Allison Jones, The Canadian Press Published Thursday, August 4, 2022 2:40 PM EDT Last Updated Thursday, August 4, 2022 7:04 PM EDT
TORONTO – Ontario’s health minister has tasked the regulatory colleges of nurses and doctors to develop plans to more quickly register internationally trained professionals, a move that nursing groups and critics say falls short of promise of the Prime Minister to do everything in his power to address a crisis of emergency staff. .
Sylvia Jones sent directives Thursday to the College of Nurses of Ontario and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to do everything possible to register these nurses and doctors “as quickly as possible” so that they can practice in the province and provide reports to the province. two weeks on how they will achieve it.
The minister also directed the college of nursing to develop supports for internationally trained nurses, for example to bring their skills up to Ontario standards, to allow them to practice “in a timely manner.”
Hospitals have been under strain in the province in recent weeks, with some emergency rooms forced to close for hours or days at a time due to staff shortages. More temporary closures are expected this weekend in Clinton, Ont., and St. Mary’s, Ontario.
Nursing groups, hospital executives, other health professionals and advocates have said burnout after more than two years on the front lines of COVID-19 and not receiving adequate compensation has meant the people leave the profession en masse.
Cathryn Hoy, president of the Ontario Nurses Association, said the system would benefit from more internationally trained nurses, but she wants to see the university’s report before assessing whether this particular directive will help.
He also said news from the directive alone does not equate to Premier Doug Ford doing everything in his power to address the staffing crisis, as he promised at a press conference Wednesday.
“This still goes hand in hand with Bill 124,” Hoy said, referring to legislation passed in 2019 that capped public sector workers’ pay increases at one percent for three years.
“You bring in all these internationally trained nurses, which will help because they’re nurses, but at the end of the day, who’s going to support them and guide them and mentor them, because there just aren’t enough nurses to do the work that we need in Ontario ?So we need to get retired nurses back and the only way to do that is if you repeal Bill 124.”
Ford indicated Wednesday that he would not repeal the wage cap legislation or increase a $5,000 retention bonus for nurses. He also noted that the provisions of the legislation expire and will not apply to future nursing contract negotiations.
But Hoy has said that if Bill 124 is scrapped, current contracts could be renegotiated.
Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, said she is pleased the directive has been issued and hopes it will clear a backlog of international nurses waiting for registration in 26,000.
But, he said, Bill 124 still has to go.
“That’s the retention tool that hurts more than anything else,” Grinspun said. “Not only do we need to bring in more nurses, we need to retain them here and this bill does not allow us to retain nurses here.”
Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said issuing the guidelines is a small step the government should have taken months ago.
“Clearly the government has done nothing to date to really increase the number of foreign-trained medical professionals in this province,” Fraser said.
“Then to say to a regulatory body, ‘You’ve got an idea in two weeks’. Shouldn’t the Ministry of Health say to the university, ‘Here’s the sort of thing we think you should be doing’?” No, “Have a plan?”.
NDP Deputy Leader Doly Begum said in a statement that the directives are “weak” and action must be taken.
“Ford and Jones have not provided funding or a path to complete the credentialing of doctors and nurses who want to work in Ontario,” he wrote. “We cannot afford any more vagueness.”
A 2020 report by the Ontario Equity Commissioner showed that 14,633 internationally educated nurses were actively pursuing licensure through the College of Nurses of Ontario. That same year, just over 2,000 international applicants became fully registered members.
The nursing college recently took steps to speed up the process, including changes to language proficiency requirements and a partnership with the province to create more supervised practice opportunities, a spokeswoman said.
This program has added 762 nurses to the hospital system since the start of the pandemic, according to the government.
The university has registered a record number of nurses this year, including more international nurses than in previous years, with 4,728 registrations as of early August, although that number does not indicate how many of those nurses are now working in Ontario.
The university also says it is looking at ways to streamline the process. To practice in Ontario, internationally trained nurses must demonstrate recent experience, pass exams and demonstrate proficiency in English or French.
A spokesman for the college said it is working on a response to the directive that will provide more details about its plans for internationally trained nurses.
“An area we want to continue to explore with system partners in academia and government is the need for targeted courses to address applicants’ educational gaps, often an ongoing barrier to IEN registration,” wrote Bradley Hammond in a statement.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on Thursday called on the prime minister to create a national health human resource data collection and coordination agency and provide pan-Canadian licensing of health professionals to help ease the shortage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 4, 2022.