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B.C. funds 602 new seats at post-secondary institutions to address nursing shortage

The province is funding an additional 602 new nursing seats at post-secondary institutions to deal with the shortage in nurses in B.C.
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FILE 鈥 Registered nurse Dana Pagazzi receives supplies as she attends to a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at Surrey Memorial Hospital in Surrey, B.C., Friday, June 4, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

The province is funding an additional 602 new nursing seats at post-secondary institutions to deal with the shortage in nurses in B.C.

In a Sunday (Feb. 20) press release, the province said that the 602 seats are in addition to the about 2,000 already in existence. The new seats include 362 registered nursing seats, 40 registered psychiatric nursing seats, 20 nurse practitioner seats and 180 licensed practical nursing seats across 17 post-secondary institutions.

Some of the news seats will also support health-care assistants who want to train as licensed practical nurses and licensed practical nurses who want to train as registered nurses.

B.C. Nurses鈥 Union president Aman Grewal called the new nursing seats a 鈥減romising鈥 step.

鈥淣urses staffing levels were already critical before the pandemic, responsible for creating cracks in the system that have only deepened,鈥 Grewal said at a provincial press conference Sunday.

鈥淣ow, our nurses are tired, they are burnt out and they need more support.鈥

Grewal said that even in spring 2021, 76 per cent of nurses said their workload had increased since before the pandemic and that 51 per cent of ICU and emergency room nurses said that their pandemic experience made them likely to leave nursing in the next two years.

鈥淲hat we need is more nurses,鈥 she added.

The new nursing seats are part of the province鈥檚 StrongerBC鈥檚 Economic Plan, which was released last week.

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katya.slepian@bpdigital.ca

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