Like all University of Saskatchewan nursing students, northern students must complete a pre-professional first year of Arts and Science courses before being admitted into the College for three more years of nursing-specific classes. In the NAD, the pre-professional year can be taken at Northlands College sites in La Ronge, Île-à-la-Crosse, Buffalo Narrows or Creighton.

Students must have English A30 and B30 and Biology 30, and are highly recommended to have Chemistry 30 and Math 30 (Foundations of Math or Pre-Calculus or Math B30, C30) high school courses to be admitted into the pre-professional first year.

The College of Nursing has an annual intake of 15 seats in the North. These seats are reserved for northern residents (those who have lived in the North for at least half their life or 10 years). The College of Nursing also reserves 16.6% of its seats for Indigenous applicants; however, the northern program has a much higher Indigenous student representation. Most applicants of Indigenous descent will be accepted into the Northern Nursing Program if they achieve the minimum requirements, rather than competing within the entire provincial applicant pool.

In Île-à-la-Crosse, the program is offered at the Integrated Services Centre, between the hospital and the high school.  In La Ronge, classes are offered at the main Northlands College campus and the clinical skills lab is offered at the Air Ronge site.

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Students will experience a variety of clinical placements throughout the program within an assortment of settings, such as schools, health centres and hospitals. To obtain the appropriate experience needed to become a Registered Nurse, however, northern students will need to occasionally be placed at larger hospitals in the central part of the province, such as North Battleford and Meadow Lake, for up to four weeks.

The College of Nursing has campuses in Prince Albert, Saskatoon and Regina and distributes our program to Yorkton , Île-à-la-Crosse and La Ronge.  All students learn through a “blended-delivery” model, meaning classes are taken face-to-face and by video conferencing, web conferencing, blackboard online and lecture capture.

Our northern students pay the same tuition costs as students in our other locations.  Students typically use a variety of funding sources to pay for their education, including Band funding for First Nation students, GDI funding for Metis and non-status Indians, student loans, scholarships & bursaries and their own savings.

Northern nursing students should be aware that the Government of Saskatchewan provides student loan forgiveness of up to $4,000 a year, to a maximum of $20,000, for nurse and nurse practitioners working in rural/remote communities in Saskatchewan.

The College of Nursing’s Master of Nursing (MN) program is online, so students can take it from anywhere they have access to a computer and the internet. Many of our MN students continue to practice part-time, while enrolled in the program.  Health regions in rural and remote areas may want to support two to three nurses taking the program at once, allowing the health region to form a support group and learning community.

Similarly, the Nurse Practitioner (NP) and Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing (PhD) programs can be taught remotely, making them accessible for students across the province.