Ontario Continuing to Support and Grow its Nursing Workforce
$500 million investment in specialized education and training for over 20,000 nurses will bolster health care workforce
The Ontario government is bringing more nurses into the health care system by investing more than $500 million to educate new nurses and increasing opportunities for current nurses to access specialized training to upskill while on the job. The province is also working with the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) to reduce barriers for internationally educated nurses, allowing them to register to work in Ontario faster and start caring for Ontarians sooner.
“Our government continues to build up Ontario’s current and future health care workforce as we add thousands of new nurses across the province,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “By building on our actions to date to bolster the nursing workforce, we are strengthening health system capacity and ensuring Ontarians continue to have access to timely, high-quality care, where and when they need it.”
To build on the nearly 100,000 new nurses the province has added to the workforce since 2018, the government is investing $510 million over the next three years to give more than 20,000 health care learners the opportunity to work in hospitals and home and community care organizations by the end of 2027.
The Enhanced Extern Program (EEP) helps hospitals hire qualifying nursing, medical, respiratory therapy, paramedic, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy students and internationally educated nurses to work in a hospital in an unregulated capacity, under the supervision of regulated care providers.
The Supervised Practice Experience Partnership (SPEP) program provides internationally educated nurses the opportunity to demonstrate their current nursing knowledge, skill and language proficiency while working to meet the requirements to enter practice as a nurse.
To support nurses who want to maximize their skills and experience, the government is also investing over $1.6 million over the next year to support more than 1,600 registered nurses with up to $1,000 towards tuition costs as they train to prescribe medications for certain conditions, such as contraception, immunizations, smoking cessation, and topical wound care.
Additionally, beginning April 1, 2025, internationally educated nurses will be able to move through the CNO registration process faster. Internationally educated nurses who have a baccalaureate degree and practical nurses who have a diploma will no longer need to go through the lengthy education assessment step in the registration process, saving them up to $7,500 and allowing them to start practising in Ontario sooner.
Through Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government continues to take bold and decisive action to support the province’s highly-skilled nursing workforce and ensure people and their families have access to high-quality care where and when they need it, closer to home.
Quick Facts
- Since 2018, Ontario has seen a record-breaking number of new health care professionals join the workforce, adding nearly 100,000 new nurses with another 30,000 nurses currently studying at Ontario colleges and universities.
- Since 2021, over 7,400 health care students have participated in the EEP, creating much-needed capacity in the system and a pool of new graduates who are more experienced and prepared to work as they begin their health care careers.
- Since its launch in January 2022, the SPEP program has funded more than 3,400 internationally educated nurses.
- To support safe practice, all internationally educated nurses will take a course to ensure they successfully transition into the Ontario health care system.
- Since expanding the role of registered nurses to prescribe medications, 291 registered nurses have completed the training and are authorized to prescribe.
- Ontario is investing $743 million over three years to continue to address immediate health care staffing needs, as well as to grow the workforce for years to come.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love