NBNU worries lack of nursing exam site could delay expedited international accreditation

A new process will be introduced in the coming weeks to reduce the lengthy registration process for internationally-educated nurses in New Brunswick.

The registration wait times for nurses from a list of 14 countries will be reduced from up to a year and a half to a matter of weeks.

Denise LeBlanc-Kwaw, CEO of the Nurses Association of New Brunswick, explained this would be done through a streamlined process requiring reduced documentation though the National Nurses Assessment Service (NNAS).

She said this will result in a “24-hour turnaround for the NNAS process that’s going to authenticate their ID, their verification of registration in their home country as well as their education.”

From there, she said, the goal would be to have the nurses registered within 14 days.

In an emailed statement, New Brunswick Nurses Union President Paula Doucet said this was encouraging news, however she noted the mandatory NCLEX exam “could present a potential stumbling block.”

Doucet noted that unlike neighbouring Nova Scotia, New Brunswick does not have a permanent NCLEX testing site.

This means exam spots book up fast, leaving some nurses waiting and delaying their registration process.

“Now that we’re increasing our capacity for internationally-educated nurses as well as our current domestic nurses, we’d be in a better position to negotiate for a more permanent site here (in New Brunswick),” LeBlanc-Kwaw said in response.

She  doesn’t think the exam will create delays.

“Because the NCLEX is now a North American standard,  and it’s available across the world in a lot of different sites, a lot of our international (nurses) have already written the exam so we don’t see there will be a big issue that way,” she said.

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Francophone nurses have had the option of taking Quebec’s nursing entry exam rather than NCLEX since 2022.

This was in response to a years-long controversy over NCLEX’s high failure rate among francophone nurses, in part due to a lack of prep material in French, and the poor quality of the exam’s translation.

Leblanc-Kwaw said internationally-educated francophone nurses are able to take that option as well.

She said the expedited registration process could potentially add 1,000 nurses to the province’s health system within a year.

“Hopefully this would mean that there are nurses available to help work and alleviate pressure on the nursing homes or hospitals.”

LeBlanc-Kwaw is hopeful the expedited process will be implemented in the next four to six weeks.

“It’s going to increase the workload here so we need to cross-train our staff and get some new staff available,” she said.