B.C. TO SEE INTERNATIONAL NURSES WORKING SOONER

VICTORIA – A new fast-track assessment service for internationally educated nurses will support expediting the registration process to get nurses educated overseas into the British Columbia workforce sooner, announced Health Minister George Abbott today.

“Ensuring that there are enough registered nurses in this province to meet the health-care needs of British Columbians is a priority for this government,” said Abbott. “Since 2001, we have invested $174 million to educate, recruit and retain the best qualified nurses. Internationally educated nurses are an integral part our workforce, and this initiative will help get them working as registered nurses in B.C. much sooner.”

The Internationally Educated Nurses Strategy will receive $500,000 per year in funding from the Ministry of Health and will focus on developing an assessment service that works with a variety of other initiatives and organizations, including Skills Connect, HealthMatch BC, health authorities and nursing regulatory colleges.

The assessment service will target all internationally educated nurses, including registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses and licensed practical nurses. It will also work with all nursing regulatory colleges.

The key objectives of the assessment service are to:

· Increase the number of practising nurses who have been educated outside Canada;

· Establish an internationally educated nurses assessment service in B.C. by fall 2008; and

· Establish or expand nursing orientation programs for internationally educated nurses within B.C.’s health authorities.

“The number of internationally educated nurses in British Columbia continues to rise, and health authorities and others rely on these nurses to fill nursing vacancies in the province,” said Karen Irving, president of the College of Registered Nurses of BC. “Currently, it can take up to a year for us to evaluate the educational credentials and professional experience of an internationally educated nurse. That this initiative could halve this time is exciting news for the nursing profession and for the people of British Columbia.”

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information 2005 workforce trends report, 15.3 per cent of registered nurses in B.C. were educated abroad, twice as high as the national average of 7.6 per cent. According to CRNBC, the total number of internationally educated nurse applications has increased every year since 2004. As of December 2006, CRNBC received close to 1,000 applications, an increase of 33 per cent over 2004. CRNBC reported 300 new IEN registrants in 2006.

B.C.’s nursing strategy is focused on educating, retaining and recruiting registered nurses, nurse practitioners, registered psychiatric nurses and licensed practical nurses in British Columbia. B.C. has added more than 3,300 new nursing education spaces, an 82 per cent increase, since 2001. In the same time period, the number of practising nurses in this province has risen by almost 10 per cent to 40,000.

The B.C. nursing strategy investment is part of government’s Pacific Leadership Agenda to improve the health of British Columbians and to renew the public health system.

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Media contact:	Marisa Adair Communications Director Ministry of Health 250 920-8500 (cell) 250 952-1887 (media line)

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