REGINA — It was a monumental day at Saskatchewan Polytechnic as it officially launched its new respiratory therapy program.
It is the first-ever respiratory therapy program in the province. The first cohort of 25 students is now enrolled at the Regina campus.
The hope is that having the training located in Saskatchewan will encourage more graduates to stay in the province. Up to this point, RT students have had to leave for other provinces to get their training.
“The way we have been doing it up until now is through an interprovincial agreement with Alberta, allowing Saskatchewan students to go there and to receive their training and then hopefully come back to Saskatchewan,” said Advanced Education Minister Ken Cheveldayoff.
“But by having in-house training here in our province, we've seen from the statistics that that enhances the opportunity for those students to stay in Saskatchewan, to have their clinical placements here … and to hopefully begin their careers here as well.”
Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said this was about giving Saskatchewan students the “opportunity to pursue a health care career right here in Saskatchewan.”
“From choosing to do that, having that educational opportunity, whether it's here at SaskPoly or at the University of Saskatchewan, University of Regina, or many of our regional college institutions right across the province, then being able to do their clinical placements in a Saskatchewan Health Authority facility and then work with the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Health Care Recruitment Agency to secure a career, a long-term career, right here in the province. We've added seats on the physician training side, on the nurse practitioner training side. We talked about the new programs for occupational therapy and speech-language pathology and physician assistance. There is no shortage of opportunities in health care for Saskatchewan students. And now that those students can do that right here, that education right here in the province, that makes a big deal.”
The province said in a news release that it invested over $8 million to develop and launch the Respiratory Therapy Advanced Diploma program. There was big demand for the 25 seats in the cohort, with Sask Polytech reporting 10 applicants for every spot available.
Sask Polytech President Larry Rosia gave credit to the Government of Saskatchewan for “recognizing the need to have training take place right in the province.”
He said in this instance the “partnership between the Government of Saskatchewan, the health region and Saskatchewan Polytechnic is what made this possible."
“Everything we do is applied. So a lot of what's going to happen in this lab is the students are going to be able to practice real-life simulations before they actually get out to clinical and work with clients. So the applied piece is really, really important to what we do.”
The program is a three-year diploma, with students receiving hands-on training in a lab setting. New specialized equipment has been purchased, and students will do placements within the Saskatchewan health care system so they can hit the ground running when they graduate.
One of the students enrolled, Jolly, is a new Canadian who has made Saskatchewan home. She spoke of the importance of being able to attend a program based in Saskatchewan.
“It's important to study here because we are staying here. And if we study here, we will be close to our family and we will stay here and we will live together with our family,” she said.
Jolly said that she noticed during the COVID-19 era that there was a need for respiratory therapists. She saw it as an area where she could learn and grow.
But at that time, Saskatchewan did not have an RT program, and she did not want to leave her family to go elsewhere.
“So I waited and waited. And then luckily they got this program introduced and I applied for that. And luckily I'm here today,” she said.
Cheveldayoff said the “demand is there in Saskatchewan and every province across the country” for respiratory therapists.
“This is a growing area of health care need, and we're just so pleased to be able to do this. This is our ultimate goal, to be able to train students right here in Saskatchewan. It's innovative, it's leading edge, and it's what SaskPoly does.”
