Whereas there is a shortfall of qualified staff to provide healthcare services, particularly in rural and remote communities, across the province; And whereas some of the training requirements for healthcare workers pose significant barriers in terms of time, cost, and accessibility, thereby hindering the potential influx of qualified individuals into the healthcare workforce; And whereas reducing unnecessary barriers and streamlining training opportunities for healthcare workers would promote professional growth, enhance healthcare delivery, and ultimately benefit the residents of our communities: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM advocate to the Province and relevant authorities to put in place the necessary framework, tools and incentives to address the shortfall of qualified healthcare workers and reduce the barriers for healthcare training opportunities.
Ministry of Health In 2022, the Ministry of Health Health announced a comprehensive Health Human Resource HHR Strategy aimed at optimizing the health system, expanding training and improving recruitment and retention. Under Actions 36 and 37 respectively, this strategy includes Return of Service bursary programs aimed at increasing the number of Internationally Educated Nurses and Allied Health Professionals IEAHPs, into the province, to reduce critical healthcare professional shortages. These bursaries offset the cost of assessment and transitional education in exchange for service commitments to work in qualifying positions after attaining licensure in BC. In addition to these bursaries, the Province also issued a series of training bursaries to attract students to priority health education programs, reduce financial barriers to training, and ultimately fill key workforce gaps. These bursaries include: 1. Access to Practical Nursing Bursary of 10,000 per recipient to support Health Care Assistants HCAs to advance their careers and develop new skills by training to become Licensed Practical Nurses LPNs. 2. Priority Program Bursary Action 57 of the HHR Strategy - Student Recruitment and Retention Bursary of 2,000 per program year; and 3. Priority Program Bursary Action 57 of the HHR Strategy - Indigenous Student Recruitment Bursary of 5,000 per program year. 4. Nursing Tuition Grant to support minimum Nurse to Patient Ratios: a. Nursing students in Bachelor of Science in nursing BSN, Bachelor of Psychiatric Nursing, and Practical Nursing programs receive 2,000 per program year. b. Indigenous students in BSN programs will receive an additional 5,000 per program year. 5. Return to Practice Nurse Bursary for nurses who are interested in returning to practice in BC covering costs like tuition, assessment fees, and travel. On March 11, 2025, Health also announced a plan to recruit doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals from the United States highlighting new fast-track credential recognition pathways for nurses and doctors additional information available through BCHealth Careers. The BC College of Nurses and Midwives BCCNM has fully implemented their fast-track pathway for US nurses leveraging similarities in education, practice, and registration. The recent changes build upon improvements made in 202324 which allowed US nurses to bypass the Inspire application process and apply directly to the BCCNM. In the new fast-track process, BCCNM will use the US national nurse-licensure and disciplinary database, NURSYS to obtain information about a nursing applicants education and registration history directly, without the need for an independent credential review, allowing them to focus on obtaining more details on an applicants practice history only when necessary. US nurses will now be able to obtain a registration decision even faster than before. In the case of physicians, Health is working with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC on a direct process to enable US-trained doctors, who hold certification from the American Board of Medical Specialties, to become fully licensed in BC without the need for further assessment, examination or training. The proposed bylaw changes are open to public consultation until May 7th. To address credentialing barriers for IEAHPs, Health provided funding to regulatory colleges, including the Association of Canadian Occupational Therapy Regulatory Organizations for an integrated management information system to better prepare applicants for the competency assessment. The Canadian Alliance of Physiotherapy Regulators also received funding to introduce an expedited credentialing pathway that reduces assessment times from 16 weeks to two weeks. The Pre-Approved Credentialling Pathway simplifies applications from certain jurisdictions including Australia, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the US. The Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills also offers the BC Student Loan Forgiveness Program BCLFP. Recent graduates in select in-demand occupations can have their BC student loans forgiven by agreeing to work at publicly-funded facilities in underserved rural and remote communities in BC. The Ministry of Health continues to work with Student Aid BC and the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills to ensure the BCLFP is responsive to health system priorities and plans. With regards to provincial medical staff supply, below are some targeted HHR actions aimed at reducing training barriers and increasing supply: 1. New to Practice Incentive Program Action 43: new contract rate, clinical overhead contribution, one-time signing bonus, and one-time medical education debt relief grant for family physicians. 2. Associate Physician Deployment Expansion Action 23: enables international medical graduates who are not eligible for independent licensure to practice under the supervision of an attending physician. 3. Undergraduate Medical Education Expansion Action 63: At UBC, 40 new undergraduate medical education UGME seats have been added over two years: 18 in 2023 and 22 in 2024, for a total of 328 seats. 4. New Medical School at SFU Action 60: The School of Medicine at SFU will welcome its first incoming class of 48 undergraduate medical school students by summer 2026. 5. Postgraduate Medical Education Expansion Action 64: To address the critical need for more physicians, UBCs Postgraduate Medical Education PGME programs will increase by over 160 positions between 2022 and 2028. 6. Practice Ready Assessment-BC expansion Action 41: increases annual seats from 32 to 96 by 2024, providing a pathway to licensure for internationally trained family physicians in exchange for a practice commitment in a health authority identified community in need in BC. Lastly, Health has expanded GoHealth BC Action 34, a travel staffing program which supports short-term deployments to high-need rural and remote communities to prevent service interruptions and diversions. Currently, GoHealth BC nurses are working in 34 different communities across Interior Health, Northern Health, and Island Health. The program is further expanding to support high priorities sites in rural and remote communities in those areas. The initiatives noted above highlights the work underway to reduce and offset the costs and barriers associated with training. The broader HHR strategy is built around four cornerstones retain, redesign, recruit, and train, aiming to support a healthy and productive workforce and a better health care system for everyone in BC. The initiatives in the HHR Strategy will work towards creating a more equitable system across the province to ensure all BC residents have access to health care in their community.