Nova Scotia reducing barriers to attract international nurses

Thea Lacastesantos knew she wanted to pursue nursing outside of her home country, the Philippines. 

But when she moved to New Zealand in 2011, she struggled to become a registered nurse because she lacked experience, so she moved back home four years later. 

Then, she learned of her opportunities in Canada.

“Canada was one of the options that I knew the door was open for me,” Lacastesantos said. 

So, in 2016, Lacastesantos moved to Kitchener, Ont., to complete a two-year program at Conestoga College.

When she finished school, Lacastesantos started looking at other provinces to live. That’s when Nova Scotia caught her eye because of its pathway to becoming a permanent resident.

But not knowing anyone in Nova Scotia, Lacastesantos had to rely on Facebook messages from someone who had also moved to the province from the Philippines. 

“The issue was getting a place to stay and since I didn’t know anybody, that one person really helped me and my husband settle (in),” said Lacastesantos, noting the person checked out available apartments for her.

Settled in

Once she arrived in Halifax, Lacastesantos said she settled in and began working as a continuing care assistant for a private organization. 

“When we settled into our place, we learned there was a big community here of Filipinos, and that was really one of the big things that helped me,” she said. 

Lacastesantos said things started to feel like home and before she knew it, she was a permanent resident, which allowed her to work as a licensed nurse practitioner in a long-term care facility.

“But I started to realize I wanted to learn more with my nursing, and so I applied at the hospital,” she said. 

Lacastesantos said she went through a bridging program for internationally educated nurses, which allowed her to spend time on the floor and work in the unit at the hospital to progress her skills and get used to the clinical setting in Nova Scotia.

“And now I work as a registered nurse at the hospital and I’m really happy,” she said.

Lacastesantos said she and her husband love Nova Scotia as they both love to go hiking and camping and spend time outside. 

But Lacastesantos knows it’s not easy for everyone to move to Nova Scotia from another country, so she has since become a nurse mentor. 

“Even before being a nurse mentor, I would try to help people,” she said. “If people were looking for a place to stay, I would offer a spare bedroom or help them with what apartments might be available.” 

“I was doing it to return the favour of how lucky I was that someone was there to help me with moving here and everything else.” 

‘It’s about bringing them in and retaining them’

Tara Sampalli, senior director of implementation science, evaluation and global health systems planning at Nova Scotia Health, said ensuring health-care workers have support and resources in their new community is important. 

“That’s what NICHE (Nova Scotia’s International Community of Health Workers Engagement) is about,” Sampalli said.

“It’s not just about bringing people in. It’s about bringing them in and retaining them. We’re not just thinking about the health system.” 

She said Nova Scotia Health has interviewed plenty of physicians and other health-care workers who have moved here from other countries and while the comments were mostly positive about their job, they relocated for “reasons bigger than the profession itself.” 

Sampalli said now Nova Scotia Health works with its partners and other organizations to help health-care workers with things such as finding housing, a job for their partner/spouse or childcare. 

And for those who may need extra support to enter the health-care workforce here, Sampalli said Nova Scotia is doing what it can to make it easier. 

Fast-tracking process

For example, earlier this year the Nova Scotia College of Nursing began fast-tracking the licensing process for nurses from seven countries: the Philippines, India, Nigeria, U.S.A., U.K., Australia and New Zealand. 

Sampalli said the college has since received between 15,000 and 16,000 applications.

She said Nova Scotia Health also made changes to its onboarding process and has since onboarded more than 400 nurses since July. 

“These are just nurses from within the province,” Sampalli said, adding 40 per cent of them were from the Philippines.

“Imagine, that many nurses in the province had not been able to get through.” 

Sampalli said Nova Scotia recognizes health-care systems are struggling around the world and doesn’t want to create inequality in other countries, so it has since created a survey that allows people from other countries/provinces to indicate they’re interested in working here. 

“There is still a lot of work to be done, but we’re working in real time to make sure supports and changes are in place,” she said.