U of Manitoba nursing students worry strike will keep them from graduating, working
CBC
Nursing students at the University of Manitoba are worried they won't be able to graduate in the spring because their clinical and community rotations have been suspended due to a faculty strike.
Fourth-year students are required to finish 1,450 hours in clinical and community settings in order to graduate with their bachelor of science in nursing and become licensed as a nurse — a requirement set out by the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba.
About 100 fourth-year nursing students are set to graduate in the spring, but their community and clinical placements are now on hold, along with most theory-based courses.
Members of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association — which represents 1,200 professors, instructors, archivists and librarians at the university — hit the picket lines Tuesday morning after contract negotiations reached an impasse.
The faculty association has been fighting for higher wages for its members, arguing that low wages are causing persistent retention and recruitment problems.
The instructors who lead the nursing students are members of the faculty association, according to a university of Manitoba spokesperson.
Manitoba desperately needs new nursing grads, says the head of the U of M Nursing Students' Association.
"I think it's really unfortunate that nursing students aren't able to continue their nursing education in a time when we have a nursing shortage in the province and we're still in the midst of a global pandemic," said Gillian Laninga, who is a third-year nursing student.
The Manitoba Nurses Union has said there are 2,000 vacant nursing positions in the province. The province is spending millions in an attempt to fill the gaps with agency nurses.
Laninga says fourth-year students found out Wednesday their clinical and community placements are on hold. They would normally be doing their community placements now, gaining work experience and practice hours in public schools, seniors' centres and other outreach facilities.
"Like a lot of nursing students, [I'm] just feeling anxious and uncertain about what this really means for the rest of our studies for this semester," she said.
"I also feel for our professors and instructors as well — the situation that they're being put in is frustrating for sure. I do have my full support for UMFA through this time."
The dean of the U of M's college of nursing said the college will "work closely with the students to assist them to complete the program in spring 2022."
"We are committed to ensure students will complete the requirements related to the theory, skills, and clinical courses, in order to progress into the senior practicum," a university spokesperson wrote on behalf of Netha Dyck, the nursing college's dean.
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