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Immigration will resolve Nova Scotia’s scarcity of healthcare workers, said the province’s Health Minister Michelle Thompson. Talking to the reporters the other day, she said only immigration can resolve Nova Scotia’s labour shortages in the healthcare system. It has been reported that Nova Scotia is planning to create a shared licensing system with other Canadian provinces including neighbouring Atlantic Canada provinces.
Just like Ontario, Nova Scotia is also planning to streamline the licensing process for immigrant healthcare workers. Last week, Ontario had urged the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) to find ways for accelerating the educational credentials assessment of internationally trained nurses. Ontario too is desperate to welcome maximum healthcare workers to the province. Almost all provinces in Canada are facing a huge shortage of nurses. Emergency room and hospital wait times have increased from hours to days and around 25 hospitals had to be shut down during a weekend owing to staff shortage.
It has been found that one in every five nurses in Canada are working overtime to meet the requirements in hospitals. Atlantic provinces in Canada alone have reported close to a 1000 vacancies for nurses.
Migrating to Canada as a nurse
The pandemic has increased the demand for nurses in Canada. Nurses can migrate to Canada through either the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) or Canadian Experience Class (CEC) of the Express Entry. Many provinces also have exclusive pathways for nurses to migrate to Canada under their Provincial Nominee Programs. These include:
- Human Capital Priorities Stream, Ontario.
- Skills Immigration and Express Entry pathways, British Columbia.
- International Health Worker EOI pool, Saskatchewan.
- Labour Market Priorities Stream, Nova Scotia.
- Internationally Educated Nurses (IEN) program, New Brunswick
Nurses fall under two National Occupation Classification (NOC) categories in Canada. Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses come under NOC skill level A and the code is NOC 3012. Licenced practical nurses are under NOC 3233 and Skill Level B.
Nurses and other healthcare workers have huge demand in Canada. Are you a healthcare professional? Are you interested to explore your options for Canada migration? Talk to the Canada migration experts of CanApprove. Contact us now!
