Tens of thousands of nurses are currently sitting on the sidelines as Ontario hospital emergency departments are on the brink of closing due to staff shortages.
That’s because this group of about 26,000 nurses in Ontario is internationally educated, according to the latest report by the province’s Office of Equity Commission.
“Of those, 14,000 are registered nurses, which is really where the toe hurts,” said Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) executive director Doris Grinspoon.
The University Health Network (UHN) issued a memo to medical staff last week expressing an “urgent need” for “volunteers” to fill medical shifts at Toronto’s Western Hospital emergency department.
“You have emergency rooms that are closing. You have nursing homes that are understaffed. It all boils down to the same thing. Breastfeeding is like the backbone of the system. If you don’t have enough nurses, the system can’t function,” Grinspoon said.
According to the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) website, the registration process for a nurse educated outside of Canada takes between three to 18 months. This includes eight registration requirements such as proof of practice, language proficiency and a registration exam.
“Each registration journey is unique. For those who have met more than the registration requirements, the CNO can register them as nurses in a few weeks,” said CNO spokeswoman Christy Green.
But for candidates like Carla Ducousin, it took much longer. For her, it took three years.
Ducousin qualified and practiced as a registered nurse for four years in the Philippines before immigrating to Canada. She entered the country as a caregiver because it was the fastest way to immigrate.
Currently, Ducusin said there are about 400 internationally educated nurses from the Philippines who have come to Canada under the caregiving program. “Imagine if everyone got them [nurses] licenses,” she said. “That would significantly help the shortage.”
It took Ducousin two years to complete the required English and licensing exams, for which she spent all of her savings. But once she passed, she also needed permanent resident status or an open work permit.
After another year, she became a permanent resident and immediately went to interviews at several hospitals in Toronto.
“Diabetes is diabetes. “Alzheimer’s disease is Alzheimer’s disease,” Ducousin said. “Taking care of people and doing everyday things, it’s pretty much the same,” she said.
Grinspoon said reducing the time frame it takes to process these nurses would dramatically change the current shortage. A recent RNAO report found that the backlog of internationally educated nursing applicants in Ontario has been growing for more than a decade and has only escalated during the pandemic.
“These are nurses who already live here,” Grinspoon said. “It takes forever to integrate them into the workforce.”
Meanwhile, the workforce is collapsing, said Birgit Umaygba, a registered nurse at a Toronto emergency room.
“Last week, I had to extend my shift to 4pm because there was no one to take over,” Umaygba said. “How do you walk away from a patient who is intubated on life support and there is no one to take over?”
How many internationally trained nurses and doctors here are not working in these roles?? It’s time to look at the solutions that are already here. https://t.co/CaXb3xEWXR
— Amy Archibald-Varley, RN, Minnesota (@AmieVarley) July 25, 2022
Some days, Umaygba said she was doing the work of three nurses. She said this meant patients would have to sit dirty for hours, developing bedsores.
“People don’t realize how serious it is until they’re affected,” she said.
While Umaygba said she sees an immediate need to bring more internationally educated nurses into the workforce, she said it needs to be coupled with a long-term solution.
“If internationally educated nurses enter the workforce, they also need to be retained,” she said.
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