Being able to complete a four-year nursing course in Yorkton is an example of how education is changing.
Once achieving a college degree basically meant packing up and moving to a major city for four years, incurring the costs associated with such a move in the process.
For some, the added costs of a living, rent and food, meant the dream of a college degree was just that a dream, one often left unfulfilled.
Distance education, or what now has the trendy designation distributed learning, is improving things.
The four year nursing course, started through a partnership with Parkland College back in 2014, and now enhanced with the official opening of a Nursing Clinical Skills Lab last week, is not unique, but it is an example of what is being done.
Technology is of course at the centre of things when it comes to providing education away from a centralized college location.
The new lab located at the Regional Health Centre in Yorkton has all the resources students and instructors need, including four patient beds, simulation mannequins and various medical devices, giving students the confidence to complete the practical skills they will need during their clinical placements throughout the program, detailed the release. The equipment used in the Yorkton simulation lab is the same as other College of Nursing labs across the province.
Mannequins which can be programmed to mimic various ailments, and video conferencing with instructors not on site have certainly enhanced the learning possibilities for students.
Creating an academic learning lab within the hospital allows for the shared use of Seymour, the remote presence communication robot that was introduced in Sunrise Health Region in 2015.
The video conference and remote presence technology in the new lab can connect professionals together from around the world, creating an opportunity to bring additional expertise to local students.
Seymour is also an example of where rural health care may well be going. As Beth Horsburgh, Interim Dean, College of Nursing suggested it seems only a matter of time before patients are sent home with what would essentially be a personalized Seymour allowing the recovering patient direct access to health care professional via direct video conferencing technology.
During the official opening Friday Horsburgh said the innovative process of providing education in places such as Yorkton, away from the main university college shows just what can be accomplished. She suggested that cutting edge is often thought to be found in big cities such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, but added that is not always the case.
“The solutions the world needs are not found in those cities,” she said, adding they can go beyond health education to encompass health care.
“These are not second class approaches. These are cutting edge,” said Horsburgh picking up on a common thread among remarks. “… We can do amazing things in this province if we are willing to think outside the box.”
That is particularly true in health care, suggested Horsburgh, who noted Saskatchewan is recognized as the birthplace of Medicare, and it can be known for innovative solutions to the challenges facing the health care system today.
“We are in a position to reinvent health care. We did it before. We can do it again,” she said.
Certainly the nursing course shows what is already being made possible, and it certainly stands to reason forward thinking and emerging technology will come together to create new solutions to some long held issues in both education and health.
