This report presents the rationale, methodology, and outcomes of CRIEC's workforce integration toolkit initiative for internationally educated nurses (IENs) in Canada. It is a practical resource for bridging program coordinators, healthcare employers, nursing educators, community organizations, and policymakers.
This document is a toolkit development guide published by the Calgary Region Immigrant Employment Council (CRIEC) in June 2026. It is authored by Jamila Makii and addresses the integration of internationally educated nurses (IENs) into the Canadian workforce. The guide is intended for bridging program coordinators, healthcare employers, nursing educators, community organizations, and policymakers.
The report begins by outlining the challenge: Canada faces a projected shortage of 117,600 registered nurses by 2030, while an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 IENs in Canada are underemployed or locked out of the profession. It identifies two gaps: supply-side issues with bridging programs and demand-side issues with employer readiness.
CRIEC's approach is grounded in three frameworks: the Social Ecological Model (SEM), Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), and RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance). The methodology involved six stakeholder consultations and three iterative co-design sessions between February and September 2023, engaging IENs, healthcare HR professionals, nursing managers, bridging program educators, and community organizations.
The document describes five co-designed toolkits: Employment Engagement for IENs, Path2Practice for IENs Employer Engagement, Mentorship Toolkit for IENs in Alberta, Navigating Nursing in Alberta, and Pre-Arrival Toolkit for IENs. Each toolkit includes sample tools such as competency gap analysis worksheets, bias-reduction interview guides, communication style self-assessments, and provincial pathway flowcharts.
Key lessons from the co-design process are presented, including the need to address both supply-side and demand-side problems simultaneously, the importance of facilitated delivery over passive resource distribution, and the value of community knowledge. The report concludes with recommendations for bridging program developers, healthcare employers, system planners and policymakers, and researchers and evaluators, as well as planned next steps for integrating the toolkits into CRIEC's…