Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - May 2009
A new program in Calgary is aiming to assist foreign nurses in developing the skills they need in order to find work in their profession when they arrive in Canada.
Despite a growing shortage in health care workers, many foreign-trained doctors and nurses who immigrate to Canada are unable to continue working in their chosen field. A significant obstacle is the lack of foreign credential recognition, a situation which governments and advocates at all levels in the country are attempting to rectify.
However, for many professionals, the language barrier can be just as difficult to navigate as the accreditation procedure.
With their new program, called Integrated Practical Nurse diploma for Internationally Educated Nurses, the Bow Valley College in Calgary, hopes to ease the transition for immigrant nurses.
�Where a lot of immigrants have problems, particularly in the hospital environment is the rapid-fire language that�s necessary in a hospital,� said Isabel Gibbins, who heads the college�s Second Language department. �In emergency situations, you have to comprehend very quickly what�s being asked of you and be able to respond very quickly.�
The program is one of several initiatives being launched in the western provinces in order to attract the skilled health professionals Canada needs. One such initiative includes a joint venture between Mount Royal College in Calgary and a Vancouver-based online learning service to offer online tutorials on integration to foreign health care workers so they can start that process before they even arrive in Canada.
Mount Royal College�s Faculty of Nursing director Pamela Nordstrom said the priority must be to provide support to anyone, Canadian or foreign-born, who wants to work in nursing.
�Predictions are that on the current path we�re on, we can�t possibly meet our needs for healthcare workers in the future with our own workers in Canada,� said Nordstrom. �So we�re going to have to look elsewhere.�
Source: Calgary Herald
