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Ontario allows nursing college to quicken international nurse registration

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Ontario’s minister of health says the province’s nursing college can now follow regulatory changes that could get thousands more internationally trained nurses into practice sooner.

Last month, Sylvia Jones told the College of Nurses of Ontario to create plans to more quickly register internationally educated professionals amid staffing shortages that have led to temporary emergency department closures.

The college proposed to allow internationally trained nurses to be temporarily registered while they go through the process of full registration and get rid of a requirement to have practiced within the last three years for a non-practicing nurse to be reinstated.

Jones has now told the college to draft those amendments to regulations right away. Once approved by the government, the college should begin registering those nurses immediately.

The college has said the changes could help the 5,970 active international applicants currently living in Ontario, but Jones has asked the regulator specifically how many nurses it expects will benefit.

Jones has also given authorization to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for it to create a temporary, three-month registration for physicians licensed in other provinces.