Bloomberg Nursing is building pathways to nursing education in the eastern and western regions of the GTA by opening the BScN and Master of Nursing – Nurse Practitioner (NP) programs to new cohorts of students at U of T Mississauga and at U of T Scarborough as part of the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH).
This is a tangible example of what U of T President Melanie Woodin calls “excellence at scale” – where exceptional teaching and research is made accessible for more students.
In anticipation of this tri-campus expansion, Dean Robyn Stremler hosted two Planning Summits earlier this month on April 10 and April 17, bringing together clinical and community partners, and members of the academic community from each campus, to prepare for the launch of both programs in the Fall of 2026.
A time of growth for Bloomberg Nursing
This expansion signals a time of growth for the Faculty and is expected to create opportunities for students from a diverse range of backgrounds, to explore nursing as a career path that enables them to live, learn and work closer to home.
In her opening remarks, Dean Stremler noted that it is important for Bloomberg Nursing to align its curriculum with real-world health system needs.
“The perspectives of our partners will help us better understand the evolving clinical and community needs across the eastern and western GTA, ensuring our teaching and clinical experiences remain relevant, evidence-based, and responsive,” said Stremler.
Each Planning Summit included panel discussions featuring nurses and nurse practitioners working directly in the neighbourhoods that these nursing program expansions are designed to serve. Speakers included alumni and clinical and community leaders, including representatives from TAIBU, Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities, Scarborough Health Network, Michael Garrron Hospital, Trillium Health Partners, William Osler Health System, Lakeridge Health and Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences.
The panels were followed by focused breakout sessions on topics that ranged from supporting preceptors and facilitating placements, to providing a high-quality student experience and launching the new NP-led clinic as part of SAMIH at U of T Scarborough.
Alumni perspectives
Katie Bowden and Nirusha Jebanesan, both Bloomberg Nursing alumni and NPs, attended the Scarborough planning summit as panelists, and described their experiences working in the community and how this expansion of the NP program would benefit new NP students.
“We need learners to understand how to practice in a system where coverage changes what is possible for your patient and you are exposed to the heartbreaking reality of writing a prescription knowing your patient is not able to fill it,” said Bowden.
“Working in Scarborough, you are in a different position where you need to use every tool in your toolbox, you see a problem and you are the one who fixes it,” said Jebanesan.
UTSC – SAMIH NP Cohort Planning Summit Photos
Building a sense of community
At the U of T Mississauga planning summit Bloomberg Nursing alumna Farah Khan, Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services at Trillium Health Partners, described the expansion of the BScN degree program to U of T Mississauga as a unique opportunity for nursing students to provide care in one of the world’s most diverse communities. It was also an opportunity she said, to address nursing students’ drive to grow in their careers.
“Learners are different now, they want to grow quickly in their careers, and we need to consider how we can support their professional development and pathways to specialization,” said Khan.
Panelist Stacey Lim, a Nurse Practitioner in Peel and a preceptor for Bloomberg Nursing, noted the importance of seeing students as colleagues and the need to ensure students based at U of T Mississauga feel a connection to their peers on the downtown campus.
UTM BScN Planning Summit Photos
“I am grateful for the energy and openness that each planning member brought to these sessions,” says Stremler. “These action-oriented and collaborative discussions have helped the Faculty begin to implement our shared vision of moving health care forward, and expanding nursing education.”