Regulatory changes speed up hiring process for nurses

Osborne hopes for an ‘influx of applications’ from other jurisdictions

Changes to the Registered Nurses Regulations announced Friday, June 2, at the Confederation Building in St. John’s will make it faster and easier for out-of-province nurses to work in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The amount of time it previously took to process applications and get nurses practising was two to six weeks for Canadian nurses, and more than a year for international nurses.

Those timeframes are now shortened to 24-72 hours for Canadian nurses, and two to four weeks for international nurses from designated countries (six months for nurses from other countries).

There are seven designated countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, India, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. These countries currently account for 85 per cent of the province’s international applicants.

The amendments, which help reduce administrative delays, went into effect on May 24 for Canadian applicants, and will go into effect on June 5 for international nurses.

The College of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland and Labrador is the regulatory body for registered nurses and nurse practitioners. Its mandate is to protect the public through self-regulation of the profession.

College executive director Lynn Power said these changes will expedite licensing of nurses at a time when they’re urgently needed, while also ensuring that standards of care remain unchanged.

The amendments change some of the documents nurses need to submit to the college in order to be registered and licensed in the province.

For example, instead of a nurse submitting a letter of good standing from a regulating body in another jurisdiction, now the college can simply get confirmation from those regulatory bodies that a nurse meets the requirements.

As well, previously applicants had to submit professional references, but now they only need to do so if required by the college.

Debbie Molloy, vicepresident of human resources with the provincial health authority, said these kinds of changes cut down on duplication within the system because the employer will also require references. Instead of both the college and the employer doing that work, in that instance now it’s just the employer.

Health Minister Tom Osborne said these changes “should give us an influx of applications, I hope.”

Both the government and the college have increased resources in anticipation of that influx.

The province is short about 500 to 600 permanent nurses, Osborne says. Those positions are filled with casual and travel nurses, but the goal is to decrease the reliance on travel nurses and increase the number of permanent nurses, he said.

In a news release, the health department said it anticipates about 200-300 nurses from India to begin work in the province by the end of this year. As well, the department said there are about 200 internationally educated nurses currently working in the province in other roles; these changes will provide a more streamlined process for them to get licensed.