Nurses are the largest health care profession in the province. Currently, one in ten nurses in Ontario is an Internationally Educated Nurse (IEN). However, many IENs living in Ontario do not work in their profession. Employing IENs benefit the health care system, patients and IENs. Health care organizations should hire IENs because, they:
- reflect the diversity of the patient population
- are needed to augment the aging Canadian nursing workforce
- bring valuable experience and additional language skills
- contribute new skills and innovative ideas to health care
Almost 300 foreign-trained nurses arrive in Canada each year with most settling in Ontario. Once these nurses have obtained the qualifications and skills to be eligible for employment, employers can reach out to them. They need to integrate them into their workforce in a way that effectively ensures that their skills contribute to organizational productivity
To counteract “brain waste”, researchers in McMaster University’s Nursing Health Services Research Unit (NHSRU) together with the Ontario Hospital Association have developed a unique web-based resource, www.oha.com/ien to help hospitals and health care facilities overcome barriers in the integration of internationally educated nurses (IENs) into the workforce.
On the Internationally Educated Nurses: An Employer’s Guide site you will find a wealth of information, including the advantages of hiring IENs, creating a harmonious workforce, useful resources and success stories from individuals and organizations.
The website includes stories by IENs about their experiences becoming nurses in Canada. Maria Rosalie Rival, who migrated from the Philippines to Toronto in 2007, advises other IENs to research what is needed to register in Ontario before migration. Read her story and those of others by clicking here.
This web-guide was produced by The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) in partnership with the Nursing Health Services Research Unit (NHSRU), McMaster site and was funded by the Government of Ontario. The research leads for the initiative are Andrea Baumann, Scientific Director, NHSRU and Jennifer Blythe, Senior Researcher, NHSRU.
For more information about the IEN Project, visit www.oha.com/ien or contact:
Dr. Andrea Baumann at baumanna@mcmaster.ca
Dr. Jennifer Blythe at blytheje@mcmaster.ca
Maggie Fung at mfung@oha.com