Province expands service to help internationally-trained health workers navigate system

The Higgs government is taking more steps that it says will spur the recruitment of internationally-trained health-care workers, though how much the expanded program will actually speed up the process isn't clear.

Labour Minister Trevor Holder announced Tuesday that the province's Immigration Navigator program for nurses, which links them to an advisor to help them through the process, will expand to other health-care positions and other professions as well.

"What the navigator does is allows people to start rowing in the same direction, and that's what was missing," he said.

Under the program, employment counsellors will incorporate overseas credentials into how they assess new arrivals as they develop an "action plan" to help them work in their professions.

They'll work with "navigators," who will deal with universities, colleges and professional associations and develop materials and resources to help.

Holder said the new programs will build on the success of the one for nurses, which he said has helped 200 nurses get certified and start working since 2019 — compared to just a handful of foreign-trained nurses who would find work annual in their profession before.

He cited the example of Brazil-born, United States-trained Patricia Carvalho, who spoke at his news conference.

Carvalho said she arrived in New Brunswick in 2021, and her navigator has helped her move through the process "very fast."

"I was very surprised when that happened," said Carvalho.

She now works as a personal care attendant and hopes to be certified as a registered nurse by the end of this year, though she said her case was "a little easier" to process because she was trained in the United States.

Holder hesitated at first when asked if that is fast enough for him, given chronic nurse shortages that have seen reduced services in New Brunswick hospitals this year.

"I believe that what you saw in this situation was fast, but we can always be faster," he said.

Earlier this year the government passed legislation that would give it the power to force self-governing professional associations, which regulate and certify training standards, to speed their processes.

"We expect them to respond in a timely manner because time is of the essence here. … This isn't a time to rag the puck," he said.

But the minister wouldn't talk about how fast would be fast enough to avoid the province stepping in, saying cases may vary depending on the country where a worker was trained.

"Everything depends on the situation," he said.

"I'm not going to get into acceptable averages when everybody's situation is different."

On Monday, the province and the Nurses Association of New Brunswick announced that the association was streamlining its licensing process to help nurses from France practise in New Brunswick.

And last week the federal government announced it would allow doctors to apply for permanent residency through an express entry system, which Ottawa said should make it faster for provinces to recruit internationally-trained physicians.