On April 17, over 40 members of the Class of 2020 Dawson College Nursing Program completed their program. This was about two weeks ahead of schedule to allow the new graduates to contribute to the healthcare system now.
All the competencies have been met
"We reviewed the competencies to determine which students were in a position to graduate," recalled Cathy Moore, Chair of Nursing at Dawson. "After consulting with the Nursing faculty, we believe that the majority of the third-year students have met all the competencies of the program and are ready to graduate. Nursing students started the semester on Jan. 3 and they are finishing earlier than most other students at Dawson."
This is an extraordinary measure because of the acute shortage of healthcare workers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision was made to take a proactive approach to contributing to the healthcare system before potentially being asked by the Ministry of Education.
"To my knowledge, Dawson College is the first English CEGEP to make this decision," Cathy said.
