Internationally trained nurses who came to Canada feel forgotten as provinces recruit abroad

When Nikka Reyes moved to Winnipeg from the Philippines in 2015, she was hoping for a promising future working as a registered hemodialysis nurse.

Eight years later, she's a Canadian citizen, but the 34-year-old is living and working in Tennessee because she was unable to get accredited in Manitoba. 

She also wonders why provincial governments are going on recruiting trips to the Philippines instead of using those resources to help internationally educated nurses who are already here.

"Why are we wasting their skills and abilities … especially if the needs are immediate?" she asked in a recent interview.

Reyes is not the only internationally educated nurse with these concerns. CBC News spoke to several others in Canada who told similar stories. 

One, a hemodialysis nurse who worked for a U.S.-based insurance company for six years, said she started her RN application after moving to Winnipeg in 2019. 

The woman was referred to a skills bridging course at a local community college, but says she can't study full-time because she is a single mother, working as an aide in a Winnipeg personal care home. CBC is not identifying her because she fears for her job.

She has done some of the required courses online, at a cost of $1,500 each, but also used holiday time to return to the Philippines to upgrade. Still, she failed the listening portion of the English language assessment. She estimates she has spent $2,000 on competency assessments alone. 

The woman said she is frustrated the Manitoba government is going on a recruiting mission to the Philippines, saying she feels forgotten and overlooked. She'd like the government to prioritize nurses who are already here.

In Canada, internationally educated health workers make up about nine per cent of nurses and 26 per cent of physicians. Over the past year, provinces have introduced incentives to recruit more, including targeted immigration streams. But up to 47 per cent of those nurses and doctors are not working in the professions for which they trained.

Some find their qualifications and language skills don't meet Canada's requirements, while for others, lengthy and expensive licensing and registration processes can delay their ability to work in their field, sometimes for years.

The federal government's most recent budget included funding to help thousands of internationally educated health workers get their foreign credentials recognized.

However, provincial governments continue to look elsewhere to attract nurses and health-care staff.

A delegation from Manitoba is in the Philippines right now.