Canadians know that we face a health care staffing crisis an estimated 6.5 million would not have a primary care providerthose that wait for months medical imaging and hours in emergency rooms. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Covid-19 a pandemic A public health emergency after the tip of May 2023, there isn’t any end in sight to the labor market crisis in Canada.
As researchers from Canadian Health Professionals Networkwhere we see the roots of this crisis poor workforce planning and insufficient integration immigrant health care employees. The consequences of poor planning are obvious, as ethical consequences solving our problems through global recruitment.
Canada’s health care workforce crisis is greater than a national problem
The Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada have established: expert panel to evaluate Canada’s role in global health and discover opportunities for Canada to “be true to its proclaimed values of equality, human rights and global citizenship.”
One method to promote Canadian health leadership is to align practices with those of the WHO Global Code of Practice for the International Recruitment of Health Professionals. This voluntary code was accepted by all member states in 2010. Its key principles are ethical recruitment, commitment to planning and international cooperation.
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Ethical practices include discouraging energetic recruitment from countries on the WHO Health Workforce Support List security listwhich identified “countries with the most urgent health workforce needs for universal health care”.
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Sound healthcare workforce planning strategies include strengthening healthcare workforce data and implementing plans to make sure healthcare workforce sustainability and self-sufficiency. Robust data can be certain that policies and planning are evidence-based and document the impact of international recruitment on health systems. The goal needs to be a sustainable, self-sufficient health workforce, including appropriate education, training and retention policies.
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International cooperation between countries of origin and destination includes technical assistance and financial support to make sure mutual advantages.
Why is it value considering the WHO Code now?
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Recent reports on Canada’s health workforce suggest that the recruitment and integration of internationally educated medical experts (IEHPs) is a component of the answer to the health workforce crisis. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health held hearings on how you can address Canada’s health care labor market crisis, and its committee’s top 4 recommendations March 2023 report all listed IEHP:
- closer cooperation between all levels of presidency and relevant stakeholders to enhance recruitment from countries known to be producing more medical experts than they need domestically;
- providing more internship positions for international medical graduates;
- expand paths to eligible for a license to practice medicine in Canada (license) for international doctors who’ve already accomplished their residency; AND
- support accelerated paths to obtaining licenses and practicing the occupation.
The Canadian Academy of Health Sciences the report also offers “ways to alleviate the healthcare workforce crisis,” including improving IEHP integration.
Provincial recruitment strategies
Local authorities are also specializing in international recruitment and integration. In British Columbia BC health game assists healthcare employees with immigration, and legislation now makes it easier for internationally educated nurses to work within the province.
Albert has developed a health workforce strategy that features attracting IEHPs. Saskatchewan launched a global group of health professionals for Provincial Nominations Program candidates. Manitoba began recruiting health care employees directly from the Philippines.
Ontario has made it easier for health care employees from other voivodeships practice there, and instructed its licensing authorities to enhance immigrant integration processes within the province nursing or medical qualifications.
Quebec launched a global recruitment campaign geared toward employing over 1,000 French-speaking nurses in February 2022.
New Brunswick has partnered with Vitalité Health Network to send nurse recruiters to Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire (countries on the WHO’s protection list). Nova Scotia has recruited 65 refugees from Kenyan refugee camps to be employed within the continuing care sector. Newfoundland and Labrador launched a mission to recruit nurses directly from India.
How consistent are these practices with the WHO Code?
Through recruitment and integration efforts, provinces have developed progressive and apparently ethical plans to recruit IEHPs and supply them with a pathway to practice in Canada. However, recruiting medical experts from countries on the WHO’s safeguards list without solid and reciprocal advantages for the countries sending them doesn’t meet the moral test.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
The combination of refugee employment and selection channels also suggests ethical issues beyond those of health care employees, as refugee systems depend on: vulnerable people face, not their skilled compatibility.
The lack of debate about employment planning in health care is noteworthy. Canada’s ability to attain self-sufficiency is proscribed by a scarcity of solid plans and data to support planning. This includes the best way immigration suits into the health care workforce. Proposal for creation Center of Excellence for Healthcare Workforce Data can begin to fill in these gaps.
Hidden responses from the ministries of health and international development mean we’re missing out on opportunities to support international cooperation and develop integration solutions to health workforce issues beyond Canada’s international recruitment efforts.
We encourage greater attention to those various elements of the WHO Code as national, provincial and territorial governments seek to handle current and ongoing health workforce challenges. This approach could be more consistent with Canada’s role on the world stage than it currently is.
