Nursing education first offered in 1953

Posted: June 6, 2014 3:26 p.m.

The University is building on its history of offering nursing education in the province. Plans were announced last fall to offer the Collaborative Nurse Practitioner Program for a Master's of Nursing degree, the first collaborative masters program of its kind in Canada. The first students will be enrolled in program in the fall of 2014.
The University is building on its history of offering nursing education in the province. Plans were announced last fall to offer the Collaborative Nurse Practitioner Program for a Master's of Nursing degree, the first collaborative masters program of its kind in Canada. The first students will be enrolled in program in the fall of 2014. Photo: U of R Photography

The creation of the Faculty of Nursing is rooted in University history.

A few nursing classes were first offered at Regina College, the forerunner of the University of Regina, in 1953, duplicating a program offered at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. In 1956-57 a total of 193 nurses received part of their training at Regina College.

Later, there were calls for a complete nursing program in Regina. In 1970 the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association and the Regina Branch of the Association recommended that a bachelor of nursing program be offered at the Regina Campus of the University of Saskatchewan, as the University of Regina was then called.

The brief also called for increased financial support for research in nursing, and increased scholarships, bursary and loan assistance for nursing students. 

Fast forward to 2010; plans were announced for the creation of a Faculty of Nursing at the University of Regina. The first students enrolled in the new Saskatchewan Collaborative Bachelor of Science Nursing program, offered in conjunction with SIAST, in the fall of 2011.

The program was expanded in the fall of 2013, by offering it in Swift Current in conjunction with Great Plains College and the Cypress Health Region.

Another recommendation made the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association in 1970 was a master’s program at the Saskatoon Campus of the University of Saskatchewan. That was created – and students will soon be able to also take a master’s in nursing at the University of Regina.

Plans were announced last fall to offer the Collaborative Nurse Practitioner Program for a Master’s of Nursing degree, the first collaborative masters program of its kind in Canada. The first students will be enrolled in program in the fall of 2014.

For more about the University's forty years of independence visit: www.uregina.ca/external/communications/feature-stories/current/fs-05072014.html