Assiniboine offers next round of practical nurse training

Practical nursing students are wanted for the next round of training being offered by Assiniboine College in Steinbach this fall and Neepawa in January 2027.

There are 25 seats available for the two-year diploma program in each of those communities.

The practical nursing diploma is Assiniboine’s single largest program, with the college delivering nursing education in 11 communities across Manitoba, including permanent sites in Brandon, Winnipeg, Dauphin and Portage la Prairie, the college said in a news release.

Twenty nursing students have been taking their training in Neepawa since Jan. 8, 2024, in a building that was once the community’s RCMP detachment. It was refurbished to fit the needs of classroom and lab instruction, with experiences that will prepare the students for clinical placements.

The grand opening was held two weeks after classes started with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, Advanced Education and Training Minister Renée Cable, Neepawa Mayor Brian Hedley and Assiniboine College president Mark Frison.

When people take a course where they live, they are more likely to stay and work in that community, which will help regional health authorities, hospitals and other health-care facilities with recruiting and retaining nurses, Frison said.

“Rural sites, like these in Steinbach and Neepawa, are integral to our mission to meet provincial and regional health-care needs,” he said.

“We’re looking forward to bringing this program to those in the Steinbach area, and back to Neepawa — both growing communities with growing health-care needs,” Frison said in the release.

Cable said she is thrilled to see the program continuing in Neepawa, adding he was delighted being at the grand opening in 2024.

“Our government is focused on improving health care, and we know that starts with ensuring there are sufficient nurses and other health-care workers ready to fill those roles. I look forward to seeing students in the Steinbach community take hold of this opportunity,” Cable said in the release.

Assiniboine’s rural rotating practical nursing program has existed for more than a decade. The college will rent regional sites to hold classes for a year or two and then move to other locations.

Steinbach and Neepawa are included in the college’s rural rotating program, along with Virden, Morden, Otterburne, Arborg and Beausejour.

Some rural rotating sites will see more than one intake, a college spokesperson told the Sun.

“Virden and Arborg are examples of rural rotating sites where we offered two intakes back to back — a September 2022 and September 2024 start date in those cases,” the spokesperson said.

In the last decade, said Frison, more than 1,500 nursing students have graduated.

The provincial government announced it had hired 481 nurses for hospitals across Manitoba during a news conference held Feb. 7 at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg.

Five days later, the Manitoba Nurses Union released a report that found vacancy rates were up to 21 per cent last summer, a jump from 16 per cent in the summer of 2020.

The union acknowledged those numbers may be improving, but noted overtime exceeded 1.1 million hours in 2024, up from 800,000 in 2021.

At the same time, the province spent $75 million for private-agency nurses to fill 1.2 million nursing hours.

Applications are now being accepted for the two-year practical nursing program that will be offered in Neepawa and Steinbach. For more information, including educational requirements, call the Assiniboine College School of Nursing at 204-694-7111.

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com, with files from Kevin Rollason/Winnipeg Free Press

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