Manitoba orders regulator to remove barrier that prevented some internationally trained nurses from working

Health Minister Audrey Gordon is promising to remove perhaps the biggest obstacle for internationally trained nurses working in another province who are trying to move back to Manitoba.

Gordon has issued a compliance order that forces the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba to remove its requirement that internationally educated nurses already licensed in other jurisdictions in Canada be subject to further testing if they're trying again to be accredited in Manitoba.

The vast majority of people who take the days-long examination, referred to as the clinical competence assessment, are found to need remedial education to be licensed in the province.

The additional requirement has prevented numerous people from returning to Manitoba, critics have said.

"We have a nursing crisis and a staffing crisis in the health system," Gordon said in an interview Thursday.

"I've become quite concerned about the pace of the change in the licensing of nurses here in Manitoba and felt that it was time to take the step of issuing a compliance order."

Katherine Stansfield, CEO of the regulatory college, disagrees with the health minister's position, but said she respects the decision and the college will oblige.

The demand from Gordon's office, issued on July 26, comes one year less a day from the Manitoba government first informing the college by letter of its concerns regarding the clinical competence assessment requirement, the compliance order says.

It is the first time Gordon has issued such a directive, she said.

The province has faced pressure to bring in more nurses while reports of high vacancy rates, burned-out nurses and continuous mandatory overtime requests have piled up.

Health officials say they're focused on recruitment and retention, but emphasize staffing shortages are an issue across the country and beyond.

The order asserts the college's clinical competence assessment demand violates numerous domestic trade agreements and Manitoba's labour mobility act, which state any worker certified in one jurisdiction must be recognized as qualified to practise elsewhere. Not all Canadian jurisdictions require the same clinical competence assessment.

"These are individuals that are already registered in good standing, working in other jurisdictions across Canada. They come to Manitoba and they feel that the process is far too slow," Gordon said.

"It is my job as the health minister to ensure that they can do that."