Province to provide financial assistance for international nurses to practise in N.B.
Elizabeth Princewill, an internationally trained nurse from Nigeria, says she will be one of the first to benefit from new financial assistance from the province.
She starts a bridging program on Monday, one of the things the province will be covering, to allow her to become a registered nurse in the province. Until then, she's working as a patient-care assistant in oncology with Horizon Health.
"I love my teammates," she said. "They understand that you've come from a different climb, and everybody's ready and happy to help you. And that's one of the things I love most about being in New Brunswick."
The province will be covering various costs for up to 300 nurses per year for five years, said Health Minister Bruce Fitch during the announcement.
"We know that individuals coming to New Brunswick who are internationally trained nurses can face up to $10,000 of expenses … to come here [and become] registered here in the province of New Brunswick," he said.
"So breaking down some of those barriers would again ensure that our province is competitive, because we know it is a great place to live."
Fitch did not say how much of the $10,000 will be covered per nurse, but said they are not putting a cap on it because the costs vary depending on the company or country the nurse is coming from.
The government doesn't have an exact figure for how much the initiative will cost, he said, because it will depend on the uptake, but he said over the five years it will be into the tens of millions of dollars.
Fitch said the covered costs will include:
Pre-arrival assessments, including national nursing assessments and the initial application for the Nurses Association of New Brunswick competency assessment.
Tuition cost for the New Brunswick Community College and Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick bridging program.
First-time registration fee for the Nurses Association of New Brunswick.
In order to be eligible for the assistance, nurses must:
Be accepted for immigration to New Brunswick.
Have a provincial nomination certificate or endorsement.
Have accepted an offer of employment or hold a current job in the province.
Be a regulated, licensed nurse in their home country.
Pursue the registration process in New Brunswick.
Permanent residents or citizens who got their nursing education outside of Canada may also be eligible for funding if they have a nursing-related job in New Brunswick, Fitch said.
He said progress has been made with recruitment efforts, and in 2022 more than 500 internationally educated nurses were matched with a navigator to help them through the process. He did not say during the announcement how many nurses of those 500 have been brought to the province.
This follows a Monday announcement from the Nurses Association of New Brunswick that said wait times for registration will be cut for internationally trained nurses from 14 countries, from 12-18 months to 14 days.
According to that announcement, 75 per cent of international nurse applicants to New Brunswick are from those 14 countries, which breaks down into nine English-speaking and five French-speaking countries.
