Bilingual U of A nursing students touring Lakeland this weekend

Over 20 bilingual health care students will be heading to Elk Point and St. Paul this weekend to experience a rural health care setting, while also getting to see the Lakeland area.

Students from the University of Alberta’s Faculté Saint-Jean, the Centre collégial de l’Alberta, and the Faculty of Nursing, will receive an interactive, skills-based introduction during their tour this weekend. 

The hope by doing this tour is that it will help attract nurses to live and work in the region.

“This is something that we’ve been working on for about two years. So when we attract health professions, and we’re not just looking specifically for physicians, we need the supports around the physicians,” St. Paul Mayor Maureen Miller told Lakeland Connect. 

“The exposure within our hospitals is different from a urban hospital where here they see everything from geriatrics to infants to ER, and in an urban hospital, you might be in a specific area. So exposing what that’s like living and working in a rural community and showcasing our community.” 

St. Paul and Elk Point were chosen, says the Rural Health Professionals Health Plan (RhPAP), because of the multicultural ties of both communities.

Their ‘Lets Go Rural!’ tour will see them arrive Friday night where the ACFA (Association Canadienne Française de l’Alberta) has set up an evening welcome with Francophone musician Jose Piquette.

Beginning Saturday morning, students will tour the St. Paul and Elk Point hospitals, receive a rural mental health presentation, participate in two skills challenges, as well as hear an Indigenous culture presentation and conversation. 

While here, they will be guided through the towns, stopping for meals and seeing the sights, before returning to Campus St. Jean Sunday afternoon. 

“If you’re born and raised in an urban area to understand what this would be like to visualize living and working in rural areas, you really just need to get people here to have a look at it. So I’m very happy for it. I mean, it’s been two years and great partnerships to actually get it off the ground and have it become available,” said Miller. 

Students will be arriving Friday evening at 7:15pm.