Humber Polytechnic is tackling Ontario’s nursing shortage with a program designed to fast-track internationally educated nurses into the workforce.
Humber announced this summer that its Internationally Educated Nurses (IEN) Education Requirement Pathway is the first in Ontario to meet changes to registration standards set by the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO).
Health Minister Sylvia Jones said in a release that the program will help ease the province's nursing shortage.
Humber’s IEN Pathway Program Advisor Selam Teweldai said Humber’s program started this fall and is in a condensed format.
“The program was developed to meet the specific 38 competencies,” Teweldai said.
The CNO updated the registration process on April 1, so registered nurses (RNs) and registered practical nurses (RPNs) can complete “a nursing program that is recognized or approved in any jurisdiction and is substantially equivalent to a CNO-approved nursing program,” according to the CNO website.
The IEN program was crafted with the CNO to support nurses who are internationally educated who have not yet met the requirements, Teweldai said.
Thea Santiago, an IEN at Scarborough General, said the process when she first came to Canada in 2013 was very tedious.
“I have also heard it is very easy now compared to before,” Santiago said.
The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) said in a July 25, 2024, release that data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows that Ontario needs 26,000 additional RNs.
It said the province needs that many “just to catch up to the RN-to-population ratio in the rest of Canada, a profound gap that has widened by three per cent since 2022.”
Selam Teweldai said it often becomes double the workload when hospitals are low on nurses.
“It is challenging to be one person and look after seven to eight patients when you want to provide the best care," Teweldai said.
“Approximately 2.5 million Ontarians lack access to a primary care provider, with an expected increase to 4.4 million by 2026,” the RNAO said.
Sunnybrook’s IEN Career Pathway Project Manager, Vishwa Shah, said IENs “bring a wealth of knowledge from back home.”
Shah said vacancies are already declining in the Greater Toronto Area and credited IEN programs with helping more nurses enter the field.
Thea Santiago said there are few shifts that she can count on her hands that are fully staffed,
“Most of the time we are short,” she said. “We do help fill in the gaps.”
Jones was not available for an interview, but spokesperson Emma Popovic said in an email that Ontario has a record number of new nurses.
“Adding a total of 50,000 new nurses, with another 30,000 studying nursing at one of Ontario’s Colleges or Universities,” she said in the email.
Selam Teweldai said Humber’s IEN program, which started this fall, is two semesters long and is very fast-paced.
She said it consists of virtual theory sessions for the first four months, once a week, five-hour in-person labs, followed by a clinical practicum.
Humber does work with the nurses to accommodate the learner, based on their different experiences, Teweldai said.
While no one was available for an interview, CNO Communications spokesperson Elizabeth Almeida said in an email that the CNO learned from applicants that the most impact could be caused by modernizing the education requirement.
The pathways are designed around a base of entry-level competencies, including both theoretical and practical components built on an IEN’s foundational education, Almeida said in the email
She wrote that the challenges she has seen IENs face are language barriers and a different nursing practice from what they know from their home.
“It’s very much physician-focused in some areas back home,” Shah said. That leads to learning to speak up for themselves in Canada in a way they didn’t before, she said.
Humber Polytechnic President and CEO Anne Marie Vaughan said in Humber’s media release that the IEN program will provide them with the right skills, experience, and confidence they need to succeed.
Shah said IENs have the foundation from where they are from, but programs like Humber’s and Sunnybrook’s really help support them on how to transition to working in Ontario.
Teweldai said the program produces fully equipped and experienced nurses.
She said Humber knows IENs need support and “we’re not just getting them to take a course online and throwing them out there, that's what we worry about.”
“They’re a very special group because they have a lot of experience, but we need to cultivate it (for) the Canadian system,” Teweldai said.
