Academic News

Welcome back everyone. I hope that you have had the opportunity to rest, relax, recharge and spend time with family and friends over the summer. The faculty are excited to welcome students back and start to work with you to advance your studies. The past few years have been a remarkable challenge for you. My hope for the coming year with the return to closer-to-normal learning experiences, including a return to campus and in-class instruction, will be a positive experience for you.

Regards,
Patrick Griffith
Chair, Nursing

Welcome back to RRC Polytech Nursing Department. As we transition back to in-class learning in BN theory courses, we are provided an opportunity to build on relationships with instructors and students and to enhance the critical thinking and learning that takes place. I have been smiling as I have enjoyed seeing the faces of both students and faculty at the Notre Dame Campus. All instructors, course leaders, advisors, managers, and support staff are present to guide the educational journey of all students. Please reach out to any of these individuals if you have any questions. Enjoy your time at RRC Polytech and keep smiling.

Keep smiling,
Tracey Fallak
Acting Program Manager – Theory

On behalf of the Clinical instructors and course leaders, we would like to welcome you back for the start of the new academic clinical year. Clinical is an opportunity to practice your skills, assessments and communication; implement critical thinking skills and draw from the theory learned in the classroom. Instructors and course leaders are once again looking forward to ‘walking along side’ your learning and support your development in obtaining all these skills. One of the greatest moments an instructor can experience with a student is what we refer to as an ‘aha’ moment. This is the moment when a student smiles and shares their true understanding of the connection between theory and the application of that theory in regards to their clients’ care. We look forward to seeing those smiles once again and in sharing those moments with you!

My door is always open; please feel free to drop by and share with me your clinical experience.

All the best for the new clinical academic year,
Sandra Holben
Nursing Program Manager – Clinical

Welcome Back Everyone! I hope you all had a restful, relaxing summer and took the time to enjoy! It has been nice seeing everyone back in person this week and hearing the laughter and chatter. I look forward to seeing all of you in the hallways and classrooms and working with each of you.

Take care!
Joanna Simmons-Swinden
Acting Program Manager – Academic Operations

Check out these reels created by students in the Digital Media Design – Video and Motion Graphics program. In this second-year specialization, students learn the art of motion graphic design and animation. Through storytelling, they implement video production techniques including shooting, lighting, editing, audio, colour correction and compositing.

Students in the Digital Media Design – Interaction Design and Development program create design-driven, responsive websites, apps and user interfaces. In this second-year specialization program, students are challenged to build websites using WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system. Take a look at some of their work below.

Thank you everyone who came out and participated in this much needed in-person gathering of Amazing Race!

Creativity was had by all at the last challenge, and sorry Patrick but because you left early we had to share your staff’s hard work!

A big THANK YOU to the Teaching Excellence Committee for all the hard work put into this day! Great fun was had by all!

(Kim, Tracey, Carla, Winona, Tracy, Kate (Anna and Jennifer too))

Have a great summer and look forward to new beginnings in the fall!

Blog post created by:

Jennifer Johnson

Nursing Lab Manager

For the past 4 years, Krystal Boyce-Gaudreau has taken part in Career Day at William Whyte School. She presents usually to Grade 7 / 8 students, many of whom come from the disadvantaged, core area households. With a personal connection to this school, as her sister also teaches there, Krystal feels deeply motivated to encourage students to pursue their dreams. Highlighting her career of nursing and a variety of nursing programs is one example of how she hopes to inspire students to pursue their passions and to let them know of supports available to them.

Meet Krystal: An RRC / U of M JBN grad of 2002, Krystal worked as an RN BN at Concordia Emergency until 2013, as well as completing her Masters of Nursing (U of M) in 2013. At this time, she began her career at RRC Polytech where she continued to share her passion and leadership in a variety of nursing instructor roles. Krystal has taught in courses from Pharmacology and Diagnostics to Health Assessment 1 and 2, Discipline 4, and most recently developed and taught an elective on Substance Use Disorders and Nursing Care. During the pandemic, she also helped to develop the Health Care Support Worker micro-credential course, taught vaccine administration, AND picked up shifts in vaccine clinics!

