Communities in Northern BC will invest more than $215,000 in the coming year, through the Northern Medical Programs Trust, to support local health-care students.
John Massier, the President of the Trust and also the Chair of the Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital District, says that is up from previous years.
He says they also have some new grants this year.
Massier says they will give out two awards annually to a family nurse practitioner who accepts a nursing position within the North Central Local Government Association region.
He says they will also develop a bursary program for UNBC undergraduate students that have demonstrated a financial need and intend to apply to a UNBC healthcare professional program.
In that case Massier says “we’re going to invest 10 thousand dollars a year for a 4 year period and part of that will not only be money to help them with room and board and tuition at the university but we’re also going to pair them with a mentor in the medical program that will help them through their undergraduate work and hopefully successfully get them into one of our healthcare professional programs.”
Massier says the idea behind these grants is that students that get their training in the north are more likely to practice in the north.