Nursing education doesn't get any better than that found at a trio of southern Ontario schools.

DAVID CHILTON

[ 2007-10-03 ]

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The Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing has awarded McMaster University and Mohawk College in Hamilton, and Kitchener's Conestoga College a seven-year accreditation -- the highest recognition it can confer.

The three schools work collaboratively and graduates of each earn a McMaster Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. Schools of nursing must be accredited by the CASN for their graduates to be eligible to write registration exams.

Catherine Tompkins, associate dean of Nursing at McMaster and the director of the consortium, says the CASN sent an accreditation team of four to Mac, Mohawk and Conestoga to assess their academics, labs and physical space, and conduct interviews with faculty and students. The three schools learned they had aced the accreditation assessment this summer.

"There are different levels of accreditation," Tompkins says. "We're very pleased with the seven-year accreditation."

She says one of the advantages of working collaboratively is that students don't have to travel to receive university-level instruction in nursing, sciences and elective courses; McMaster's faculty goes to them.

Many nursing students in Ontario still study the "two plus two" way. For instance, Seneca nursing students spend the first two years of their studies there, then transfer to York University for the final two. At Humber College, nursing students spend all four years there, but use the University of New Brunswick's primary care curriculum and receive a UNB degree.

The collaborative program began in 2001, Tompkins says, following a Queen's Park directive that wanted colleges and universities to integrate their approach to education.

McMaster and Mohawk working together was a no-brainer, but Tompkins notes Conestoga approached the university because of its group teaching methods. After all, she says, the Kitchener college could have gone to the University of Western Ontario in London for its nursing requirements. McMaster has a reputation for innovative teaching -- for example, Harvard Medical School has copied Mac's methods.

Lois Gaspar, Conestoga's chair of Nursing Programs, says achieving the seven-year accreditation demonstrates the program's high standard and the schools' commitment to institutional co-operation.

Earning a McMaster nursing degree isn't easy. The high school average cutoff is 85% at the university, Tompkins says. "We traditionally have had a very good pool of applicants (at the university and colleges)," she says. Similarly, she says the applicants at the colleges she works with are much better.

At McMaster some 650 to 700 would-be nurses apply for a place in the four-year program, with an average of 100 accepted each year.

Such is the value of the seven-year accreditation Tompkins says, that McMaster is using it in the university's recruiting material and on its website.

Gaspar says Conestoga may use the recognition to show potential students the quality found at the college, but in no way will it become the last word for the school.

In education you never say there's no room to improve, she says, and you can never rest on your laurels.

As for any friendly -- or even not so friendly -- rivalry that may crop up among the schools, Gaspar is sanguine. She says the students themselves already decide on their choice of school.

And anyway, "We tend to collaborate rather than compete. We try to share as much as compete."