Provinces trying to make it easier for internationally educated nurses to work in Canada

#BritishColumbia and #Ontario are removing obstacles for internationally educated nurses in the face of a severe shortage of nurses.

Internationally educated nurses (IENs) will be able to register with the province without some barriers recently announced by British Columbia. In order to do so, it will eliminate application fees and provide new financial support to nurses returning to practice.

As a result, the province will now cover application and assessment fees for IENs, which can exceed $3,700. Additionally, the province will cover up to $4,000 per person for assessments and eligible travel costs for nurses returning to practice.

Premier David Eby noted that despite the importance of supporting nurses to aid in making health care accessible to British Columbians, the demand for them is outstripping supply. He added that there are plenty of qualified and capable nurses willing to work in BC and deliver top-notch care, but are stymied by a costly and complex registration process. Concluding his remarks, he made clear that the province is eager to welcome any nurse, whether they were trained domestically or abroad.

As of April 2022, the BC government has announced $12 million in bursaries for IENs. Since the funding was announced, 5,000 people have expressed interest in nursing in British Columbia. More than 2,000 of these individuals are actively completing the registration and assessment process.

The BC College of Nurses and Midwives received more than 90% of nursing applications following the changes in 2022.

Ontario is also working to hire and retain more IENs

In October, the Ontario Ministry of Health, the College of Nurses of Ontario, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario implemented several changes to smooth the way for IENs. These changes included:

· Internationally educated nurses can register in a temporary class and begin working sooner while they work towards full registration;

· Creating flexibility in the requirement that nurses must have practiced nursing within a certain period of time before applying for reinstatement to make it easier for retired or non-practicing nurses to return to the field; and

· Making it easier for physicians from other provinces and territories to practice in Ontario for up to 90 days by creating a temporary independent practice registration class.

Additional measures for IENs came into effect on Jan 1 this year that will make a positive impact on the applications and speed up the registration process, including:

· Establishing time limits for health regulatory colleges to make registration decisions;

· A prohibition on health regulatory colleges requiring Canadian work experience for registration, with some exceptions, such as when equivalent international experience is accepted; and

· To reduce duplicate language proficiency testing for immigrants to Canada, accepting language tests approved under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

In the last year, Ontario supported over 800 IENs through the supervised practice experience partnership program. By the end of March, that number is expected to reach 1,000.

Like BC, Ontario is temporarily covering the cost of examinations, applications, and registration fees for the College of Nurses of Ontario, which can be as high as $1,500. As a retention incentive, Ontario has invested $764 million to offer nurses up to $5,000.

Why is Canada working so hard to attract #healthcare workers?

A number of factors are putting pressure on the Canadian healthcare system, including an aging population, more people requiring healthcare, and many professionals reaching retirement age.

A report by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Union also indicates that nurses were under significant strain long before the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the pandemic, many healthcare professionals worked unprecedentedly long shifts with little time off, which led to them taking extended leave for mental health, or quitting the field altogether.

Statistics #Canada reported that health care and social assistance had 151,200 vacant positions in October, the highest level across all sectors and barely changed from July’s record high of 152,800 positions. According to the most recent December data, employment in healthcare and social assistance is declining, with Ontario experiencing the largest number of job losses.