Lakehead University and Seven Generations Education Institute join forces to deliver nursing entry program
(July 23, 2019) / KENORA: Lakehead University and Seven Generations Education Institute (SGEI) are partnering this September to deliver the All Nation Nurses Entry Program (ANNEP), a nine-month certificate program designed to encourage Treaty Three members to pursue careers as Registered Nurses while remaining in their communities.
The program, open to Indigenous and non-Indigenous applicants, provides students with the prerequisites needed to enter a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) Program.
“Travelling far away from home to complete a program like this serves as a huge barrier for our learners,” says Brent Tookenay, CEO of Seven Generations Education Institute. “Opening doors to a rewarding career that starts in a student’s own community provides opportunities they may otherwise not have pursued.”
“We would like to see an increased number of Indigenous nurses working in Northwestern Ontario,” says Karen McQueen, Lakehead University Associate Professor and Director of the School of Nursing. “We hope that this program welcomes more Indigenous learners into the BScN program and the nursing workforce.”
The curriculum for the program is based on Lakehead University’s Native Nurses Entry Program and attempts to address Indigenous health and education inequities. It directly responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Call to Action 23 of increasing the number of Aboriginal professionals working in the health-care field.
The ANNEP program is being delivered at Lakehead's Thunder Bay campus and SGEI’s Fort Frances, Kenora and Sioux Lookout campuses via telepresence technology.
For more information on the ANNEP program or to apply online, visit www.7generations.org.
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About Lakehead University
Lakehead University has approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and 2,000 faculty and staff in 10 faculties at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead is a fully comprehensive university: home to Ontario’s newest Faculty of Law in 44 years, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and faculties of Engineering, Business Administration, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Social Sciences & Humanities, Science & Environmental Studies, Natural Resources Management, Education, and Graduate Studies. Maclean’s 2019 University Rankings place Lakehead University among Canada's Top 10 primarily undergraduate universities and in 2018 Research Infosource named Lakehead Research University of the Year in its category for the fourth consecutive year. Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.
About Seven Generations Education Institute
Seven Generations Education Institute (SGEI) is a not-for-profit educational organization that provides secondary, adult education, post-secondary, pre-employment, school board support, language, and cultural programming to all First Nations, Metis and non-Aboriginal people in the Treaty 3 area. With main campuses in Fort Frances and Kenora, Ontario, satellite offices in surrounding First Nations communities, and a post-secondary student support office in Thunder Bay, Ontario, SGEI aims to provide community-based and student-centred learning opportunities for everyone.