CNPP Graduate Student
CNPP - Graduate Student Celebrates New Opportunities as CNPP Graduate
After working as a Registered Nurse (RN) for the last few years at both the Royal University Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon, Mackenzie Bauer set her sights on doing more in the healthcare field. She wanted to help prevent health crisis by working in primary care.
“Providing education and promoting patient autonomy is a huge passion of mine which is necessary each day in primary care,” said Bauer.
Realizing that she needed to further her education and widen her scope of practice, Baurer enrolled in the Collaborative Nurse Practitioner Program (CNPP), a unique partnership between the University of Regina and Saskatchewan Polytechnic. The CNPP is a research and practice-based program consisting of 11 courses offered online and completed over 13 weeks.
“The CNPP prepares primary care nurse practitioners at the graduate level, enabling them to contribute and support improved access to quality primary health care in Saskatchewan,” said Associate Dean Florence Luhanga.
That’s exactly the type of course Bauer envisioned as she hopes to one day bring her knowledge as a NP to Fond Du Lac, where cardiovascular disease is highly prevalent among the community and there are minimal resources to prevent such conditions. After recently graduating with 17 other students – the largest ever cohort in CNPP – Bauer said she now feels ready to take the next step in her healthcare career.
“Thought I currently work in acute care, the program helped increase my knowledge base so that I can identify conditions early in their development and report these findings to my superiors to reduce complications in the hospital setting. It also helped me manage chronic diseases better by knowing what the important aspects of care are so that I can reach out and consult with other professionals to best serve my patients during their hospital stay,” said Bauer.
She added that she created strong relationships with other students in the program and developed supportive mentorships with other NPs in the program. Although the program was challenging, Bauer said she appreciated all the staff members who went above and beyond to help her succeed in the program.
Dean Cheryl Pollard said the CNPP has produced more than 60 graduates since its inception in 2014 and the program format makes it accessible to registered nurses from across Saskatchewan and Canada, attracting highly competitive nurses. The CNPP is an important component of meeting future healthcare needs as NPs help free up family doctors and other specialists to focus more on primary care.
As she addressed this year’s graduates, Pollard noted that they were destinated to become future leaders in healthcare. “All of you are positioned well to make changes and to be the pillars that will add to the strength and stability our healthcare system will need as we go into the future.”