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

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

Nursing jobs in Canada: information for newcomers | Moving2Canada 

In the face of a severe shortage of registered nurses, British Columbia and Ontario are working to remove obstacles for internationally educated nurses.

British Columbia recently announced that it will remove some of the barriers to International Educated Nurses (IEN) registration in the province. To that end, it will eliminate application fees and introduce new financial support for nurses returning to practice after a period of absence.


The province says it will now pay the application and evaluation fees for the IEN, which can cost more than $3,700. Additionally, the province will provide up to $4,000 per person to cover the cost of assessments and eligible travel for nurses returning to work after a period of absence.

"Supporting nurses is key to our work to make health care accessible to all British Columbians. Despite this, demand for nurses outstrips supply," said Governor David Eby. “There are talented, skilled and experienced nurses who want to practice and support high-quality care in B.C., but they sit on the sidelines because of the costly and complicated registration process. Whether nurses are trained in or out of province, We are all ready to welcome those who are ready to care for British Columbians."


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Back in April 2022, the B.C. government announced a $12 million grant for IENs. Since the grant was announced, 5,000 people have expressed interest in nursing jobs in British Columbia. Of these, 2,000 are actively completing the registration and evaluation process.

 Overall, more than 90 per cent of nursing applications received by the BC College of Nursing and Midwifery in 2022 will result from these changes.

Ontario is also working to hire and retain more IENs

Ontario made similar progress in paving the way for IEN last fall. In October, the Ontario Ministry of Health, the Ontario College of Nursing and the Ontario College of Physicians implemented several reforms such as:

  • Allowing internationally educated nurses to register in a temporary class and begin working sooner while they work towards full registration;
  • Making it easier for non-practicing or retired nurses to return to the field by introducing flexibility to the requirement that they need to have practiced nursing within a certain period of time before applying for reinstatement; and
  • Creating a new temporary independent practice registration class for physicians from other provinces and territories, making it easier for them to work for up to 90 days in Ontario.
These measures are the start of a long-term plan. Other measures by the IEN, which came into force on 1 January this year, will have further positive effects and speed up the registration process, including:
  • Requiring health regulatory colleges to comply with time limits to make registration decisions;
  • Prohibiting health regulatory colleges from requiring Canadian work experience for the purpose of registration, with some exceptions such as when equivalent international experience is accepted; and
  • Accepting language tests approved under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) to reduce duplicate language proficiency testing for immigrants to Canada.
Between January and October last year, Ontario supported more than 800 IENs through expanded funding for the Surveillance Practice Experience Collaborative Program. The province expects that number to increase to 1,000 by the end of March this year.
Like BC, Ontario temporarily covers the cost of the Ontario College of Nursing exam, application and registration, up to $1,500. Finally, the Province of Ontario has invested $764 million in retention incentives of up to $5,000 for Ontario nurses.

Why is Canada working so hard to attract healthcare workers?

Canada's healthcare system is under pressure due to a number of factors including an aging population. This means that more people need health care, and many professionals in the health care industry are reaching retirement age.

What's more, a report by the Canadian Federation of Nurses' Unions says that even before the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a huge stress and shortage of nurses. At the height of the pandemic, many healthcare professionals were working unprecedentedly long shifts with little downtime, leading many to take extended leave to preserve their mental health, or quit the healthcare profession altogether.

According to Statistics Canada, there were 151,200 job vacancies in health care and social assistance in October, the highest of any industry and little changed from a record high of 152,800 in July. The latest figures for December show continued declines in employment in health care and social assistance, with Ontario reporting the largest number of job losses. 

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