Academic News

The Accounting and Computer Education department awarded 33 awards to students in Business Information Technology, Introduction to Business Information Technology and Applied Accounting.  On Wednesday, June 17 the award winners and their guests attended the Awards presentation at Roblin Centre to receive their awards.

Thank you to our Business Information Technology Advisory Committee Chair, Gerry Glatz, for helping to hand out the awards.

Thank you to our award sponsors, Eileen Penner, the Huhtala Family, Gladys Bell, Paterson GlobalFoods, Ricoh Canada, MTS, and Great West Life.

Awards Program 2015

BIT Space bad boy Diego Santos

Diego Santos is an enthusiast of web/mobile technologies, programming, and all things cool. Though more focused on backend PHP and JavaScript/HTML5, he also has solid Java skills for Android and is starting to get into Cordova apps development. A self-proclaimed “authentic Brazilian guy”, Diego loves soccer, both on the field and, because he’s a bit of a nerd too, of course in video games.

He also happens to be a really nice guy. Read More →

Faculty’s Annual Curriculum Day was another great success!  Consisting of a couple great group activities to explore, reflex and learn what others are doing in their courses and demonstrations of the Prenatal Development Module, Portfolio use and Scholarly Writing.

Teaching Excellence Day at our Princess Campus was a great day to reflect on how to find that happy medium of stress vs work vs leisure.

The day included presentations on self care by RRC Nursing graduate Jennifer Thomas and clinical psychologist Dr. Jason Ediger. 

The presentations were followed by a panel discussion looking at different perspectives of self care.  RRC Nursing instructor Cheryl Adam shared her own personal journey, art therapist Darci Adam spoke of the therapeutic benefits of the arts, and Cole Skinner from RRC athletics introduced different recreational services available to faculty. 

The afternoon included World Café group activities where everyone joined different tables to brainstorm topics such as rest, leisure, exercise, and nutrition. 

Pat Gregory finished up the day with a presentation on CV writing.

**A Shout Out to all who helped and organized these two great days! Great Job!!**

RRC Nursing Graduates, Chantal Fortney, and April Graham talked with RRC Nursing students who were about to enter their senior practicum. They told their stories and shared the information that “they wish someone had told them” as they were embarking on the transition to senior practicum and then Registered Nurse.

From classes to Senior Practicum

They spoke of how “building a relationship with your preceptor” is fundamental and takes effort. One tip was to have a five minute debriefing at the end of each practicum shift to help define and work towards a positive working relationship. It is important to set your expectations, boundaries, and have the preceptor assess your skills. An integral piece of advice was to know your facility’s policies and standards. Learn the routines on the unit. “Think of yourself still as a student and try to absorb as much as you can. The practicum RN is there to support you.” April reflected on the first days of senior practicum, when she was still getting used to three twelve hours shifts in a row in her rural hospital setting. She said it’s a good idea to do a few “shadow” shifts and even spend some time shadowing the unit clerk to truly understand how to be efficient in the specific setting. She said in those first shifts, you are learning and transitioning into “who you are as a nurse”.

Chantal shared an experience from one of her first days on her acute medical unit, observing an overwhelming wound dressing change. Her reflection was: “I don’t know if I can do this”. Through perseverance, she later commented that during the last weeks of her 3 month practicum, she had learned to trust her gut instincts. She observed an acute situation and anticipated all of the actions the interdisciplinary team should have been taking to help the client. She found herself “thinking like a nurse”, and proud of her ability to critically analyze, and anticipate nursing implications and interventions.

A strong message to the current students was “90% of what we get tested on in the BN program, we should still do”. For example, when administering medications, don’t take them out of the packages until you get to the bedside. Safety checks are extremely important, every time you give medications.

Although you may only be at your practicum site for three months, it may be a place that you would like to work after the experience. Chantal and April emphasized taking time to build connections. They told the students to make an effort to get to know the staff and the unit manager.

They discovered more about the other disciplines on the units as well. They spoke of consulting with these disciplines to advocate for clients, and how important it was to know your scope. For example, the practicum student cannot sign off on doctor’s orders. Taking time to learn about the paper work and charting involved, was essential to becoming proficient with care.

