Alberta plans to fast-track international recruits, launch an aggressive cross-Canada campaign to lure back locally trained nurses and retrain those who have left the profession in an effort to deal with a province-wide nursing shortage.
In the last six months, the province's College and Association of Registered Nurses has received more than 1,000 applications from international nurses. While an experienced nurse from an English-speaking country can be assessed and start working within four to six months, others with language and education barriers can wait more than a year to gain the proper credentials.
Alberta's health department has given the college $500,000 to hire more staff to deal with the applications and help speed that up, Health Minister Dave Hancock said.
Starting in January, provincial officials will travel to other provinces hoping to entice locally trained nurses back to Alberta.
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