Alberta Health Services (AHS) and Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP) have signed an agreement that they say will benefit nursing students, nursing staff and healthcare as a whole. 

Under the agreement, AHS nurses can take on RDP clinical instructor placements on a temporary basis when RDP is unable to recruit a qualified instructor. This joint appointment fills RDP’s need for instructors while students are completing their placements and, at the same time, enables AHS to preserve its valuable and experienced nurses.

“There is significant demand for registered nurses across the province and the Government of Alberta has responded with an investment for more post-secondary spaces to teach them,” says Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Health and MLA for Red Deer North.

The Myron Thompson Health Centre in Sundre will be the first site to host the new agreement, which began this past September. Students in their third year of a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at RDP have taken a three-month clinical placement in Sundre under the instruction of an AHS registered nurse recruited by RDP.

RDP says it has created 192 more spaces in its nursing program through 2022-2025 as part of the Government of Alberta’s investment in more seats for post-secondary programs across the province.

 “When we are deciding which rural healthcare sites can accommodate nursing students’ clinical placements, it hinges on providing a qualified instructor to guide these registered nurses in-the-making,” says Carolyn Trumper, AHS Executive Director of Integrated Quality Management, Professional Practice & Education, Planning & Performance and Clinical Information Systems. “We are grateful to our RDP partners for having worked with us to find an agreement of mutual benefit. This is truly a win-win situation for rural acute care sites, students, post-secondary and communities.”