This report presents the rationale, methodology, and outcomes of CRIEC's workforce integration toolkit initiative for internationally educated nurses (IENs) in Canada. It is intended as a practical resource for bridging program coordinators, healthcare employers, nursing educators, community organizations, and policymakers.
This document is a report on a workforce integration toolkit initiative for internationally educated nurses (IENs) in Canada, developed by the Calgary Region Immigrant Employment Council (CRIEC). It is written for bridging program coordinators, healthcare employers, nursing educators, community organizations, and policymakers. The report is based on an ESDC-funded initiative and emphasizes evidence-informed, equity-centred workforce development.
The report opens by framing the challenge: a projected shortage of 117,600 registered nurses in Canada by 2030, while an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 IENs remain underemployed or locked out of the profession. It identifies two gaps: a supply-side gap in bridging programs that lack employment navigation and workplace culture content, and a demand-side gap where healthcare employers lack structured tools for recruiting and retaining internationally trained nurses.
The methodology section describes three evidence-based frameworks: the Social Ecological Model, Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), and RE-AIM. CRIEC conducted six stakeholder consultations and three iterative co-design sessions between February and September 2023, engaging IENs, HR professionals, nursing managers, educators, and community representatives. A scoping review of 47 sources from 2010 to 2023 informed the content.
The core of the report is the description of five co-designed toolkits. Toolkit 1 focuses on employment engagement for IENs, including competency gap analysis and interview preparation. Toolkit 2, Path2Practice, targets employers with inclusive job design and a 90-day onboarding curriculum. Toolkit 3 is a mentorship toolkit for IENs in Alberta. Toolkit 4, Navigating Nursing in Alberta, provides career maps and financial planning. Toolkit 5 is a pre-arrival toolkit for IENs, covering credential…
The report then shares key lessons from the co-design process, emphasizing that supply-side solutions alone are insufficient, that facilitated delivery matters more than passive resource distribution, and that community-based participatory research surfaces insights that literature alone cannot provide. It also stresses that health equity is central to the toolkit's purpose, addressing structural racism and discriminatory hiring practices.
Finally, the report offers recommendations for bridging program developers, healthcare employers, system planners, and researchers, and outlines next steps. These include integrating the toolkits into CRIEC's programming, with facilitated workshops for IENs and employer capacity-building sessions embedded in nursing orientation and onboarding curricula.