Thursday, February 4th 2010

By selma al-samarrai

Representatives from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents approximately 9,000 college teachers, have recently announced that if they do not reach an agreement regarding issues such as salary increases and protection of academic freedoms with Colleges Ontario by Feb.11, they will go on strike. A strike jeopardizes the continuation of the current semester for about 500,000 full-time and part-time college students throughout Ontario.

Since January 2005, all new Registered Nurses in Ontario had to have a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN), meaning that colleges had to partner with universities to create a collaborative program. The potential strike will therefore affect a larger population than just college students, but would extend to certain students in the McMaster BScN program.

At McMaster University, the collaborative BScN program is offered through a partnership between McMaster, Mohawk College in Hamilton, and Conestoga College in Kitchener. The McMaster BScN curriculum is offered in all three schools, and McMaster grants the degree upon completion. Transfer between the three post-secondary institutions for students completing the program is not permitted due to the difference in funding mechanisms.

According to the McMaster’s school of nursing website, there are some Health Sciences courses that are offered to both McMaster University and Mohawk College students, but not to Conestoga students because of the distance between Kingston and Hamilton.

At Mohawk College, there are nine units of elective courses offered for this program.

At Conestoga, students are able to complete the full four-year, two-semester program on their campus.

Kaitlan Whalen, a second year student completing the Bachelors Science in Nursing program, expressed frustration at the potential strike, “Obviously I think it’s unfair if they do cancel classes, we’re still paying for it. It’s unfair that we would have to teach ourselves. I hope it doesn’t happen, I’m paying for school.”

Tags: Bachelors of Science in Nursing, college strike, Conestoga college, McMaster, mohawk, nurse, nurses, nursing