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Manitoba Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino is pledging to remove barriers to accreditation for internationally-educated nurses hoping to work in that Prairie province.

“I’m just responding to them and trying to find a way to make this happen. This is the cry of the internationally-educated nurses here in Manitoba and I believe across Canada.

“We’re working diligently to try to remove the unfair barriers to accreditation so these folks can practice and do so safely and have support in place.”

Marcelino was named to the immigration portfolio only about a month ago, picking it up from former immigration minister Jon Reyes.

Earlier this year, the Manitoba government was able to successfully welcome hundreds of internationally-educated healthcare professionals after 90 per cent of those offered jobs during a mission to the Philippines accepted positions in the province. 

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“More than 300 internationally educated healthcare professionals have now accepted job offers to work as registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, or healthcare aides in communities located right across our province,” said Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon. 

“Our government is committed to healing our health-are system and building our health human resource capacity so that more patients have access to the care they need.”

Shared Health provided Letters of Interest (LOI) to 348 candidates who passed interviews in Manila, Cebu or Iloilo during a recruitment mission to the Philippines in February and more than 300 candidates accepted job offers in Manitoba. 

Candidates accepted those job offers then began with the immigration and licensing processes and started arriving in Manitoba over the summer and autumn months.

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“The desire amongst Filipino healthcare workers to live and work in Manitoba remains high,” said Reyes. 

“The connections between Manitoba’s local Filipino community and those who remain in the Philippines cannot be overstated. Manitoba is known as an extremely welcoming and friendly province, a place where dreams and success can be achieved through determination and hard work, and a community where the contributions of healthcare workers are valued.”

The University of Manitoba’s faculty of nursing is now working on the development of a virtual clinical competence assessment.

Manitoba’s immigration minister says there’s a shortage of 2,600 nurses in the province but internationally-educated nurses face barriers to accreditation.

Manitoba Facing A Labour Shortage Of 2,600 Nurses

“Obviously we need to prioritize safety and there has to be safety standards, but we have to identify stuff that doesn’t make sense,” Marcelino reportedly said.

Among the barriers are the multiple language tests which internationally-educated nurses have to re-write even if they have already passed them and the requirement by regulatory colleges that such nurses must restart their education if they haven’t practised in two or three years.

“Many of them are out of the scope of practice,” Marcelino said. “To go back to a four-year nursing degree, or start again as a doctor, it’s extremely prohibitive. No one can do that.”

She wants to create a new pathway for internationally educated professionals.

“Once we have this successful pathway in place, I’m going to call on other internationally-educated nurses across Canada to come to Manitoba.”