Foreign-trained nurses still fighting to qualify

With 20 years of nursing experience in China, Wei Wu came to Canada in search of improved prospects, only to find educational challenges and mounting debt.

In July 2005, Wei Wu and her family left China for Canada. “For my daughter’s future, for her education, we came overseas,” Wu told the Georgia Straight in her family’s basement suite in Vancouver.

In China, Wu worked as a nurse for more than 20 years. She and her husband knew it would be difficult to secure professional employment in a western country. But Wu said she had also heard that there was a nursing shortage in B.C. She thought that with a little hard work, she could contribute to B.C.’s health-care system. In September 2008, after taking English classes and working part-time as a caregiver, Wu enrolled in Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s registered-nurse reentry program.

“I went to the Web site and it said that 98 percent of their graduates pass the Canadian Registered Nurse exam,” she explained. “That gave me much more hope. I thought that almost everyone could pass.”

Wu was told about halfway through the program that she was one of the two percent who would not succeed.

“I stayed home crying,” Wu said. “I felt almost like it was the end of the world. I had given up a paying job and taken a student loan for this program. It almost seemed for me like there was no turning back.”

Kwantlen did not make a representative available for comment by the Straight’s deadline. Wu now works as a caregiver for seniors. Her husband was recently laid off, and the couple is struggling with Wu’s student loan. Their experience is just one example of the hardships that internationally educated professionals face in B.C., according to people who work in this area.

Wu has since appealed Kwantlen’s decision, asking for the F on her transcript to be changed to a W, signifying a withdrawal from the program. She said this will make it much easier for her to gain future employment as a nurse in B.C.

Wu claims that Kwantlen treated her unfairly. She said the nurse reentry program was more of an “evaluation” than an education, and alleged that she was not given the opportunity to withdraw from the program, as several of her colleagues were. She also expressed skepticism about Kwantlen’s claim that 98 percent of participants pass the nursing examination.

Araz Rismani, a program manager at SUCCESS employment services, told the Straight he has heard criticism of such programs from many immigrants seeking professional credentials in their field. But he was quick to note that, overall, reentry programs in B.C. are discussed in a positive light.

Since November 2008, Rismani has managed a project for SUCCESS that looks at the challenges faced by internationally educated nurses in B.C. His findings are scheduled for publication in July.

Rismani said that 29 percent of respondents to an on-line survey listed cost and length of reaccreditation processes as the greatest impediments to reentry into their professions. Thirty-five percent of survey participants had taken more than one year of classes in order to be reaccredited, he said.

Adding to time spent in reentry programs are English classes and waiting lists. Wu has been actively seeking reaccreditation for four years now.

Under the B.C. Health Professions Act, the College of Registered Nurses of B.C. certifies nurses. According to the CRNBC, as of May 25 there were 6,084 internationally educated nurses practising in B.C., accounting for 18 percent of all nurses in the province.

Cynthia Johansen, director of registration inquiry and discipline for the CRNBC, told the Straight that B.C. has the highest proportion of internationally educated nurses in Canada.

Johansen said that the CRNBC plays a role in facilitating internationally educated nurses’ reentry into nursing in B.C. But she emphasized that the CRNBC’s primary responsibility is ensuring that every B.C. nurse is qualified to practise safely and meets the expectations of Canadian patients, which can differ significantly from those of people in other countries.

She explained that the CRNBC assesses internationally educated nurses on a case-by-case basis. Transcripts, work experience, and related documentation are all examined. If a decision can’t be made at that point, a clinical assessment is carried out.

“We are trying to provide as many opportunities as possible for individuals to demonstrate their skills,” Johansen said. But she noted that the transition from one country’s health-care system to another is often challenging, and that many nurses require additional training.

Patrick Coady, a foreign-credential-recognition consultant with the B.C. Internationally Trained Professionals Network, told the Straight that B.C.’s labour shortage has prompted industry and government to take complaints from foreign-trained professionals seriously. “But there is a list probably as long as my arm of things that I would like to see change,” he said.

Above all, Coady argued, stakeholders need to sit down with the people who are affected by B.C.’s challenging reentry processes. Together, they need to figure out a plan to efficiently integrate internationally educated professionals into B.C.’s work force, he said.

In addition, existing reentry programs need to be expanded in both size and scope. Coady argued that it’s time for the provincial government to get serious about supporting these efforts.

With few reentry programs for nurses in B.C., Wu continues her fight to stay at Kwantlen. “My dream is to be a Canadian nurse,” she said. “I have spent my time and energy, and my family has supported me a lot. It is still hard. But even now I have not given up, and I continue to work on this.”

From 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 20, SUCCESS and the British Columbia Nurses' Union are scheduled to host their second Internationally Educated Nurses Conference. The event will take place at 28 West Pender Street, Vancouver. Participation is free and open to the public.

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