To help new health care immigrants to quickly start working in Quebec,
Canada, the Immigration Minister has established agreements with seven
professional corporations - governing doctors, nurses, nurses' aides,
occupational therapists, inhalations therapists, midwives, and medical
technicians. The goal is to make sure that every foreign trained medical or helth professional who comes to
Quebec, Canada and who wishes to be a part of a professional order can follow
the steps as efficiently as possible and become a member of the order. The goal
of these agreements is to increase awareness about the licensing process in
Quebec for foreign professionals, and to offer tutoring to help them pass the
corporations' exams.
With a health care worker shortage in the Province of Quebec (Canada), the
provincial Immigration Minister Yolande James is working to make it easier for
foreign health care professionals to become licensed to practice in Quebec. As a
regulated industry, all foreign educated health care workers must belong to a
professional corporation, which ensures that foreign qualifications are
equivalent to Quebec qualifications. Many foreign qualified medical and health
care workers are not made aware of the licensing process or face difficulties
passing the required test and learning French. They often end of working in
unrelated fields. The new agreements will definitely ease some of these
barriers.
Each of the seven professional orders will receive grants of $100,000
towards these ends. In addition, the Quebec immigration department has
allocated $525,000 for specialized French courses to prepare foreign-trained
health professionals to deal with French-speaking patients.
