Sault College’s mission is to develop and engage in industry-academia partnerships which provide our students with relevant, experiential learning opportunities to be successful in today’s rapidly evolving job market and help our local enterprises to advance their businesses and be successful in our global marketplace.

Located in Sault Ste. Marie, Sault College’s Health Programs offers all four years of the Honours Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) program right here. Check out our 2-year Practical Nursing program where you will work with experienced faculty to gain the foundational knowledge, skills and values needed to demonstrate safe, competent practice as a licensed practical nurse.

Nursing students will prepare for real-world success in an innovative learning environment with clinical placements, state-of-the-art simulation labs and small class sizes. 

Bachelor of Science Nursing (Honours)

Nursing curriculum stresses health promotion and wellness while focusing on care and compassion for those who are ill. On your journey to become a registered nurse (RN), you’ll explore career-specific scenarios that prepare you for real-world success. Clinical placements that begin in year-one and small class sizes create a focused and innovative learning environment. Plus, our state-of-the-art Adult Medical-Surgical Simulation Lab allows you to learn through active participation in life-like situations. Want more tools to help you succeed? You’ll also have access to a large general lab, a simulated home, assessment lab and a maternal-child sim lab where students can focus on other communication, critical thinking and hands-on skills.

Practical Nursing

The Practical Nursing Program at Sault College provides you with the strong foundational knowledge, skills and values needed to demonstrate safe, competent care as a Registered Practical Nurse. In this 2-year program, you will work with experienced faculty to learn in the classroom setting, through hands on and simulation in state-of-the-art labs and under the guidance of clinical teachers in health care settings providing care to clients.

Sault College Health Programs Commitment to Truth and Reconciliation

Sault College Health Programs makes no explicit commitment to Truth and Reconciliation

Sault College

Indigenous Education Council (IEC)

The Indigenous Education Council (IEC) is an advisory council to the college’s President and Board of Governors.

Our commitment to helping Indigenous students achieve their fullest potential plays an essential role in developing an institutional strategy for meeting Indigenous student and community educational needs,
as well as further creating an environment of social inclusion – one that seeks and promotes intercultural sharing. Indigenous refers to the Original peoples – First Nation, Métis and Inuit peoples.

Vision

To provide strategic recommendations to Sault College to ensure that Indigenous learners are effectively recruited, engaged, and retained in culturally safe learning environment.

Mission

The Indigenous Education Council is committed to addressing Indigenous Education at Sault College so we may ensure that the seven generations hereafter will have culturally appropriate education available to them.

Building a Stronger Fire – Indigenous Quality Assurance Standards in Ontario Colleges:

Envisioned by Indigenous leaders and knowledge holders, the standards reflect and respond to the worldviews, educational needs, and priorities of diverse northern Ontario Indigenous peoples, specifically Anishinaabe, Mushkegowuk and Métis communities, on whose traditional lands the colleges reside. 

The standards were developed collaboratively over three years with six participating colleges – Cambrian College, Canadore College, Collège Boréal, Confederation College, Northern College and Sault College – through a project funded by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development.

The standards address quality assurance at two levels: 

Institutional 

• college-wide areas and functions (e.g. indoor and outdoor space, procedures, decision-making) 

Program 

• academic programs, support services, and community relationships (e.g. program development, recruitment, transition support) 

To acknowledge the Medicine Wheel and Seven Grandfather Teachings, there are Four Quality Assurance Standards, each with Seven Requirements and Four Directions (see, relate, understand, act) to help colleges reflect on and monitor change. 

Call to Action # 24

We call upon medical and nursing schools in Canada to require all students to take a course dealing with Aboriginal health issues, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, and Indigenous teachings and practices. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.

Mandatory Course: Yes 

SOSC1100 Introduction to Indigenous Canada 3 credits

The course will provide the participants with an introduction to historical and contemporary issues relating to Indigenous people in Canada. Indigenous Worldviews will be discussed in both historical and modern perspectives. Students will review colonialization, government policies and legislation, which provide a foundation for understanding modern Indigenous life in Canada. Students will make critical connections between history and current realities of Indigenous people in Canada and reasons for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

In year 1 semester 1 and in the Bridge semester 2, students also cover the following content:

• Identify core concepts in Indigenous Worldviews and ways of knowing.

