Toronto 
Ontario today announced that the province will be deploying internationally educated nurses, nursing students and other allied medical professionals to deal with the Omicron variant induced staffing shortage.
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott during today’s press conference said the province, Ontario Health and the Colleges of Nurses of Ontario are collaborating to deploy internationally trained nurses who are not members of the College to hospitals to help with Ontario’s pandemic response.
Elliott said more than 1,200 individuals who are registered with CNO have expressed interest in participating in the program and that they will be used in hospitals and long-term-care homes which need staffing support.
“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ontario’s hospitals and health care providers have worked tirelessly to protect the health and safety of patients,” said Christine Elliott. “Our government has continued to make critical investments in our hospital and health workforce to ensure no resource goes untapped so that our hospitals have the staffing and resources they need to care for patients during this challenging time.”
Ontario Health’s Matt Anderson said the international educated students will be placed in an “External Program” and they will work as part of a team under the supervision of a regulated health care provider, such as a registered nurse or doctor.
Ontario says the matching with health-care providers is expected to begin later this week, with onboarding new staff in the weeks ahead.
