
Internationally Educated Nurses find Success at Covenant Health
These stories have been shared with the Alberta Association of Nurses to celebrate the impact of supporting internationally educated nurses into rural Covenant Health sites. These individuals gained competence and confidence while being supported by Clinical Nurse Educators, and are now working to their full ability in permanent positions.
Not only has this benefited the IENs, but the various Covenant Health rural teams have seen uplifted morale and team spirit.
Story 1
-From a rural IEN CNE, who started in early 2024.
I had the pleasure of supporting seven internationally trained registered nurses (RNs) who successfully transitioned to an RN role at a rural site with Covenant Health. They all experienced many challenging situations, but with support, guidance, mentorship and perseverance, they are currently working in permanent positions with various units within the site from long term care, emergency and acute/obstetrics.
One of the RNs (with previous international training from India) came to our site in April 2024. She completed her orientation and training to rural acute care medicine/surgery unit by the first week of July and has been working independently in her permanent line since. Current staff provided positive feedback as she gained more confidence and experience, such as hard working, team player, and compassionate care for her patients.
In India, she worked as a midwife, and her heart was with women’s health. She asked to join other new RNs in training for rural obstetrics in the fall of 2024. She completed all her training, education, and buddy shifts by Christmas 2024. During her orientation buddy shifts, I would check in with her, and she would say “I am so happy.” She has been practicing obstetrics and postpartum care at our rural site since then working alongside another senior OB RN to support her. She asks insightful and appropriate questions, demonstrating her strong critical thinking and obstetrical knowledge base she has already developed. Our previous acute care unit staff are proud to have her as part of the team. She reports that she is ‘having so much fun.’ She also is looking at potentially relocating to our rural site permanently soon with her family, rather than travelling back and forth from a larger urban site, as she currently holds a full-time permanent position in OBS at a rural acute care unit.
Another RN with international training successfully transitioned into a RN role in acute care after working at our site previously as a health care aide (HCA) for 10 years. They specifically worked in long term care, after moving to our community from the Philippines. She had approximately one year experience as a RN prior to moving to Canada; however, she has lived and worked in our community for 10 years. She came to me prior to writing her NCLEX-RN exam for support and guidance. She was driven to gain her RN license in Alberta. After her second attempt, she was successful in passing NCLEX-RN and receiving her license. In collaboration with management, we built an individual orientation and education plan for her to support her transition starting in mid-August 2024. By November, it was noted that she was having some struggles in her transition from her previous HCA role to her new RN role. I collaborated with the nurse, the clinical guides and manager to develop a comprehensive learning plan, setting out learning goals, expectations, and a timeline. This turned out to be exactly what she needed to succeed. She felt overwhelmed with the vast scope of RN practice in a rural acute unit and expressed this plan gave her more concrete feedback and goals to focus on.
As she achieved small portions of each goal, she said shared that her confidence is improving, and she was so grateful for everyone’s support. She noticed all staff would offer to teach her and work with her as she learned. She said this boosted her confidence as a team member and that she could do this role well.
Two months later she had met all her goals and has been working independently on the unit, gaining more confidence in her abilities each day and showing us her lifelong learning commitments. She is a valued member of the team, and the staff enjoy working with her and continue to support and mentor her.
Covenant Health’s approach with hiring rural IEN CNEs for our current Canadian internationally trained nurses and soon to be arriving internationally trained nurses from outside of Canada has been instrumental in the success stories at our rural sites. This has had a deep impact on staffing levels on all units, providing uplifting morale and increasing our team spirit on the units. The CNE support not only benefited our internationally trained RNs, but in collaboration with site CNEs and management more support has been provided for the ENTIRE Covenant Health team across all the rural sites. I truly believe this will continue to benefit our sites for recruitment and retention of staff.
Story 2
-From a rural IEN CNE, who started in February 2024.
I had the opportunity to support six internationally trained nurses who successfully transitioned into an registered nurse (RN) role at a rural site with Covenant health. They are now working as autonomous charge nurses in acute care and the emergency department.
One of the RNs trained in India came to Canada in 2023 and received her RN license in July 2023. She applied across Alberta but wasn’t getting any interviews. She then started calling rural hospitals about RN positions.
One day she reached out to the Vegreville hospital and emailed the onsite manager. The hospital hired her in April 2024, and she relocated to Vegreville. Following orientation, we developed a plan for hands on additional training. After each buddy shift, we provided constructive feedback and discussed what she would benefit focusing on.
She shared the work environment was very positive, and that she felt her clinical guides explained everything well to her.
She also stated, “Once I started working independently, one thing I found helpful was whenever I had questions, I felt like the CNE was always there to help and teach me”. She shared, “Now I feel confident, and must say I am working with one of the best teams, where we do have an open communication, and all are quite supportive”.
We are happy to report, she has a full-time permanent job with us now in Vegreville.