Manitoba regulator shortens accreditation process for nurses educated in U.K., U.S., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand

A new expedited application process could get some nurses educated outside of Canada into Manitoba’s workforce much sooner than is currently the case.

Eligible applicants who were educated and have practised in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. will no longer have to complete a clinical competence assessment, the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba announced Monday.

While the assessment itself isn’t a long process, the time it takes to schedule it, along with the wait for results and the college’s review of them, means a delay of anywhere from three to 18 months from start to finish.

“People are still going to have to do a certain amount of work to meet all of the requirements (and) registration, like any applicant in Canada,” said communications manager Martin Lussier.

“But at the same time, we think it’s just another way for us to be contributing to the work that’s being done across Manitoba to try and address the health human resource needs that are quite apparent, I’d say, across the province.”

The countries chosen have very similar education and practice policies as Canada, Lussier said, and nurses will still have to pass the national registered nurse exam.

Approximately five to 10 per cent of international nurse applications to practise in Manitoba come from Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.

In the last 2 1/2 years, Lussier said about 20 applicants have come from those countries.

Several provinces have a version of a designated country list for expedited nursing applications. Lussier said the college will monitor how the process impacts the application process and make adjustments, as needed.

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said the initiative is an important step, but will not make a dent in the province’s nursing shortage.

“I think that everyone is just trying to look at ways of how do we do something positively to try and affect this nursing shortage,” she said.

“This is definitely a step forward, but I’m not positive that it’s going to garner us the number of nurses we need to solve our nursing shortage.”

Lussier agreed.

“I would just be blunt; this, on its own, is not going to solve the health human resource crunch we’re facing in Manitoba,” he said. “However, it is another tool in the toolbox that we’re unlocking.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

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