A. Before, only York University offers the bridging courses for ien to meet those competency gaps. And regardless of how many or what competency gaps you have, you need to take the full brdging program for iens.
Now, few days ago, they have announced changes with regards to addressing and dealing with competency gaps of IENs in Ontario.
"Are you an internationally educated nurse (IEN) who has been assessed through the Ontario IEN Competency Assessment Process (IENCAP)? Four universities are working together to develop innovative new competency-based courses to help prepare IENs with small competency gaps to launch their registered nursing careers in Ontario. Applications are now being accepted for registration in these courses.
Participating universities include Ryerson, Trent, Windsor, and York. The Council of Ontario Universities (COU) is working with the four universities to coordinate the project. Funding for the development phase of the courses is provided by the Government of Ontario, Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities."
B. Of course. That is why they are asking you to take those courses to address your gaps. Once you finished those courses you will already be eligible to take the NCLEX RN
canada11 said:
So far, nothing related to new IENCAP rules is being updated on CNO website. I assume we need to wait for that. So far what I understood, it covers small number of applicants i.e 10%. The flow of RN registration goes like this now.
1. NNAS Report -> Assess the education & syllabus - (normally takes 6 months)
2. CNO -> Issues Entry to Practice Competency Form stating the gaps so you need to go for IENCAP(OSCE exam ) - (I was being issued in 2 weeks)
3. IENCAP -> Appear in OSCE exam conducted by Touchstone.
4. Consortium course -> If you fail in any 4 competencies as mentioned by HEALTHFORCE then you can take the consortium course.
Now it's not clear that:
a. DO Competency-Based Courses for Internationally-Educated Nurses (IENs) to be taken on the bases of step 2 or step 3 above?
b. Is this consortium course accredited by CNO & you can end up becoming RN after passing them or not?
Note: I am currently waiting for OSCE exam date.