Getting a work permit for nurses is made simple in Alberta
The province simplified the issuance of work permits for foreign nurses.
Earlier, the situation in Alberta was sad: the province suffered from a shortage of medical staff, patients were left without help, and foreign nurses waited for years to obtain permission to work. The process of confirming the right to work in Canadian medical institutions cost CAD 4,000 and took one year. Due to bureaucracy in the region, there were hundreds of nurses ready to start working, but without access to it. At this time, patients desperately needed them.
Fortunately, in April, local authorities made the right decision. The Alberta College of Licensed Practical Nurses simplified the process of submitting and processing applications so that foreign-educated nurses could obtain permission to work in the province more quickly. Now it takes a couple of months.
Since April 4, when the changes took effect, the college has already issued 672 nursing permits. For comparison, for the entire period from 2018 to 2022, the institution issued only 582 permits. In the month after changing the procedures, more nurses successfully passed the certification than in 4 years of using the previous procedure.
However, now the college has a lot of work — it has received over 7,000 requests from foreign nurses, and 1,200 people have already applied. The province is very pleased with this progress: at this rate, they will be able to saturate hospitals with qualified staff and overcome the healthcare crisis.
