Distance learning targets RPN shortage

Sault College and the Blind River District Health Centre have found a creative way to relieve the shortage of registered practical nurses (RPN) affecting smaller communities in Northern Ontario.

Unable to recruit sufficient RPNs for the Blind River District Health Centre, chief nursing officer Mary Ellen Luukkanen pitched Sault College on the idea of creating a distance education program using videoconferencing technology.

"When I came to Blind River three years ago, I interviewed all of my staff to get to know them," said Luukkanen. "We talked about their career goals and I recognized then that a number of them wanted to do more, but couldn't leave the community because of family obligations and work."

Personal support workers and clerical staff at the Health Centre, as well as other residents of the community with families and jobs couldn't afford to commute or move to Sault Ste. Marie or Sudbury for the two years it would take to complete an RPN program in the city, so a distance program was a perfect solution.

"I was associate dean of health at Sault College prior to coming to Blind River, so I called my former colleague, Fran Rose, the dean of health, and said, here's what I'm thinking," said Luukkanen.


Pilot program

A pilot program was launched in September 2009 with 16 students from Blind River, Thessalon and Elliot Lake. The students sit in on lectures using videoconferencing studios in their respective communities and come together in Blind River every Monday for clinical labs with a high-fidelity simulator and live lectures by Sault College instructors and RNs from the Blind River District Health Centre who have been hired by the college to serve as part-time clinical faculty.

Training RPNs from Blind River and nearby communities will make it easier for health-care facilities in the region to recruit the skilled help they need, and will also help with retention.

"I am sometimes able to recruit RPNs from outside the region, but they stay for a while and then leave for another job in their own community," said Luukkanen.

Most of the students in the distance learning program can look forward to summer employment opportunities at health-care facilities in Blind River, Thessalon and Elliot Lake, and Luukkanen is confident that all of them will find permanent employment in the region when they graduate in the spring of 2011.

"Between the three sites, I don't see them having any issues getting jobs," she said. "We're also trying to do some succession planning because the workforce is starting to age and it's hard to develop new programs or look at new opportunities for health-care delivery when you can't find staff."

Sault College dean of health Fran Rose is aware of other colleges offering practical nursing programs at satellite campuses, but doesn't know of any other RPN programs using videoconferencing technology.

Rose described the shortage of RPNs in Northern Ontario's smaller communities as a crisis. Colleges across the province are struggling to meet the demand, she said.

"We have a lot of applicants, but finding a practical nursing program in the province that isn't full is a challenge. The distance learning program exists to educate students who live in those communities, but we have students who are actually moving to the community in order to access a seat."

The Blind River District Health Centre and Sault College received a grant of $41,046 form the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' Rural Economic Development Program to assist with the development of the distance learning program.


www.brdhc.on.ca
www.saultc.on.ca