Karen Lander
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 25/99) - The majority of graduates from the Aurora College nursing program are staying in the North.

Lori Crawford, a senior instructor for the nursing program based in Yellowknife, has been quite pleased with the number of students who choose to stay North once they graduate.

"It's really nice to see the majority of the students staying up here in the North," Crawford says. "It's a program they have to meet, it's the same standards as down south."

Crawford has been working at the campus since the beginning of the nursing program which started in 1994.

"In April of 1994, we were still working on the curriculum and developing the program -- by September, we'd started our first classes in the nursing programs," says Crawford.

Only two graduates of the nursing program have gone south after graduating, Crawford says.

"The things that I like about teaching in the program is taking folks that come into the program and they don't know anything about nursing and over the course of two-and-a-half years, you have a system to learn new skills, new techniques, learn a lot about the profession of professional development."

"When they graduate, they're no longer a student. They're a colleague and their support stands alongside of you -- a fellow member of the profession."

First-year student Selena Allen Avakana plans on working in Nunavut after graduating, specifically in her home town of Kugluktuk.

"It made me see things differently," she says. "Since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to become a nurse because I like helping people."

Since the beginning of the program, there have been 36 graduates, including 11 this spring.

To gain entrance into the program, you need a completion of Grade 12. Students can also upgrade through the nursing access program which takes one year.