Business Beat: MHC expands rural nursing partnership

By Dr. Harrison Applin on November 4, 2020.

As a leader in the health field, I’ve learned that partnerships are an effective way to serve Albertans and increase the sustainability of education.

The Medicine Hat College will be using this business model again in the near future to benefit the province as a whole, and our region.

I’m happy to say that rural Albertans who live outside the major grids of Calgary and Edmonton will soon have the opportunity to participate in Bachelor of Nursing Education via MHC’s expanding rural nursing partnership model.

Wainwright is the next community to benefit.

In this venture, MHC will collaborate with the University of Calgary, the community and municipality of Wainwright, Alberta Health Services, and the Canadian Military Medical System at CFB Wainwright.

The outcome will be a stronger workforce and better access to health care.

This is important work. Alberta’s economy benefits from rural Alberta, and we need to ensure that people and employees living outside of urban settings receive access to the services they need.

In Medicine Hat, we’ve seen first hand the benefits of collaboration. Partnerships allow people in our region to complete a nursing degree close to home. This improves access to education while also developing a rural workforce that AHS need to deliver health services to our families and neighbours.

It is clear to MHC that rural, regional and remote areas differ from metropolitan communities. In response, the partnership for rural sustainability evolved to provide nursing education to a cohort of students from the Wainwright area in Fall 2021.

Similarly, Wainwright is experiencing declines in the availability of Health Care Aids. Our School of Health and Community Services is responding by supporting a HCA cohort of up to 24 students in collaboration with AHS starting this January.

MHC will continue to facilitate and bring our well established evidence-based health programs, such as the Bachelor of Nursing and the HCA program to rural communities through a rural post secondary service delivery model.

This business model works for the college. Local program benefit as we enhance and sustain other regions throughout the province to promote a healthier Alberta with excellence in care from the profession of nursing.