At Thompson Rivers University, student success is our priority. We empower our students to reach their goals with on-campus and online learning options, individualized student services, hands-on learning opportunities, and a diverse, inclusive environment. A hub for travel, Kamloops is 3.5 hours from Vancouver, and a day’s drive from Calgary, Prince George, Victoria or Seattle.

TRU’s School of Nursing has a rich history of providing nursing education over the past 35-plus years. We help you make a real difference in people’s lives by supporting your goal of becoming a health care professional. Regardless of which path you choose, TRU health care programs will provide the foundation for a successful and dynamic career. Our team includes staff and faculty specifically trained in and dedicated to simulation-based learning ensuring that students receive the best education possible. Through realistic scenarios and cutting-edge technology, we create a safe and controlled environment where students can safely practice critical thinking, decision-making, and communication skills.

Bachelor of Science in Nursing BScN

The Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program (BScN) has been in existence since 1992. The BScN is a four-year program that prepares students to be competent nurses in a variety of health care practice agencies (institutional, community and international), and with people from diverse social and economic backgrounds who have a variety of health concerns.

The BScN program includes eight academic semesters starting each September for 80 students. The practice courses involve various shifts (days/evenings/nights) through the week and weekends along with out-of-town placements that is a requirement for all students. View the BScN degree program curriculum and courses for more information. The BScN program is known for its commitment to global health. The immersion learning that the program offers in Canada and abroad (e.g., Hazelton, BC, and Norway) has resulted in very positive learning experiences, for both students and communities.”

Practical Nurse Diploma Program

Acquire the practical and theoretical grounding you need to give professional nursing care to individuals, families and groups in a variety of settings. You will work through a combination of course work and practical clinical placements, completing a program that will prepare you for your subsequent work as a practical nurse.

School of Nursing Commitment to Truth and Reconciliation

Indigenous health nursing

Thompson Rivers University School of Nursing faculty is committed to the ongoing development of nursing curricula and practice informed by Indigenous ways of knowing and being as a guiding principle in undergraduate and graduate nursing education, provincially, nationally and internationally. The School of Nursing is guided by a standing committee of Indigenous Health Nursing to insure that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Calls to Action (2015) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP-2007) are enacted and upheld within the nursing curricula and faculty development.

Nursing students

Students have the opportunities to learn, engage and reflect as they explore Indigenous theory and Indigenous nursing practice experiences informed by Indigenous communities, elders and knowledge keepers. Students experience education that takes them beyond the confines of the lecture halls to be immersed on the land to experience and reflect on Indigenous determinants of health. Practical experiences are provided so that students are given the skills, knowledge, and expertise to excel as leaders in Indigenous health nursing practice.

Indigenous Health Practices

Learning activities around promoting Indigenous Peoples’ health are threaded throughout the BScN curriculum starting in Year 1. Students in the TRU nursing program are also able to choose to work in practice placements with Indigenous individuals, groups, and communities. The majority of these practice opportunities are available in semesters six to eight. In addition, students will encounter clients who are of Indigenous heritage everywhere within the health care system.

School of Nursing Initiatives

The TRU School of Nursing has been involved with many initiatives to promote the success of Indigenous students, create a culturally safe educational experience for all, and to build relationships with Indigenous communities, groups, and individuals. The TRU School of Nursing formally acknowledged and adopted the Framework for Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety from the Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada — now the Canadian Indigenous Nurses Association, to ensure that all graduates of nursing programs are able to practice in a culturally safe manner.

The TRU School of Nursing has also adopted an advocacy statement acknowledging the role the SON has in achieving a culturally safe academic environment, advocating for changes within Thompson Rivers University in support of the strategic goal of becoming the University of Choice for Aboriginal Students.

All students at the start of their program (HCA, BScN, MN) at Kamloops campus take part in an ‘On the land’ experience at Tk’emlúps. This day long activity includes learning of the history of the region, touring the residential school, and engaging a number of activities which are part of Secwépemc culture.

Thomson Rivers University

Coyote Project

The Coyote Project is TRU’s roadmap to achieving the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action. It has united all of TRU in creating a campus that is welcoming and supportive to all, especially Indigenous students and staff. Faculties and departments are addressing barriers to recruitment, retention and completion for Indigenous students.

The Coyote Project has united all of TRU — nine faculties plus TRU World, Open Learning and the Library — in creating a campus that is welcoming and supportive to all, especially Indigenous students and staff. The five-year project, funded by $224,000 per year, is a pan-institutional program to accelerate indigenization, but its impacts and legacies are meant to be long-lasting.

The Secwépemc people of the BC Interior tell a story about Coyote, who is known for being a powerful transformer. The story, called Coyote Brings Food from the Upper World, forms the basis of The Coyote Project at TRU.

Why indigenization matters

The Coyote Project is about implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action— particularly the elimination of educational and employment gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians and new Indigenous education legislation with the full consent and participation of Indigenous peoples.

The latter call to action includes:

• Providing sufficient funding to close identified educational achievement gaps within one generation.
• Improving education attainment levels and success rates.
• Developing culturally appropriate curricula.
• Protecting the right to Indigenous languages, including the teaching of Indigenous languages as credit courses.

In response, The Coyote Project will address recruitment, retention and completion issues for Indigenous students.

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

HLTH 2300 Interdisciplinary Indigenous Health 3 Credits

This course introduces students to Indigenous people’s health in Canada. Students experience Indigenous ways of knowing through a decolonization framework, engaging in local knowledge, methodologies and practices of Indigenous peoples. Students engage in experiential, reflexive learning informed by local Knowledge Keepers. The course embraces Indigenous Knowledge and uses the premise of ‘two-eyed seeing’. Students are guided through an inter-professional framework of practice to facilitate collaboration and planning of services to improve Indigenous health. 

Course description: courses

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 “School of Nursing Commitment to Truth and Reconciliation” comment above under “Indigenous health nursing”
4. Treaties and Aboriginal rights
Yes. See mandatory course description and School of Nursing Commitment to Truth and Reconciliation
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: 

Located on the School of Nursing “Cultural Safety” tab:

Traditional Secwépemc (Shuswap) Territory

Kamloops and Williams Lake campuses are both situated on the traditional and unceded Secwépemc (Shuswap) territory

We acknowledge and give honour to the Secwépemc — the ancestral peoples who have lived here for thousands of years — upon whose traditional and unceded land Thompson Rivers University is located. The Secwépemc maintain a spiritual and practical relationship to the land, water, air, animals, plants and all things needed for life on Mother Earth. It is with that in mind that we owe this debt of gratitude.

There are approximately 7,000 Secwépemc people in the territory, which spans 180,000 square kilometres through the interior plateau of south central British Columbia. The mountain ranges, grasslands and river valleys surrounding the Fraser, and North and South Thompson rivers create the boundaries of the territory.

TRU has one of the largest Indigenous student populations among BC post-secondary institutions, with well over 2,000 students (about 10 percent), representing 16 First Nation and Indigenous peoples enrolled in new, continuing, open learning and trades programs.

In addition to Secwépemc students, Indigenous students at TRU come from several BC nations, including the Carrier, Okanagan, Nuxalk, and Nlaka’pamux, as well as students of Métis and Inuit ancestry.

Located on Thompson Rivers University Home Page

Thompson Rivers University campuses are on the traditional lands of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc (Kamloops campus) and the T’exelc (Williams Lake campus) within Secwepemcúl’ecw, the traditional and unceded territory of the Secwépemc. The region TRU serves also extends into the territories of the St’át’imc, Nlaka’pamux, Nuxalk, Tŝilhqot’in, Dakelh, and Syilx peoples.

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