Nurse bursary grows thanks to donations from community

Nurse bursary grows thanks to donations from community

A bursary to help train and retain local nurses has been given a funding boost thanks to additional donations from the community.

Pontiac Community Hospital Foundation vice-president Allan Dean explained that in April 2024 they received a $100,000 donation from the MacLachlan family, to be put towards bursaries for local nursing students, conditional on them returning to work in the Pontiac for a number of years. On top of that seed capital, they recently received an anonymous donation of around $40,000 as well as $20,000 from the local Promutuel Insurance branch.

Dean said that they were already finalizing the next cohort of recipients for early February. Those interested can apply through the foundation’s website.

Regional health authority CISSSO’s Pontiac representative Nicole Boucher-Larivière said that the program provides up to $2,500 per semester, or around $20,000 total for a nurse completing a bachelor’s degree.

She added that while this program is a nice start, they currently need at least 35 to 40 nurses in Pontiac’s health care institutions.