Nov. 19, 2021

With looming shortages of nurses and a new appreciation of the critical role they play in health care, Seneca is launching an honours nursing degree program next fall.

The new program comes on the heels of the province’s recent decision to allow publicly assisted colleges to offer stand-alone nursing degrees, giving nursing students more choice.

“The pandemic has shone a light on the critical need for nurses,” said Maria May, a registered nurse and Dean of the Faculty of Applied Arts & Health Sciences. “Seneca will be able to support this need with our own degree.”

Seneca has been offering nursing education for more than 50 years, including a collaborative nursing degree with York University since 1997. The new degree program will create a pathway for Seneca’s Practical Nursing graduates to enter directly into third year of the degree.

“This is very exciting for us,” Ms. May said. “Our graduates will now have the opportunity to do their bridging program right here at Seneca.”

With the opening of Magna Hall at King Campus in 2018, Ms. May says the vision has always been to offer a nursing degree that complements seven other degree programs in the Faculty of Applied Arts & Health Sciences.

“We have a state-of-the-art facility,” she said. “Our patient care rooms and simulation rooms are second to none.”

In addition to the pathway opportunity, Seneca’s nursing degree will have added features embedded in the curriculum to help students succeed upon graduation, including lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.

These include an infectious disease and immunology course, a course dedicated to aging population and a national exam preparation course in the final year.

“As the scope of nursing practice changes, our curriculum changes accordingly,” said Sharon Cassar, a registered nurse and Chair of Seneca's School of Nursing.

And there may be more changes on the horizon.

Currently in Ontario, registered nurses are not permitted to diagnose a medical condition or prescribe drugs. With amendments to the Nursing Act in 2017, the College of Nurses of Ontario is working on the framework required to allow registered nurses to begin prescribing.

“We are preparing our graduates to have increased knowledge in the area of clinical reasoning, pathophysiology and pharmacology to better prepare them for the future of nursing,” Ms. Cassar said. “And we anticipate many of our Practical Nursing graduates will take advantage of the new pathway to enter the degree program. That, to me, is the real game changer.”