B.C. government covering costs for internationally educated nurses to deal with staffing shortage

The B.C. government is waiving the up-front application and assessment fees for internationally educated nurses.

The two fees typically cost over $3,700 and will now be covered directly by the province.

“Supporting nurses is key to our work to making health care accessible to all British Columbians. Still, the demand for nurses is outpacing the supply,” Premier David Eby said.

“There are talented and skilled nurses with the right experience who want to practise in B.C. and support high-quality care, but they are kept on the sidelines by an expensive and complicated registration process.”

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The province continues to face significant staffing pressures on the health-care system.

Emergency Operations Centres are now open at 20 hospitals across B.C. providing the health authorities and ministry more power to deal with hospital overcrowding.

Worries around climbing RSV, flu and COVID-19 cases have led to additional problems with absenteeism.

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As part of Monday’s announcement, the province will also be making over $4,000 in financial support available to cover application, assessment and eligible travel costs for nurses taking assessments in order to re-enter the workforce.

Nurses returning to practise will also be eligible to access up to $10,000 in bursaries for any additional education required for returning to practise.

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“We are ensuring that people throughout the province have greater access to the health services they need, when they need them,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said.

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“Our government will continue to take action to recruit and train more health-care workers to meet the health-care needs of British Columbians.”

The province has been struggling with challenges around workers for years and last April announced a new marketing campaign and navigational support to new and incoming internationally educated nurses.

Since then, 5,500 people have expressed interest in working in B.C., with 2,000 people actively working through the various stages of the registration and assessment process.

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This builds on an earlier announcement from Eby about creating more teaching spaces for nurses and adding more bursaries for nursing students.

As of Monday, the province is reactivating emergency conditions at 20 hospitals across B.C.

It comes amid a surge of patients in need of care due to the combination of COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and the flu.

Dix said more than 10,000 people were in hospitals across the province as of Thursday.