‘It starts with 20’: New practical nurse training centre opens in Neepawa, Man.

'It starts with 20. But of course, we know that there is a tremendous need across this province, and the more people we can train, the better it is for our health-care system.'

A new health care-related training centre opened in Neepawa, Man., Monday afternoon, in an effort to address rural staffing shortages.

Assiniboine Community College (ACC) will offer a two-year practical nursing program as the first program hosted by the facility, which used to be an RCMP detachment, adding 25 new seats.

Right now, the community’s mayor, Brian Hedley, said there are 20 students enrolled.

“It is our hope that once the first group graduates, we can offer further sessions for the training of nurses or other post-secondary health-related education, whether it be health-care aides, paramedics, etc.,” Hedley said.

Mark Frison, president of ACC, said this facility will help with training and labour market issues, and was encouraged by the initial response from the community.

“We had over 100 people come out and be interested in taking the program. That’s pretty good. You usually don’t get that many folks,” he said.

However, the applications didn’t materialize and “we were nervous,” he said, adding it took sustained focus and effort to get to where the facility is now.

“We’ve all got to be realistic about what the path is there,” Frison said.