Lakehead University announces four-year standalone nursing program for fall 2023

November 29, 2022 – Thunder Bay, Ont.

In fall 2023, Lakehead University will welcome its first cohort of students as it resumes delivery of a standalone Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) program to help address the urgent, growing healthcare needs across the province and specifically in Northern Ontario.

The four-year program will offer a curriculum fully accredited by the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing with a focus on Northern, rural, and Indigenous health issues. The program will integrate high fidelity simulation scenarios, hands-on lab experiences, and clinical experiences in each year, with opportunities in specialty areas such as pediatrics, obstetrics, mental health, complex care of older adults, and community health care settings.

This four-year program provides additional options to students, who can also pursue a BScN in three-years through Lakehead University’s compressed program.

“Our commitment to providing the highest quality nurses in the north is unwavering,” said Dr. Mirella Stroink, Dean of Lakehead University’s Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences. “The resumption of this program will offer us the opportunity to further support Northwestern Ontario’s growing health care and health human resource needs while developing opportunities for tomorrow’s nursing graduates.”

In addition to preparing graduates for a career, the program will also facilitate the pursuit of graduate education through Lakehead’s Masters in Nursing and Masters in Public Health programs, which incorporate various nursing specialties including nurse practitioner and advanced practice nursing.

Lakehead University’s School of Nursing has been a leader in nursing education and scholarship since 1965. The programs are taught by faculty with diverse clinical and research expertise, bridging the theory-to-practice gap that so many new graduates face.

The program will be available to students at Lakehead University’s Thunder Bay campus.

Learn more about this program and how to apply at www.lakeheadu.ca

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Jaclyn Bucik, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at 705-330-4010 ext. 2014 or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.

Lakehead University is a fully comprehensive university with approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and over 2,000 faculty and staff at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead has nine faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, Science & Environmental Studies, and Social Sciences & Humanities. Lakehead University’s achievements have been recognized nationally and internationally, including being ranked in the top half of Times Higher Education's 2023 World Universities Rankings for the fourth consecutive year, and the number one university in the world with fewer than 10,000 students in THE’s 2022 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

Nursing students work in simulation lab with pediatric patient