B.C. FUNDS INTERNATIONAL NURSE ASSESSMENT SERVICE

VICTORIA – Kwantlen University College, soon to become Kwantlen Polytechnic University, has been selected as the delivery site for a new provincial internationally educated nurse assessment service that will help ease the entry of internationally educated registered nurses into the B.C. workforce, Health Services Minister George Abbott announced today.

“Internationally educated health professionals play a critical role in B.C.’s health-care system, and we are pleased to provide funding for an assessment service for internationally educated nurses at Kwantlen through a $1-million investment to the Health Employers Association of BC,” said Abbott. “Many nurses from outside Canada are recognizing that B.C. is a great place to live, work and raise a family, and the number of internationally educated nurses applying for licensing in B.C. is increasing each year. This partnership with Kwantlen will help us to ensure qualified nurses receive assessment and recognition of the competencies acquired through life, work and formal learning experiences.”

In December 2007, the Province announced this funding for the assessment service as part of its Internationally Educated Nurse Strategy. Funding will be distributed over two years to kickstart the new service and Kwantlen will begin performing competency-based assessments for internationally educated registered nurses in October 2008. Kwantlen will also begin the process of offering course work to optimize the successful integration of foreign-educated nurses into the workforce.

“We’re educating more nurses than ever before in B.C. with nearly double the number of nursing student spaces in public post-secondary institutions,” said Advanced Education and Labour Market Development Minister Murray Coell. “This new assessment service at Kwantlen goes hand-in-hand with that expansion, opening more doors to dedicated nurses wherever they were educated.”

Kwantlen was chosen as the site for the assessment service after a stringent application process that saw interested educational institutions submit written proposals outlining their ability to implement this service. Evaluation criteria included the educational institution’s commitment to establishing a provincial approach to assessment, its ability to work with a variety of jurisdictional partners and stakeholders and experience in the actual delivery of education programs for internationally educated nurses.

“Kwantlen is pleased to have the opportunity to develop an assessment service for internationally educated nurses,” said Kwantlen’s new president David W. Atkinson. “We look forward to building upon our established education programs for internationally educated nurses and providing nurses with services that are easily adapted to their specific needs in order to best prepare them for practice as registered nurses in B.C.”

The development of the service at Kwantlen builds on the successful results of a prior learning assessment and recognition program developed at Mount Royal College in Calgary. Kwantlen will work closely with Mount Royal, the College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia (CRNBC) and other key stakeholders throughout the planning and implementation stages.

“The creation of an assessment service for internationally educated nurses at Kwantlen University College is an excellent step forward for B.C.,” said Davina Gallagher, a U.K.-educated nurse who completed her competency assessment at Mount Royal College and now works as a registered nurse for Vancouver Coastal Health. “I found the assessment process at Mount Royal College to be an extremely positive experience. This comprehensive assessment gave me confidence in my skills, allowed me to consolidate my all around nursing knowledge and was great preparation for the Canadian Registered Nursing Exam.”

Currently, international nurses wishing to work in B.C. submit applications to CRNBC. Kwantlen’s assessment service is designed to help CRNBC determine a nurse’s ability to meet entry-level nursing competencies in B.C. CRNBC will continue to assess internationally educated nurses’ professional knowledge, skills and abilities and to support nurses in completing registration requirements in B.C. The assessment process at Kwantlen will not be necessary for every internationally educated nurse applying for a B.C. licence.

“The creation of the assessment service at Kwantlen University College will allow us to more accurately assess the skills and abilities of our international applicants and to quickly identify the specific learning needs of these applicants,” said Karen Irving, president of the College of Registered Nurses of BC. “We are seeing a steady increase in the number of international applicants and in the past year alone, CRNBC registered 424 registered nurses from outside the country. This service is great news for nurses and for B.C.’s health-care system.”

The Canadian Institute for Health Information 2006 Workforce Trends of Registered Nurses in Canada report indicates that B.C. has the highest concentration of internationally educated registered nurses in Canada, at 15.4 per cent. The national average for 2006 was 7.9 per cent. CRNBC estimates that approximately 37 per cent of international nurses applying for licensing in B.C. reside in the Lower Mainland.

In May, the Province announced a further investment of $15 million in the B.C. Nursing Strategy to educate, recruit and retain the best qualified nurses. B.C.’s total investment in the Nursing Strategy since 2001 is $189 million.

For more information on the Internationally Educated Nurses Assessment Service of British Columbia, please visit www.nursinginbc.ca.

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Media contact:	Michelle Stewart Communications Director Ministry of Health Services 250 812-5571 (cell) 250 952-1887 (media line)

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