Rural Community Route

Residents of rural communities can earn a baccalaureate degree to become a registered nurse without leaving their home community

Multiple program sites, currently in East-Central and Northeastern Alberta
(Program sites may be subject to change)
Program delivered using a blended model of online and in-person learning
Students must have a laptop computer for some in-person classes and activities
Students must be prepared to travel within the program catchment area for clinical placements

* Applicants must meet residency requirements for the program site they are applying to at the time of application and for the duration of the program.

Wainwright

The next admission at the Wainwright site will be for Fall 2025

3.25 -3.5 year degree program
September admission only
Labs in-person at Wainwright Health Centre
Clinical placements within the Wainwright area
Applicants must reside with 130 km of Wainwright and be Alberta residents
Excludes major urban centres

Read AHS announcement

Admission requirements

Drayton Valley

The next admission at the Drayton Valley site will be for Fall 2025

3.25 -3.5 year degree program
September admission only
Labs in-person in Drayton Valley
Clinical placements within the Drayton Valley area
Applicants must reside with 130 km of Drayton Valley and be Alberta residents
Excludes major urban centres

Read AHS announcement

Admission Requirements

Bonnyville

The first admission at the Bonnyville site will be for Fall 2025

The Bonnyville site will offer admission through both the Rural Community Route and Indigenous Community Route.

3.25 - 3.5 year degree program
September admission only
Labs in-person in Bonnyville
Clinical placements within the Bonnyville area
Applicants must reside with 150 km of Bonnyville and be Alberta residents
Excludes major urban centres

Portage College

The last admission to the Bachelor of Nursing program at Portage College was Winter 2024. Students previously admitted at the Portage College site will complete their program as planned.

This region of Alberta continues to be served by the Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the Bonnyville site.

Admission Requirements

Currently the Bachelor of Science in Nursing - Rural Community Route is offered in Drayton Valley, Wainwright and Bonnyville, Alberta. The University of Calgary also offers a BScN program at our main campus in Calgary, and a collaborative BScN program at Medicine Hat College.

Each program site has a geographical service region which students must reside in. The exact details of each service region may vary between sites due to agreements with regional practice partners, however generally students must reside within a certain distance of the program site, be Alberta residents, and not reside within major urban centres.

The graphics below show the service regions for each program site.

Students must reside within the service region of their desired program site at the time of application and for the duration of the program.

First year of rural community nursing program begins in Drayton Valley

Nine students from the Drayton Valley area are set to commence their studies and gain hands-on training on their way to obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree all without having to leave their home community.

Senior nurses share hard-earned wisdom with student nurses

It’s natural for any new nurse to feel a kind of stage fright. Yet every nurse — no matter how seasoned they may be today — once stood in their shoes at the starting line.

To bridge that gap, Alberta Health Services’ senior nurses recently answered career questions submitted by third-year nursing students from the University of Calgary. With topics from how to choose a specialty to building confidence in practice, nurses shared their honest, hard-won wisdom shaped by their years on the floor and early days in nursing.