The Robbins Health Learning Centre at MacEwan University. Amanda Erickson/The Griff.

As Alberta’s healthcare system faces sweeping legislation and mounting strain, some MacEwan nursing students say they are concerned about what awaits their careers after graduation. 

Kate Miller, a third-year MacEwan nursing student, said healthcare privatization is her biggest concern, compounded by Alberta’s overburdened healthcare system. 

“We’re in over 100 per cent of our capacity to take people, and there are still people getting sick, obviously, and so that really poses a concern for what’s workload is going to look like for healthcare professionals in the future,” she said. 

That over-capacity Miller described has led to deadly delays province-wide. 

Last October, The Tyee obtained provincial government documents which confirmed the warnings from healthcare critics: a system overwhelmed and unprepared to handle an influx of illnesses. These concerns were confirmed two months later after a man died while waiting eight hours to be seen at the Grey Nuns Hospital emergency room in Edmonton.  

As Miller prepares to enter her nursing career, she said she wonders what resources the provincial government will provide to healthcare professionals to address increased workloads.

“We’re in over 100 per cent of our capacity to take people, and there are still people getting sick, obviously, and so that really poses a concern for what’s workload is going to look like for healthcare professionals in the future.” 

— Kate Miller, third-year MacEwan nursing student

“No one really knows how the changes are going to affect us,” Miller said.  

“And I think that kind of lack of communication can be scary, because maybe they [the UCP government] will just hit us all of a sudden with a big change. Who knows how that will affect not only healthcare staff, but also the people that we care for.”

Jaida Davoren, a fourth-year MacEwan nursing student, said she learned in theory class, Future Directions in Nursing, that nurses are in a unique position to advocate not only for their patients but also for policy changes in government. 

However, Davoren said it is overwhelming for her, as a nursing student transitioning into her career, to learn that, despite all their responsibilities, nurses are “constantly working against a system that doesn’t support us.” 

“I think that we should work for a system that supports us, but [in] the same way that I think teachers should get to work for a system that supports them. I think the police should get to work for a system that supports them, but also a system that listens to the public,” Davoren said. 

“And when the public and the people who work for these systems are all crying out that there’s a problem and calling for a state of emergency, I think that the government should be listening to us.”

Elaine Alejandro, is a second-year MacEwan nursing student, but was raised in the United States and has witnessed the pitfalls of its privatized healthcare system. 

“I think that we should work for a system that supports us, but in the same way that I think teachers should get to work for a system that supports them. I think the police should get to work for a system that supports them, but also a system that listens to the public,” 

— Jaida Davoren, fourth-year MacEwan Nursing student

“Honestly, I feel like the cost of vaccinations, meaning more people are sick, and then no space being in the hospital means that a lot of people are going to try to get into more private hospitals and private sanctions of health care in order to get treatment,” Alejandro said. She added that increasing “cost effective” healthcare measures would help make it more accessible for people. 

In late 2025, The Globe and Mail reported that Alberta’s UCP government planned to introduce unprecedented legislation that would allow physicians to work in both the private and public systems simultaneously. Healthcare experts warned that the legislation would further squeeze out the public healthcare sector. 

Davoren said that the countries whose healthcare systems Alberta’s government is modelling itself after showed positive signs at the beginning, but politicians stopped paying attention to the negatives in the aftermath.

Davoren said it is as though the government is “putting a blanket over everyone’s eyes” while ignoring the fact that healthcare in those countries has started to fall apart. 

“Where are all the other facts, and how do they all come together to create one big picture?” she asked. 

“And even after doing that myself, that’s still not the full picture, because I’m biased and I am one person interpreting this information, but people just listen to the government, and it scares me, because I see how the profession of nursing is not supported, and they have been taking resources away for so long and watching the system fall apart.”