'About to live my dream': Refugee health-care worker on track to become a registered nurse
CBC
One of the first health-care workers to arrive in Nova Scotia after being recruited as a refugee from Kenya is now on her way to becoming a registered nurse.
Agnes Lomoro was initially hired as a continuing care assistant (CCA) to a long-term care facility in New Glasgow in 2021 but has qualified for a new pilot program to gain her credentials as a nurse.
With a nursing degree from Kenya, the 28-year-old qualified for the accelerated, seven-month bridging pathway program being offered by Nova Scotia Health.
"It's a good opportunity for sure to know I am working towards growing myself," Lomoro said. "It means I can be about to live my dream of working as a nurse."
It is a dream she has had since she was a child. She was eight when civil war broke out in her home country of South Sudan. The war meant there was no medical care and her family was often forced to hide in the forest to avoid battles.
One of her sisters died as a baby after contracting tetanus because there was no hospital nearby, Lomoro recalls.
Lomoro fled to Uganda before settling in Kenya. Even though she later earned a nursing degree in Nairobi, her refugee status made it difficult for her to work there.
So she jumped at the chance to move to Nova Scotia to work as a continuing care assistant when she heard employers were hiring. Her goal was always to work toward becoming a nurse.
"I'm so happy I am coming in to bring my skills and help my community and that really makes me feel like I am putting what I practised and my passions to work," she said.
Lomoro is one of a group of 15 internationally trained and educated nurses who started the bridging program in the fall.
It involves four months of classroom theory and three months in practice in the community under supervision.
It is another initiative Nova Scotia Health has put in place to retain health-care professionals during a major staffing shortage. The program is being run by the organization's Learning Institute for Health-Care Providers and is approved by the Nova Scotia College of Nursing.
"We are in a place where we have to be very nimble and quick to meet the needs of Nova Scotians but in a way that is strategic and also innovative," said Tara Sampalli, a senior director of implementation science evaluation and global health systems planning with Nova Scotia Health. "If you worked as a registered nurse somewhere else in a different system, that should count for something."
With all jurisdictions in Canada competing for staff, participants in the program are already being paid, Sampalli said, and are being assigned to communities across the province with an emphasis on improving staffing in rural areas.
As his flight departed from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport en route to Kuwait via Istanbul, Canadian crypto fugitive Andean Medjedovic was unaware that his globe-trotting lifestyle would soon be halted.
One of the largest taxi companies in Toronto will be down to three wheelchair-accessible cabs by the end of March, as advocates and providers say the city is failing to support accessible taxi drivers.
As a deep freeze continues to envelop southwestern Ontario at the same time municipalities deal with a pressing shortage of road salt, there's a renewed focus on finding different ways to melt road ice.
Dave Lawson is a proud Canadian who has bumper stickers that say "Canada is not for sale." He's fed up with grocery products plastered with maple leaves and patriotic logos that turn out to be American imports.
The Town of Badger has issued an evacuation order for some residents as water levels on the Exploits River continue to rise.
The head of a national seniors' advocacy organization says protecting nursing home residents from sexual abuse is an important but challenging issue.
New data shows Winnipeg's fire-paramedic service fielded hundreds of reports involving the city's homeless population, but one advocate says she expects that number to go down in light of the city's limits on where encampments can be.
Former students of the Île-à-la-Crosse Boarding School have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the federal government.
Missing baby presumed dead after father charged with killing mother in St. Albert, Alta., police say
A man is facing charges in the death of a young mother in the Edmonton area and the presumed death of their missing nine-month-old daughter.
A school trustee in Prince George, B.C., says she's shaken and scared after being surrounded by police with their guns drawn and then put in handcuffs, in what RCMP say was a case of mistaken identity.
Despite an eleventh hour attempt to secure at least a few more weeks of freedom, a Calgary dentist was handed a three-year prison sentence for a decade-long insurance billing fraud.
Canada Computers & Electronics says a data breach has leaked information about some of its customers, though several say they are unhappy with the scant details the retailer has provided — including how many of them were affected, and when the breach occurred.
The city of Toronto is shutting down a yacht club on the Humber River in Etobicoke that is accused of having negative impacts on the local ecosystem.