Sarnia-Lambton’s hospital group has been approved to help with a new program to certify internationally trained nurses to work in Ontario.
The Supervised Practice Experience Partnership program sees people trained in nursing in other countries, but not licensed for nursing in Ontario, work with hospital nurses called preceptors over 140 hours to demonstrate their capabilities as part of the College of Nurses of Ontario licensing process, Bluewater Health chief nursing executive Shannon Landry said.
Assessments are then provided to the college.
“Then Bluewater Health will hopefully be hiring these internationally educated nurses,” Landry added.
The Ontario Health-funded program, announced earlier this year, is one initiative to help address the ongoing nursing shortage in the province, officials said.
That’s something Bluewater Health hasn’t acutely felt, Landry noted.
“At this point in time, we’re always able to hire,” she said, calling the hospital group lucky for the constant stream of applicants it sees. “As we move forward, we want to ensure we stay lucky.”
Details about how many internationally trained nurses will come to Bluewater Health for training and when their evaluations will start aren’t yet known, she said.
“The next phase in this process is that Ontario Health will be working to match nurses with Bluewater Health,” she said.
Potential matches will be reviewed and everyone, including the nurse, needs to sign on, she said.
Preceptor availability at Bluewater Health – some are needed for students – will be a factor, as will the number of applications Bluewater Health receives, she said.
“We don’t know how many summaries we’re going to get to see once all the matches are made,” she said.
International nurses in the program are paid for their hours worked, likely at the level of a graduate nurse.
“Ontario Health is funding some of this, so that is wonderful,” she said. “Whatever else is needed, Bluewater Health will be picking up.”
Several hospitals in Ontario are expected to participate, Landry said.
“We’re very excited about it, to bring diversity to our community with these internationally trained nurses,” she said. “It will be great for the hospital and it will be great for the community for sure.”