Student Experience

Gain hands-on experience

The Practical Nursing program at the Pembroke Campus focuses on real-life experiences, with students spending hundreds of hours in clinical settings such as hospitals and homes for the aged. With the support of faculty and health-care preceptors, students are offered mentorship during their training and receive active feedback. Students also participate in extended lab exercises, where they use role-playing and simulated patients to reinforce what they are learning through textbooks and their professors.

Learn from professionals

All of the faculty who teach the core nursing classes have worked as nurses. They draw on these experiences to better prepare students for their clinical placements and provide guidance and timely feedback that allow students to deepen their understanding of patient care.

In a recent nationwide review of health services in Canadian communities, MacLean’s magazine ranked Pembroke fourth in Canada out of 415 municipalities for best communities with health care. Read the Best communities in Canada for great health care 2019 article.

Gain hands-on experience in the field

Students in this program gain hundreds of hours of practical learning experiences within the nursing field. These workplace experiences deepen the learning that occurs in the classroom and allows students to make valuable connections with employers. This further supports the development of students and enhances their employment prospects upon graduation. Students also have the opportunity to collaborate with students from other programs during an Interprofessional Mock Critical Incident Training Exercise on campus. Our students in the Practical Nursing, Police Foundations, Personal Support Worker, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Environmental Technician, Applied Nuclear Science and Radiation Safety, and Social Service Worker experience what it’s like to work collaboratively in a mock emergency situation. This exercise looks very real with student actors playing the role of victims, while other students actively participate as first responders to an emergency situation. Experiential learning at its best!

Mock Disaster Scenario Training Goals:

• Participate in a simulated inter-professional practice activity.
• Recognize facilitators and barriers to team effectiveness within a simulated inter-professional practice activity.
• Describe how professional roles and relationships affect the capacity for interprofessional practice within a simulated health care setting.
• Discuss the effects of relational communication and conflict within a simulated inter-professional practice activity.
• Apply a summative evaluation framework to simulated inter-professional practice activity.
• Prepare for the pre-graduate consolidation experience.

Graduates are in high demand

An ageing population and a greater emphasis on health care have led to a growing demand for health care workers such as Practical Nurses. You will find them in many settings, including hospitals, seniors’ facilities, and health-care agencies that provide home-care programs. Our health-care partners throughout Renfrew County support clinical placements as a way to get to know students that may help fill their hiring needs.

“Congratulations to nursing student Rachel Recoskie for being recognized as a Guardian Angel. With Rachel’s graduation day right around the corner, a patient wanted to thank her for being so giving!”

-St. Francis Valley Healthcare Foundation, placement provider for our Practical Nursing students