• Explain the relationship between land and identity within Indigenous societies.
• Analyze the impacts of colonialism on Indigenous communities.
• Distinguish the role of Treaties and Métis Scrip, government policies and actions in the current attitudes toward self-government and self-determination.
• Generate strategies for reconciling Indigenous and Canadian relations.

The BScN program has integrated the Indigenous Learning Outcomes developed by Confederation College and Negahneewin by mapping the 7 learning outcomes across the BScN program and included within course outlines at the learning objective level within relevant courses (see Indigenous Learning Outcomes at end of doccument).

School of Nursing Commitment to Call to Action # 24: 5 out of 5 = 100% 

1. Aboriginal health issues
Yes. See mandatory course description.
2. The history and legacy of residential schools
Yes. See mandatory course description.
3. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Yes. See mandatory course descriptions. As per faculty, UNDRIP is covered when discussing Indigenous rights.
4. Treaties and Aboriginal rights
Yes. See mandatory course description.
5. Indigenous teachings and Practice
Yes. See mandatory course description.

Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing’s “Statement” of apology for colonial harms resulting from nursing education

Dec.11, 2023: CASN apologizes to Indigenous Peoples of Canada for Colonial harms resulting from nursing education…CASN is committed to a process of self-reflection, learning, and transformation. We will take the following steps to address the harms:

1. Anti-Racism, Cultural Safety, and Humility: Promote education, resources, and practices that address anti-Indigenous racism, supporting decolonization, cultural humility, and cultural safety for nursing faculty, staff, and students. Promote institutional policies and processes that address systemic racism to foster an inclusive and equitable learning environment.
2. Curriculum Revision: Promote a review of nursing education curricula to ensure a strengths-based focus and trauma-informed approach, the inclusion of content on the continued impact of colonialism and racism on Indigenous health, as well as Indigenous perspectives on health and well-being.
3. Community Engagement: Establish meaningful partnerships with Indigenous organizations and communities to ensure their voices are heard in shaping nursing education policies and practices.
4. Recruitment and Retention: Promote strategies that create culturally safe and supportive learning environments including pre-admission supports, in-program supports, and services that are developed in partnership with Indigenous communities.
5. Ongoing Accountability: In collaboration with Indigenous partners, establish mechanisms to monitor progress and address concerns raised by partners, Indigenous nursing students, and faculty.

Land Acknowledgement: 

The School of Nursing has no Land Acknowledgement.

Located on Sault College Home Page:

Located in the Robinson Huron Treaty territory, we are grateful to Mother Earth for providing us the land, water, air, and food needed to sustain all life. And we acknowledge Indigenous Peoples as the original stewards of this land who have lived in harmony and in respect with all Creation. As we are all relations, it is important to recognize this interconnected relationship with one another and our obligation to respect the land that has nourished, healed, protected, and embraced us. We honour Obadjiwan (Batchewana First Nation) and Ketegunseebee (Garden River First Nation) as the original caretakers of the land that Sault College is situated on and acknowledge the contributions of the historical Metis Nation of Sault Ste, Marie in the stewardship of this territory.

The Sault College land acknowledgement is included in our Course Outline Addendum across the college – when we introduce the course, we are to go through the Course Outline Addendum and faculty have been directed to read the Land Acknowledgement and some faculty contextualize the land acknowledgement within their course (e.g. in the nursing research course, the course professor explains the historical context of research and Indigenous peoples and communities and that the course will provide insight as to how to engage in research as a process toward reconciliation – OCAP, Indigenous methodologies, etc.).

NOTE: All content has been submitted to the respective faculty for validation to ensure accuracy and currency as of the time of posting. The Sault College Health Programs reviewed and approved the document. Managing Editor: Douglas Sinclair: Publisher, Indigenous Watchdog Research Assistant:  Timothy Maton