Through sharing of stories and humour, the RRC graduates talked about adjusting to twelve hour night shifts. Their bodies had to adjust to being functional through the night, and then attempting to sleep in the day. When one works long night shifts and has children at home, those days must be organized ahead of time. Some tips when beginning a stretch of night shifts might be to stay up very late the night before, and sleep in for as long as you can, or another strategy might be to take a very long nap in the afternoon before you go into work. When sleeping after the night shift, make sure your phone is turned off, and you have no distractions.

From Senior Practicum to working as a grad nurse

As the required shifts for senior practicum come to an end, the entry to practice Registered Nurse can prepare to take the RN licensure exam. April and Chantal both agreed it is best to take your time to study for this exam. They advised buying the books, and practicing writing NCLEX style questions.

Before completing your practicum shifts, ask your manager if they could be a reference for you if needed in the future. They spoke of preparing for interview questions that that might arise during the job search process.

Having experience with twelve hour shift work, the former RRC students fully understand the importance of self care. They recommended going through your MARRs at the end of each shift to ensure everything is documented, and how it’s often important to separate work and personal life.

They said once you are hired somewhere, even if it’s the same place as your practicum experience, take a full orientation. It is important to learn the role in which you will be working from the perspective of new employee and not only a student.

April and Chantal shared some challenges, such as learning to delegate as a nurse, and consulting with doctors to advocate for your patients. They shared how important it is to continually develop tools to maintain organization such as worksheets and having the equipment you need in the pockets of your uniforms.

The Students entering their senior practicum valued the information provided by Chantal and April. Thank you to these two graduates of the RRC BN Nursing program for taking the time to share their experiences, and advice.

Anderson Pires Pereira, BIT Space Developer

“N&SAmerica-pol” by CIA, original political map from Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection; University of Texas Library Online. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Whereas Andre Felipe, the subject of our last BIT Project student profile, hailed from the massive metropolis of São Paulo, the largest city in the southern hemisphere at over 20 million inhabitants, Anderson Pires Pereira comes from Santa Vitória do Palmar (“Saint Victoria of the Palms”), a municipality in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul whose population is smaller than Brandon Manitoba’s. Santa Vitória do Palmar is the most southerly corner of Brazil, lying a whopping 10,000 km from Winnipeg. It also includes the larger part of Cassino Beach, the world’s longest uninterrupted stretch of sandy ocean shore, over 240 km! Read More →

Nursing Week was celebrated at Red River College on May 15th with a successful hallway display and pizza lunch fundraiser.

RRC’s Health Centre, speaks to group of students

Nursing instructors, students and other departments collaborated to display information related to the field of nursing.

Relational Inquiry in Family Nursing

A big thank you to all who participated to make this annual event a success!

RRC Bookstore had a sale of Nursing merchandise

End of Sprint # 3 and our Brazilian BIT students continue to impress. BIT Space Development’s overarching goal is the delivery of gamified 360-degree panoramas, but its framework’s success hinges on the open-ended set of integrated games and activities that it will house and launch. To reach the broadest possible audience, that impressive collection of learning components (or activity types) is being called PanoPlā (pronounced pano play) and will deploy over the Web to any browser or mobile device. Read More →

Andre Felipe Costa Silva, BIT Developer

So how does a 20 year-old from  São Bernardo do Campo (a municipality of São Paulo, Brazil) end up in Winnipeg? Andre Felipe, a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) gamer who likes coding and reading poems, would tell you that it’s a mix of hard work and luck. His success in a System Analysis and Development program in Brazil won him a seat in the Business Information Technology (BIT) program. Now having completed two BIT academic semesters, Andre Felipe is part of a team of eight developers in the Massey Building who are building a platform for the delivery of interactive 360-degree panoramas. Read More →

We are having an information session for the Introduction to Business Information Technology, Business Information Technology, and the brand new Business Technology Management program.  Learn about our programs on Tuesday, May 26 at 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm at the Roblin Campus in room P107; or on Tuesday, June 2 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Roblin Campus in room A104.

Red River College Nursing Department represented its programs at this year’s Rotary Career Symposium, located at the RBC Convention Centre.

The booth was visited by many high school students from all over the province, and the general public, seeking information that the Red River College programs have to offer.

For more Information about the various RRC Nursing/Health Sciences programs visit:
RRC Nursing Programs