NUNAVUT - With four gruelling years of school behind them, Nunavut's latest crop of locally-trained nurses is ready to enter the workforce.

This was the fifth graduating year for the Nunavut Arctic College program, with five grads accepting their diplomas earlier this month.

Recent nursing graduate Sharon Owlijoot holds her son Shawn, while mother Pelagie, sister Amanda, brother Joshua, back left, and father Tommy crowd around. Sharon, who grew up in Arviat, plans to return to the Kivalliq to work now that her training is done. Five nurses graduated from the nursing program in Iqaluit earlier this month. - Karen Mackenzie/NNSL photo

"We'd still like to have more," said program co-ordinator Ruth Bainbridge.

A total of 18 nurses have graduated since the program started, including nine beneficiaries.

"All except one have stayed in Nunavut and are employed by Nunavut," Bainbridge said.

While it doesn't meet the current needs of the Department of Health and Social Services, it is an improvement, she said.

"Several grads have gone over to the Kivalliq region, which has been very supportive of our program," she added.

Sharon Owlijoot, one of this year's graduates, is from Arviat and plans to return there to work.

Receiving her degree - which is administered through Dalhousie University - was "unbelievable," she said.

"It was one of the best feelings I had, but at the same time it was almost unreal. I just want to get into the community and work. Once I start working I'll see what needs to be done," she said. "Being able to talk to the elders in our own language and understanding their needs ... it's always a good feeling to hear from them that it's good to see an Inuk being a nurse, that they don't need a translator."

Owlijoot, who is also raising a son, plans to take a couple of weeks off before going to work.

"Everyone, my family, friends, the faculty of the college were all so supportive, and so was the community of Arviat," she added.

While Owlijoot plans to work in a community health centre, fellow classmate Allison Wheaton said she hopes to work in a different kind of community setting.

Wheaton moved here when she was 17 from Nova Scotia, "but I'm going to be here for the rest of my life, working as a community health nurse if I can," she said. "I would like to go into the DEW line cleanup sites, and mining camps, and do site nursing as well."

The nursing graduates also travelled to Ottawa June 16 to 20 to the Canadian Nurses Association's Annual Meeting and Biennial Convention.

"We're going to tour other facilities in Ottawa, so we'll be able to come back and tell people what they can expect if they are flown down to Ottawa for medical," said Wheaton, who has been the student delegate for the Canadian Nursing Students' Association for the past four years.