How does a nurse prepare for a Career Day presentation? Krystal developed a 1.5 hour presentation including a Powerpoint presentation, Q & A, and the students’ favourite part … experiential – where students can see/touch/use equipment borrowed from RRC Poloytech’s nursing lab (thanks to Jennifer Johnson). Krystal uses student volunteers to teach about CPR and AED machines using role plays with an adult mannequin torso.  Demonstrating how to take vitals using the oximeter and thermometers, listening to heart sounds with stethoscopes – these are always a big hit with the students.

Some of the main points that Krystal always shares:

1) Her own lived experience and struggles in school and how a great teacher in grade 6 believed in her and helped her. She encourages students to not to let things define or limit them… but to believe in themselves.

2) To educate students about what nurses DO and that we CARE about them. Also, that nurses are great people to seek out for help or support.

3) To encourage, support, and inspire students to dream about their careers and their future.

How do the students react? They are nervous and shy at first but then begin to open up and ask questions like: ”Have you ever seen someone die?…delivered a baby?…how hard was schooling? – how much did it cost? – how much do you make?!” They often want to share their own healthcare / hospital family experiences. The kids are also surprised by how much money nurses make AND they get really excited when listening to their own heartbeats and learning what the heart does.

A few final thoughts:

Feeling motivated to speak to a student or group of students? Maybe plant a seed or inspire a young mind to dream? A couple of tips: when doing a Career Day talk for students, make sure to have fun and ensure the information being shared is at the students’ level. Krystal shares that for her, “nursing is an awesome career with lots of opportunities for you to really pursue any passion and any direction!”

Written by Tanya Cole RN BScN, RRC Polytech Nursing Instructor

In case you haven’t heard, after many years of trial and error, the Province of Manitoba has finally signed a contract for the new IV pumps, and it’s not Baxter! Here at RRC Polytech, we are pleased to announce that we had a great opportunity and have already purchased and received the new B. Braun Infusomat® Space Infusion Pump System to offer training in the fall term to our students.

The province has a plan to start introducing these pumps in small specialized areas first this summer and to have it rolled out to all facilities over the next year. Of course there’s going to be bumps along the way and our students are going to see both IV pumps over this transition period, so we’re ready and going to be teaching them both.

Myrna Davis has been hard at work to incorporate both IV pumps into our program starting in the fall! Better too early than too late! Thank you Myrna for being on top of this big news!

Thank you RRC Polytech for allowing us to be on top of the best teaching possible for our students!

Post created by:

Jennifer Johnson

Nursing Lab Manager

The Applied Commerce and Management Education department is excited to present the 2022 Virtual Awards Ceremony to be held on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, at 5:30 p.m. CST. Our students have had to adapt to a changing environment, while maintaining a high standard of academic achievement and they deserve to be recognized!! Many of these awards would not be possible without the steadfast support of our donors and we are so grateful for their continuous support.

Please visit www.facebook.com/redrivercollege on June 8 to honour and recognize our students for their tenacity and hard work. If you miss the scheduled time, don’t worry, this presentation will be posted after the event is over to watch at your convenience.

Congratulations again to all award recipients!

We are pleased to show off the new addition to the Nursing Department: Nursing Lab A330, which will be in use starting in the fall term.

There’s still work to be done over the summer, but it has great bones already and is a work in progress!

Hopefully this will allow our program to expand, especially in the Simulation field.

It will be a 5 bed room with the high hopes of hosting Sim in the upcoming fall term….so new and refreshing!

Post created by:

Jennifer Johnson

Nursing Lab Manager

Sprint to Innovate – The Innovation Challenge presented by City of Winnipeg was a great success.  Student teams worked on their chosen challenge from Friday, April 8 to Sunday, April 10.  Each team was given 7 minutes to present the solution to their challenge.

Our judges, Wendy Yan (Futurpreneur), Brent Wennekes (Protein Industries), Tyler Gooch (City of Winnipeg), and Lawrence Lazarko (formerly Manitoba Public Insurance) had a tough decision deciding between the 17 teams that would win our four prizes.

This event was established by Tech Manitoba, RRC Polytech, and the University of Winnipeg’s Faculty of Science.
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In DMD, we teach DSLR cinematography: you’ll learn camera settings, composition, lighting and audio. Here are some samples of students integrating motion graphics into their video production. The goal here was to focus on composition, movement, natural light, colour correction, and designing motion tracked graphics. Once students have mastered basic camera and lighting, we move on to advanced digital filmmaking techniques with a focus on storytelling.