The Dean of Nursing at Thompson Rivers University says students and staff have been able to navigate the first year in a new building during the pandemic.

Rani Srivastava says the 49,000 square foot building, worth $37 million, has only been at about 25 per cent capacity since it opened in September. But she says all students have been working in the building at different points during the school year.

And Srivastava says the nursing labs have been in full use.

“In many ways, this was so timely,” Srivastava tells NL News, saying the faculty has learned all about the new building while teaching students in labs at the same time.

“With the pandemic, theory classes went online, but nursing’s a practice profession. We needed to have students in the lab, to be able to practice and be able to do their skills. Some things you can teach virtually, but most of it is hands on. And we had to do the physical distancing, smaller groups.”

She says the nursing faculty has worked closely with the TRU’s health and safety office, to make sure proper COVID-19 safety plans are in place.

“So having the building – we moved in last July and August – the additional space, it’s about three, almost four times as much as our old lab space. So it really allowed us to be able to spread our students out, do all of the safety planning that was needed, have small groups of people.”

Srivastava says the faculty is preparing for 100-per-cent in-class learning come September, and is looking forward to getting to that point.