N.B. nursing students offered financial incentives to study in Maine
CBC
The provincial government hopes a new partnership with Beal University in Bangor, Maine, will see more New Brunswickers trained to become registered nurses sooner and hired to alleviate a critical shortage at home.
Beal has opened up 100 nursing seats specifically for New Brunswick students starting in January, Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Trevor Holder announced on Monday.
The private, for-profit university offers an accelerated 32 months of training instead of the four years currently required for the bachelor of nursing programs offered at the publicly-funded University of New Brunswick and University of Moncton.
The first year of the Beal program is completed online, while the second and third years are a combination of online and in-person classes, and clinical placements will be completed in New Brunswick's health-care system.
The training — an 18-month nursing associate's degree and 14-month bachelor of science in nursing — costs more than $57,000 US, or nearly $79,000 Cdn.
But Beal will offer tuition to New Brunswick students at $42,000 Cdn — a discount of $36,735 Cdn, according to chief operating officer Steve Villett.
It can afford to do that because it will save money with the clinical placements being in New Brunswick, said president Sheryl DeWalt.
The government will also provide students with a $6,000 "incentive grant" to help offset some of the costs associated with studying out of country, such as travel and living expenses, said Holder.
The funding is being offered through a "labour market" budget, available to deal with labour market challenges, he said. "This is clearly one that we have right now in New Brunswick."
As a condition of the grant, students must sign a return-of-service agreement to work as a registered nurse in New Brunswick for at least one year after graduation, said Holder.
"This will significantly increase the educational capacity for New Brunswick nursing students and [potentially] result in even more nurses entering our system in the next few years," he said.
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