An initiative aimed at helping support the education and training of health care practitioners and in turn encouage them to work and serve in this area has been paying off.
The Learn and Return Health Care Bursary is still a relatively new initiative, but organizers already know it works—12 employees who have received it are currently working at Boundary Trails Health Centre.
The dream of the initiative’s proponents, including Marilyn Skubovius and Pat Gibson, is that in the future staffing for health care would not be a problem in this area of the province.
“The whole concept of when it was initiated was Boundary Trails Health Centre is expanding, and they’re going to need new staff for different programming, and what did everybody say? We already don’t have enough staff, so how are you going to open any new programs?” recalled Gibson.
They took the idea for the bursary to the Morden Area Foundation, and it immediately recognized the value of it and helped them create an endowment fund so donations to it could give back in perpetuity.
“We then literally just went from business to business, interested party to interested party, and the rest is history,” Gibson said.
The bursary fund is now at just under $700,000 thanks in large part to a $500,000 contribution from Dave Lumgair in memory of his wife. Their goal is to reach $1 million.
Applications are now being accepted for 2026 with a deadline of May 15. There will be $26,500 to distribute this year.
Over the past two years they’ve given out 36 bursaries to residents from Morden, Winkler, Stanley, Miami, Altona, and Hochfield pursuing careers as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, and in medical records and MRI technology.
Gibson noted it was especially gratifying to get an applicant wanting to be an MRI technician, as they are harder to come by. They’re also thrilled to have supported three medical doctors, with one for certain already committed to continuing as a family practitioner in the area.
Joel Nelson, director of health services at BTHC, and Nicole Walske, director of Menzies Medical Centre, serve on the fund’s committee alongside Gibson and Skubovius and a representative of the Morden Area Foundation.
Nelson and Walske are especially valuable, Gibson noted, as they can identify the greatest needs in staffing, so those needs can be considered when giving out bursaries.
Gibson emphasized that anyone who lives in the catchment area of BTHC and is working at or would like to work at BTHC or the Menzies Medical Centre is eligible to apply.
“I am really looking forward to seeing the applicants,” she said. “It’s open even to anyone who’s currently working but wants to advance their skills, and it’s also open to immigrants who need to be recertified to work here.”
