P.E.I. speeds up process to allow internationally trained nurses to work in province

P.E.I. is taking steps to make it quicker and easier to hire internationally trained nurses as it deals with an ongoing labour shortage throughout the health-care system.

The new program, announced Friday by the Department of Health and Wellness, is meant to speed up the recognition of credentials from foreign-trained nurses from seven different countries: the Philippines, the U.S., India, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Nigeria.

Nurses trained in those countries who come to P.E.I. would be able to work with a provisional licence with another registered nurse until they complete a period of practical training, then take their test to be licensed. The training would be for 3-4 months. 

From that point, the College of Registered Nurses & Midwives of P.E.I. says a decision on licensing will be made within two weeks. The college said the process took more than a year in the past. 

"There is some risk there," said Health and Wellness Minister Mark McLane.

"When you open the recruitment to seven countries obviously there's some variances in expectations and experience."

McLane said there's no timeline on when the project will be fully implemented.

"It's a balanced approach," McLane said. "We need to ensure that they're trained the way we expect them to be trained."

As of the end of April, Health P.E.I. had 269 existing vacancies for registered nurses. It hired 42 nurses from the graduating class at UPEI this year.

That's in the range of how many replacement registered nurses that P.E.I. needs per year, according to a recent report from the government on health-care human resources.

Nurses stage 'die-in' in Charlottetown

The program's announcement comes as hundreds of nurses from Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions held a rally in Charlottetown to raise awareness about nation-wide staffing shortages.

They held what they called a "die-in" at Confederation Landing Park, where they laid on the ground to illustrate what they said the effect staffing shortages can have on nurses and patients.

"Nurses can no longer continue holding this health-care system together with overtime and determination," said union president Linda Silas. "Excessive overtime is not safe for nurses, and it's not safe for their patients."

In the legislature Friday, Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker said the province should be working to become more self-sufficient when it comes to nursing, while Opposition Leader Hal Perry criticized the province's incentives for hiring and retaining nurses.

"When it comes down to it, Island nurses are offered less to stay here than their counterparts," Perry said.

New contract with nurses

Last month, Health P.E.I. ratified a new four-year deal with the P.E.I. Nurses Union that will see pay increases and new incentives for working weekends and nights, as well as a bonus for committing to full-time positions.

Now, McLane said getting more nurses in the system quicker is a priority.

"For those workers who are either in Canada or come to Canada, we want to get them to work faster so there's not any financial delays in them earning income," he said. 

"We know that there are many wonderful registered nurses who want to come and live and work in P.E.I. and a lengthy registration process shouldn't deter them from doing so."