Northern Lights College celebrated the opening of a new health lab at its Fort St. John, B.C., campus this week.

The six-bed training classroom is a dedicated space for nursing and health-care students, part of a larger strategy to train professionals locally.

“We feel it’s important that we do everything we can to advocate to expand programming in the North and have a more diverse array of programs,” said Nicole Dahlen, dean of health sciences and human services.

“It’s really important to have classes that can be accessible from people’s home communities, including lab classes.”

Students will no longer have to make the drive to the Dawson Creek campus to complete their lab work.

Tara Hyland-Russell, the college’s vice-president of academics and research, said the drive was a barrier for students, who were making the trip multiple times a week.

“We have such a high need in our region for health-care training,” she said.

“We didn’t want to lose a single student, a single, future health-care professional. And so we looked to see what space we had here.”

Hyland-Russell says the college has plans to expand course offerings this year, launching a pharmacy technician program in August, while a mental health and substance abuse program is expected to start in November.

“We spent two years doing a deep dive into the community needs,” she said.

Plans are underway to add training beds at its Chetwynd and Fort Nelson campuses, explained Hyland-Russell, as the college serves communities as far as the Northern Rockies.

The campus is also home to the northern baccalaureate nursing program, a collaboration between the University of Northern British Columbia, Northern Health and Northern Lights College.

Dahlen says it’s important to offer pathways into nursing and other health professions, making education accessible for those who are just graduating high school or adult learners looking for a career change.

“Working in the health industry is a wonderful place to have a career,” she said.

“It can be very rewarding. And I think that it’s important for people to realize the diversity of different, career options there are in health and to consider them.”

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