Printer-friendly version

Through the Ministry of Advanced Education's Nurses Education Bursary, 109 students in nursing programs across British Columbia will receive a total of $218,000 in bursaries this summer.

The Nurses Education Bursary (NEB) is a provincial program that provides up to $1 million in bursary funding, awarded each year to qualified nursing applicants who demonstrate the greatest financial need. This year, the adjudication process was automated to ensure that nursing students are automatically considered for the bursary when they apply for full-time funding.

One bursary is issued to an individual in a 12-month period. For this period, all recipients will receive $2,000 each, which is the maximum award. The bursary awards are automatically assessed for applicants in eligible nursing programs, based on the financial need on the applicant's full-time StudentAid BC loan application, and are awarded in one of three study periods: January to April, May to August and September to December in each year.

The NEB was established by the provincial government in 2001 as a financial incentive to encourage individuals to train or upgrade as nurses to address labour market demands in B.C.'s nursing profession. Over 5,200 students have received over $18 million through the NEB program since 2001.

The program has been very successful, with recipients of the NEB demonstrating a program completion rate of 96 per cent.

The Province is committed to delivering high-quality, affordable health education closer to home. In addition to providing the NEB, the B.C. government is providing over $2 million to over 288 nursing graduates this year in B.C. student loan forgiveness for nursing graduates who work in underserved B.C. communities for three years. Since 2001, over $4.12 million in B.C. student loans forgiveness has been provided for nursing graduates.

Quick Facts:

Since 2001...

• The Province has invested more than $200 million through the BC Nursing Strategy to educate, recruit and retain nurses.
• B.C. has more than doubled the number of nurse training spaces, adding more than 4,450 new spaces and producing a record number of graduates who have received more than 20,000 degrees, diplomas and certificates in B.C.
• The number of practising nurses in B.C. has risen to nearly 44,000 - with nearly 13,000 more nurses practising in this province, an increase of nearly 22 per cent.
• The Province has created 26 new nursing education programs at public post-secondary institutions in B.C. - including practical nurse, registered nurse, psychiatric nurse, nurse practitioner and other graduate nurse programs.
• In 2010-11, the Province provided more than $2 million in B.C. student loan forgiveness for nursing graduates who worked in underserved B.C. communities.
• $2 million in provincial funds have been allocated for an Aboriginal Nursing Strategy to increase the number of nurses of Aboriginal ancestry working in B.C. and to increase the number of Aboriginal communities in B.C. with quality nursing care.
• Recognizing the demand for nurses, the Province has established three new three-year accelerated nursing degree programs at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Vancouver Community College and the University of the Fraser Valley to graduate nurses sooner so they enter the workforce faster.

Learn More:

To learn more about the Nurses Education Bursary program, visit: http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/studentaidbc/

Contact:

Joanne Whittier
Communications Manager
Ministry of Advanced Education
250 893-5650 (cell)