Helping foreign-trained doctors, nurses
It can typically take four years to educate a nurse, upwards of a decade for a doctor, even longer for a speciality.
While boosting the intake of students into these fields is one response to the personnel challenges confronting the health-care system, it’s no quick remedy for the current crisis.
Another remedy holds the promise of providing some relief sooner. There are thousands of nurses and doctors who could step into these jobs.
The wrinkle? They were educated abroad. They have the training but just as importantly, many also have years of valuable experience working with patients at bedside.
The challenge is getting them accredited so they can work in Ontario. That challenge was behind a directive sent by provincial Health Minister Sylvia Jones this month telling the regulatory bodies that oversee nurses and doctors to step up efforts to accredit those trained abroad “as expeditiously as possible.”
Internationally trained health professionals have the potential to “alleviate pressures in the near term,” the directives stated. The two bodies — the College of Nurses of Ontario and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario — have two weeks to respond.
It’s welcome to see Queen’s Park bringing a sense of urgency to the issue. No doubt, the accreditation process for foreign-trained doctors and nurses could be streamlined to some degree.
But let’s be clear. The directives are no magic wand. Like everything in health care, it’s complicated. The solutions go beyond what lies under the control of the two colleges.
In this case, foreign trained nurses and doctors come to Ontario with different educations and varied practical experiences. To work here often means filling in gaps in education and skills to meet the requirements to get licensed. Getting that education and practical experiences is too often a hurdle.
This is where efforts should be focused.
Foreign trained nurses, for example, don’t need to start their education from scratch. What kind of bespoke education programs can be developed to address the gaps mostly commonly seen? What barriers exist that deter these professionals from taking the necessary exams? Those are two areas are a focus of the nurses’ college.
Even before the directive, there was some encouraging work being done. For example, one program helps provide applicants the experience to meet practice and language proficiency requirements. The College of Nurses of Ontario had registered 3,967 internationally educated nurses as of June 21. That’s up 132 per cent compared to last year.
The challenges are similar for foreign-trained doctors. A recent Torstar article laid out their frustrations.
“It’s really heart wrenching,” Dr. Makini McGuire-Brown told reporter Patty Winsa after failing to get a residency spot for the fourth straight year in a row.
Without that experience, she can’t get licensed in Canada. Four years is a long time to leave a doctor on the sidelines considering the crisis at hand.
The province is providing expanding postgraduate placements over five years. The extra spots for international medical graduates are needed now.
Another option is practice-ready assessments meant to assess international medical graduates deemed ready to practise. The program — in place in seven other provinces — was under development in Ontario before it was axed by the Doug Ford government in 2018. It’s time to resurrect this idea.
Not all foreign-trained doctors need Canadian experience. But clinical experience is recognized from only a handful of countries, such as Australia and the United Kingdom. Expanding that list is another area that should be reviewed.
The two colleges will provide their recommendations. Ontario needs to recognize that it must play a key role in the solutions they propose.
Not all foreign-trained doctors need Canadian experience. But clinical experience is recognized from only a handful of countries, such as Australia and the United Kingdom. Expanding that list is another area that should be reviewed