News Archives: GPRC Nursing Staff Head Down Under in Faculty Exchange with Holmesglen Institute
Wednesday, May 3rd, 2017
GRANDE PRAIRIE– Grande Prairie Regional College (GPRC) Nursing Instructors, Teresa Evans and Sheila Elliott were selected to head down under for the month of May as part of a faculty exchange and research opportunity with Holmesglen Institute in Melbourne, Australia.
“We’re partnering with Holmesglen because of the similar relationship they have with their hospital,” says Evans.
With the expected completion of Grande Prairie’s new regional health and education centre in 2019, GPRC is building a partnership with Holmesglen Institute to share opportunities for research and education that comes from both having hospitals on college-owned land.
“We’ve always had a great relationship with Alberta Health Services,” says Elliott. “I think this new experience of being in the same building will create a more beneficial relationship and overall experience for our students.”
GPRC President and CEO, Don Gnatiuk says the college sees the importance in forming global relationships to further benefit the experience of GPRC students.
“This is about serving our community and opening more doors to learning opportunities for our students to grow and learn in the profession of choice. The possibilities are endless,” he says.
“I’m looking forward to experiencing a different culture and health care system,” says Evans. “It opens up huge learning opportunities. I’m looking forward to seeing how they do things in Australia, with regards to their nursing studies, our parallels in working with our Indigenous communities and overall, just being able to look at healthcare with more of a global perspective.”
GPRC visiting Holmesglen Institute is the first step in forming this partnership.
“Their academic year falls differently than ours, so it’s their fall semester right now,” says Elliott. “The hope is for some of their faculty to visit our campus in the fall.”
“Hopefully before the snow,” adds Evans. “They looked a bit worried when we mentioned the possibility of snow.”
GPRC and Holmesglen will each participate in a faculty exchange first and then explore the further possibilities of this partnership including some student experience opportunities.
“Our goal is to go and absorb as much as we can to then come home and get the conversation started on what opportunities and possibilities we can begin to build into our curriculum for our students,” says Elliott.
Evans and Elliott are both looking forward to the adventure ahead of them and say they will be even more excited once the “15 hour flight from Vancouver” is behind them.
Follow their experience on GPRC’s Ambassador Blog.
GPRC is a comprehensive community institution, publicly supported to provide opportunities in post-secondary education in northwestern Alberta. Established in 1966 in Grande Prairie, GPRC now includes campuses in Fairview and Grande Prairie, and learning centres in Edson, Grande Cache, Hinton and Jasper. GPRC offers a wide variety of career certificates and diplomas, pre-employment and apprenticeship trades, university transfer studies, and several opportunities for on-campus degree completion at baccalaureate and master levels through collaborations with four-year universities. For more information visit gprc.ab.ca.
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For more information, please contact:
Mark Evans
GPRC
Corporate Communications
Phone: 780-539-2951