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RNAO implores College of Nurses of Ontario to expedite its application processes for internationally educated nurses
In the midst of Ontario’s nursing crisis, thousands of internationally educated nurses (IEN) remain unable to practise while their applications to the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) languish, often for years.
RNAO has called on the CNO to immediately address the backlog of more than 20,000 IEN applications from nurses eager to join Ontario’s workforce at a time of dire need. RNAO has long urged the CNO to adopt a more streamlined approach to process these applications.
The association’s call for immediate action took on added urgency when it learned of a new program offering work to IENs in the long-term care sector as unregulated health providers. In a letter to the CNO, Dr. Doris Grinspun advised that their Long-Term Care Staffing Pool Program is “exploiting this pool of skilled applicants as a reserve of lesser-skilled labour in a time of crisis.” According to RNAO, this “unhelpful and shortsighted” approach is a “disservice to Ontarians in desperate need of nurses for both COVID and non-COVID-related health care.”
The letter urges the CNO to expedite IEN applicants so they can take their rightful place as members of Ontario’s nursing profession.
RNAO says the CNO must explain why its assessment system is so painfully slow, especially at a time of critical RN understaffing across the province.
