School of Nursing
Recruitment
Goal: By 2019-20, Indigenous students will make up 19 per cent of the student population. Going into The Coyote Project: Indigenous enrolment was around 13 to 14 per cent between 2012 and 2016.
Completion
Goal: By 2019-20, Indigenous student completion rates will reach 100 per cent.
The School of Nursing is recognized as one of the university programs in Canada that promotes Indigenous and cultural safety. Building on that, the school has initiated a research project called Indigenous Knowledge in Nursing: Coyote’s Teaching. It explores what staff and faculty understand about Indigenous knowledge, how it can be integrated into nursing and what needs to be done to put it into place.
From this four Indigenous learning/professional development sessions are being held: one looking at students, education, their Indigenous knowledge and how it fits in with their learning; the second involving Indigenous research chair Shelly Johnson who will speak to faculty, the third involving racism in health care as a discussion topic in Williams Lake and the fourth is still being planned.
After that, the School of Nursing will go deeper into Indigenous knowledge, research, culture and curriculum revision. Addressing Indigenous health has already been an objective adopted by the school.
Ultimately, the school expects to enhance its teaching and learning environments so Indigenous students feel welcome and non-Indigenous students are more culturally aware. Two students have been hired to help with the work involved in these initiatives and key Indigenous speakers are being brought in.
