Health region partners with U of S

Sunrise Health Region has entered into a new partnership with the University of Saskatchewan's College of Nursing with the intention of bringing graduate-level educational opportunities to local nurses and improving healthcare practices within the region.

The partnership-the first of its kind in Saskatchewan-is marked by the appointment of College of Nursing professor Dr. Karen Semchuk to the position of Director of Professional Practice at Sunrise. From this newly created office, which is funded by the university and based in Yorkton, Semchuk will oversee the health region's Professional Practice Team: a department concerned with professional development for healthcare providers, improving patient safety, and enhancing clinical standards.

Officials at the partnership announcement on April 12 were vague about the specific initiatives that might result from Semchuk's appointment, but indicated that making graduate nursing courses available in the region is one of the major items on the agenda.

"Those programs will actually be delivered here now, where they were at the university before," said Sunrise Health Region CEO Suann Laurent. "We're going to work out a lot of that, but it's all going to be a lot closer to home for people."

The region believes this "Learn where you live" approach will be a powerful recruitment and retention tool in the future.

Semchuk, in addition to providing resources to help the region's nurses and other healthcare professionals achieve their professional development goals, will continue in her role as a nursing instructor.

"I imagine with the distributed learning approaches that we have, I'll have students here in Yorkton in collaboration with Parkland College, probably, and in Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Regina, La Ronge, and Île-à-la-Crosse, which are the other areas where we have College of Nursing sites right now," Semchuk said.

The Sunrise/university partnership, according to Laurent, is not affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan Master of Nursing degree program recently announced for Parkland College, but it shares that initiative's goals.