Welcome to our first edition of CARE Centre’s IEN Connector. We’re excited to launch this e-publication to keep you informed about the ongoing successes of internationally educated nurses, and to update you on the initiatives that allow CARE Centre to reach its own benchmarks of achievement. We hope you’ll share CARE Centre’s IEN Connector with your own networks, and look forward to hearing your comments and story ideas.
It’s been a busy time in the nursing world, and for CARE Centre itself. Over the summer months we had our AGM, celebrating the publication of our first “interactive” annual report, opened our sixth office in Kingston, exhibited at nursing and immigrant expos, presented at conferences and participated in a major Ontario government consultation related to immigration. We also forged new partnerships with e-learning providers, developed a number of digital media tools to better communicate with our members and stakeholders, and went online with new case management software to provide important tracking on IEN education and integration. We were very pleased to be the subject of a Conference Board of Canada profile, and we were even recognized with two awards!
All of these developments helped us to build and extend our CARE Centre community, across our six offices from Windsor to Kingston, and work with other organizations who support and advocate for IENs in Ontario and Canada.
What’s really important now is the need to keep IENs current on relevant information, ideally before they even arrive in Canada. The College of Nurses of Ontario has introduced regulatory changes that will significantly impact IENs. At CARE Centre we have been analyzing the implications for IENs and have posted FAQs on our website www.care4nurses.org to help answer questions regarding nursing in Ontario. While these changes are taking place in the province, there are also big shifts on Canada’s immigration policy front, including modifications to the Federal Skilled Workers Program. We are still trying to understand the implications for IENs who are aspiring to immigrate to Canada.
The role of bridge training programs is more vital than ever to assist IENs in obtaining registration and employment, ensuring a highly capable, professional nursing workforce that mirrors the diversity of Ontario’s population, today and tomorrow.