What History Can Tell Us About Working as an Immigrant Nurse in Canada

The pandemic has compounded the obstacles to nursing registration. For Jè Abarra, a nurse with five years of work experience in the Philippines before coming to Montreal in 2016, practicing as an RN is less of a priority due to the pandemic.
“It’s complicated right now—I cannot get my credentials from the Philippines,” says the 29-year-old licensed practical nurse (LPN; equivalent to Ontario’s RPN), who currently works in the operating room of a local hospital. While she has the necessary paperwork, the Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec (OIIQ), or Order of Nurses of Quebec, requires documentation sent directly from the issuing authorities.

“I get discouraged to process my papers because I know it’s gonna take a longer time. One of the reasons I pursued the LPN here is because it takes a long time to get admitted to the bridging program here in Quebec.”
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