A New Model for Assessing Entry-Level Education of Internationally Educated Nurses: A Retrospective Perspective

Like other developed countries, Canada relies on foreign-educated nurses, referred to in Canada as internationally educated nurses (IENs), to achieve nurse workforce sufficiency and sustainability. No formal international standard for nursing education exists; therefore, the scope of practice and the role of the nurse may differ from one country to another. Licensing authorities in destination countries should aim to provide a fair, valid, and consistent assessment of IENs who apply to practice in their jurisdictions. Recognizing this assessment need, Canadian nursing regulatory bodies are taking a new approach to meeting the challenge of fairly and consistently assessing IENs' entry-level education. In 2012, they created the National Nursing Assessment Service (NNAS) to provide a single-point-of-entry for evaluating IENs.This article describes the formation of the NNAS.