Brittany Collins, a Canadian-born registered nurse (RN) with four-and-a-half years experience who applied for a job in Thompson won’t be making the move here because her writing abilities were deemed insufficient by the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba (CRNM).
The CRNM requires a suitable level of English proficiency in order for an applicant to be eligible for registration. A spokesperson for the college told the Thompson Citizen that an applicant may be deemed proficient in English if they are, or were, registered as an RN in Canada, and there is evidence of safe practice within the past two years working as an RN in another Canadian jurisdiction where evidence of English language proficiency was required for registration eligibility.
“Therefore, we ask applicants from these provinces to demonstrate that when they met the language proficiency requirement in the other jurisdiction where they hold registration, that it was met with English language proficiency,” the CRNM said, but some provinces in Canada do not require a demonstration of English proficiency for the purposes of registration, namely Ontario, Québec, and New Brunswick. “If an applicant is unable to arrange for the college to receive information regarding how the language proficiency policy was met when registration was obtained, and they are unable to meet the Manitoba requirement via one of the other provisions in our policy, then a language test will be required.”
The CRNM added that the IELTS Academic exam is one of two tests used nationally by registered nursing regulators to assess the English proficiency of internationally educated nurses (IENs) applying for registration. The other is the Canadian English Language Benchmark Assessment for Nurses, or CELBAN.
“These tests and the associated scores/passing requirements were selected by all members of the Canadian Council of Registered Nurse Regulators (CCRNR) except Québec, following an extensive review of the available English-language proficiency tests and the language proficiency requirements of a registered nurse to be able to practice safely and competently.”
In April 2019, the CRNM learned from CELBAN test providers that CELBAN results are only applicable for internationally educated nurses, and so the option for Canadian-educated applicants to write the CELBAN test to demonstrate English language proficiency was removed.
Prior to May 2018, when nurses were placed under the provisions Regulated Health Professionals Act, RNs and the CNRM were governed by the Registered Nurses Act, which allowed applicants to demonstrate proficiency in either English or French to meet the requirements for registration.
Collins, who works at Toronto General Hospital and has a bachelor of science in nursing degree from York University, decided last September to apply for a job in Thompson after learning of the critical need for healthcare practitioners in the North. She accepted a contract to work in Thompson starting in November – but her plans fizzled out as a result of her writing score. She took the IELTS three times and her best writing score was 6.5.
“The contract was postponed until February of this year due to difficulties in registering with the CRNM,” she explained. “My contract was intended to start from Feb. 17 to March 27. After a long six months of devoted hours and money put toward the difficult registration process, I was sadly declined from registering with the CRNM as a result of my IELTS writing score.”
The writing portion of the IELTS exam requires people taking the test to complete two essays – a 150-word one and a 250-word one – within an hour, Collins said.
“In the first one, they give you graphs and want you to analyze data and compare the data,” she said. “The second one is a discussion topic, where they give you a topic and want you to write an introduction thesis, three body paragraphs and a conclusion. In nursing school you write hundreds of essays. I feel confident in my writing skills, but with that being said, the first time I went in I was overconfident. I scored a 6.5 out of nine. Manitoba requires a seven. I wrote the exam again and got a six. I did run out of time. Maybe that had something to do with it. I took a third attempt and studied for six hours the day before.”
Collins said the exams cost $320 each, which “resulted in nearly $1,000, in addition to the already expensive registration costs I’d paid out of pocket.”
“As English is my first language, I lack confidence in the CRNM’s decision to use the IELTS test as a means of assessing out of province nurse’s ability to be proficient in the English language,” Collins said. “I believe this new policy is impeding the province’s ability to recruit competent nurses from other provinces. I am a Canadian-born, native English speaking nurse who is competent in the medical-surgical area, and I feel the current policy of Ontario nurses having to write the IELTS exam in order to register is unfair.”
Collins’s friend, a native Korean speaker for whom English is a second language, who graduated from nursing school less than two years ago and now works in Thompson, was able to circumnavigate the IELTS requirement by having his university send the CRNM a letter explaining his coursework.
“Because I graduated, and have been practising for five years, that doesn’t apply to me,” she said. “My friend is saying they get three to four sick calls every day [in Thompson]. They are so short-staffed. It’s crazy that they are turning away competent nurses who are proficient in English because of this exam – and the hospitals are really hurting.”
Collins worries this English proficiency requirement may be preventing other qualified nurses from working in Manitoba.
“These poor people coming from other countries with English as their second language may be proficient, like I am, and failing these exams,” she explained. “I’m starting to question if it was the CRNM’s best judgment to add on the IELTS, specifically. If it’s impeding me from practising in Manitoba, I’m concerned about others.”
The CRNM said their mandate is to regulate the registered nursing profession “in the public interest.”
“Therefore, it is incumbent upon the college to ensure that all applicants can demonstrate an appropriate level of English language proficiency at the time of registration as it is an essential ingredient to safe, competent registered nursing practice in Manitoba,” they explained. “The college is committed to ensuring its language competency requirements are equal, fair, objective, and transparent across both domestic and international applicants.”
