An exciting new opportunity for nursing students at the University of Windsor thanks to a provincial grant.
The Ontario government has invested $750,000 to support the inclusion of RN prescribing education into the undergraduate nursing curriculum at the University of Windsor.
RN prescribing refers to the practice where registered nurses can prescribe medications and devices, and order certain tests, within their expanded scope of practice.
This expansion will allow nurses to play a greater role in patient care, and will make Ontario the first jurisdiction in Canada to include RN prescribing in undergraduate programs.
Students who complete this course would have it listed on their Ontario nursing license that they are qualified as an RN prescriber.
Gina Pittman, Assistant Professor for the Faculty of Nursing at the University and co-lead for the RN Prescribing program, says this will provide students with more learning opportunities.
"The monies will be used to come up with innovative ways to have students do hands on experiences with writing prescriptions, navigating case scenarios in order to make an educated decision, some clinical reasoning about what to choose in terms of a therapeutic option for a patient."
She says she's hopeful students in the course will have co-op placements using this curriculum.
"To be able to get that real hands on experience, right now we're able to do it through case scenarios. We use a lot of simulation which has been really great at bridging some of the gaps," Pittman says. "But I think ultimately in the future if we could do a lab, or a co-op hands on, that will really integrate their learning into the real life experience."
Pittman says those who finish this course will have more career options.
"Right now the Hospital Act prohibits RN prescribing within the acute care setting, so I think students that come out armed with this authority, they are going have more career mobility, maybe they'll be able work in the community as a newer grad, whereas that's not the case for most new grads that come out without this capability - they're really limited to more of an acute care setting."
Pittman states that this is a pilot project course. It is not a mandatory course for nursing students at the moment.
She adds that of the approximate 300 students in this program in the fall, that 200 of them have expressed interest in taking this course.
This course will be offered in the fall of 2025 and the winter semester in 2026.
Aside from the University of Windsor, Georgian College in Barrie and Humber Polytechnic in Toronto were the only other schools selected provincially to provide this curriculum.