The University College of the Fraser Valley is responding to the growing need for more health care workers by adding a one-year Practical Nursing certificate program to its roster of health science program offerings.

UCFV already offers a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree (which leads to licensing as Registered Nurse), a 24-week Resident Care Attendant program, and a one-year Certified Dental Assisting certificate. Graduates of the 12-month Practical Nursing program will be eligible to write the Licensed Practical Nurse exam.

"The LPN role has been utilized in more settings and greater numbers over the past five years, making the opportunities for people with this education very significant," says UCFV Health Sciences program head Wanda Gordon. "We're very happy to be able to offer this program in the Fraser Valley so that people will no longer have to travel to Vancouver or the Okanagan to earn this credential."

The Practical Nursing program offered at UCFV will include clinical, classroom, and laboratory components. Clinical practicum experiences will be threaded throughout the 12-month program, according to Nursing program coordinator Hannah MacDonald. "We'll follow the principle that students will get as much clinical hands-on experience as possible," she says.

The curriculum will cover theory and skills related to activities such as bathing patients, changing dressings, giving oral and injectable medications, and assessing stable patients. Students will have opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills in hospitals and community care facilities.

Gordon notes that the health system has responded to the growing shortage of registered nurses partly by adopting a staff mix model that "uses each type of health care worker to the full scope of what they have been educated for."

One of the main differences between the duties of registered nurses and licensed practical nurses, according to Gordon and MacDonald, is the level of "complexity and acuity" of nursing care required by patients they deal with.

Gordon reports that representatives of Fraser Valley health care facilities are "very pleased" that the program will now be offered locally.

Debbie McGimpsey is an LPN with more that 20 years of experience who works at Chilliwack General Hospital. She's also a member of the advisory committee for the new Practical Nursing program at UCFV.

She has experienced a major change in the role of LPNs as only "acutely ill" people are admitted to hospital now.

"We're now performing duties that were never part of our scope of practice before, working in a team with RNs, but I'm happy that our bedside role is still there: we're still working very closely with patients."

She says it's "really exciting" that the training she had to travel to the Okanagan for will now be offered locally. "It's possible for young people without ties to relocate to go to school, but having the program here will open it up for people with families and commitments who can't travel, but who have great potential."

The Practical Nurse program will be offered starting this September at the UCFV Chilliwack campus, with clinical placements throughout the Fraser Valley. For more information call UCFV Health Sciences at 604-795-2817.