Nurses, faculty concerned about closure of Regina nursing program campus

Concern is being expressed over the discontinuation of the University of Saskatchewan’s Regina nurse training program.

New students are not being accepted to the program and the Regina campus will close in 2024 once the current class graduates. The Regina faculty is feeling disheartened.

“We feel that we are going to lose a lot of hard fought ground in terms of our clinical placements and opportunities for learning in the Regina and surrounding areas,” Kathy Rodger, an associate professor with the University of Saskatchewan, said.

The campus has room for over 100 nursing students but only half the seats were filled this fall.

The University is expected to redistribute the Regina training seats through a new campus in Lloydminster and other unspecified locations. Graduates of the Regina program believe it will make nurse recruitment more difficult in the south.

“Men and women take their training from the southern part, that they like, to stay in the Regina area and that they’ll often come back to these rural areas to nurse,” Trina Korbo, a nurse, said.

One former student who left the Regina program believes the U of S would do well to focus on its Saskatoon campus.

“One of my girlfriends who was in the program in Regina had transferred over to the Saskatoon campus and she said that it was completely different there,” former student Ashley Dick said.

NDP leader Ryan Meili is critical of the move.

“We have a nursing shortage. We are going around the world asking people to come here and do nursing. We’ve got Saskatchewan people who are ready, able and willing to be trained. Let’s keep those spaces open,” Meili said.

Regina will retain another nurse training program through the U of R and Sask. Polytech and the provincial government is satisfied that the total number of training seats in the province will remain the same.