The Innovative Learning Institute for Circumpolar Health is a network of universities who provide distributed/decentralized nursing education. The goal of the institute is to bring students and educators together to talk about the accessibility and quality of baccalaureate nursing education in northern regions.

The main theme of this year’s summer institute was Roots and Identity, and through different lectures and activities the participants gained more insight on the challenges of nursing in own and other rural areas.

One of the participants was Rande Jawad-Trudel from the University of Saskatchewan, she is grateful for having the opportunity to participate in the Institute: “It was very useful to have the opportunity to discuss the healthcare difficulties experienced in other isolated indigenous communities in the Circumpolar North. It gave Shania and I the chance to find out what challenges we have in common with the other students, but also how issues there have been remedied, with the hope that we can adapt the same solutions to Northern Saskatchewan. It was a great way to form partnerships with future nurses from around the world who share a common goal of providing better health care to their indigenous populations. It was wonderful to learn about the Sami people, their way of life and their history. The Sami people have a lot in common with Canadian aboriginal peoples, such as being sent to boarding school and the attempt to assimilate them with the Norwegian culture. Northern Norway is absolutely beautiful.”

The Summer Institute enables the students to acquire a unique cultural competence which allegedly will create better nurses. 

For the original article and images from the 2017 institute, click here.