These days, we don’t have the luxury of letting professionals play on the bench. We cannot do without foreign workers who can help us counter the labor shortage, especially in the health care system, which is sorely understaffed.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
The consequences are everywhere.
Take the emergencies where the summer will be even more difficult than last year because of absenteeism, warned the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, this week.
Take also private residences for seniors (RPA) where not a week goes by without a closure being announced. At the beginning of June, we also learned that the residence Sous les étoiles, in the Laurentians, was going to leave 24 elderly people on the floor, with one month’s notice. A disaster for these vulnerable people who will be uprooted from their living environment.
Since January 2021, it is the carnage. More than 160 RPAs have closed. Especially smaller, more affordable establishments. Especially in regions where there are few alternatives.
The number one factor behind this black series? The lack of staff. Yet RPAs scramble to unearth workers, for example by organizing recruitment missions abroad where thousands of people raise their hands.
But coming to work with us is a real obstacle course.
First, the immigration process is unacceptably slow. Foreign workers sometimes wait up to 18 months before landing in the residence that hired them.
What are we waiting for to press the accelerator? That they change their plans and look elsewhere?
In addition, the RPAs note that the foreign workers they recruit as orderlies cannot always bring their families with them, unlike other workers such as nurses or cooks who are in another category.
Wouldn’t it be time to better adapt these highly dissuasive rules to our crying labor needs?
Arriving in Quebec, the workers are not at the end of their troubles. Many experienced nurses who have obtained a baccalaureate in their country, in Tunisia for example, find themselves working as orderlies in RPAs in Quebec.
The phenomenon of overqualification of migrants in health care is widely documented. According to Statistics Canada, barely one-third (37%) of immigrants with a bachelor’s degree in nursing actually hold a job in their profession, compared to three-quarters (78%) of Canadian graduates.
However, the Order of Nurses of Quebec, which receives nearly 700 requests for recognition of diplomas per year, grants practically all requests… on condition of doing refresher training on the school benches (in 34% of cases) or an internship with the employer (64%), depending on the candidate’s knowledge and experience.
Except that the analysis of the file by the Order takes about three months from the moment the file is complete. And then, training in CEGEPs lasts about eight months. Foreign workers cannot afford to deprive themselves of income for such a long period to follow a standardized course that does not necessarily meet their needs.
The work internship is generally shorter than the CEGEP training, but the RPAs do not necessarily have the resources to offer it at home. And in any case, their foreign recruits arrive with a temporary work permit which prohibits them “from attending an educational establishment or following a theoretical or professional course”, or even from practicing a “profession other than that indicated”.
This is how many qualified nurses work as orderlies when they could do so much more. They have to easily wait three or four years to obtain their permanent residence and then go back to school.
However, this time that passes is crucial for nurses, as for all professionals. If integration into employment is not successful after two or three years, the risks of obsolete skills and socio-professional withdrawal increase.
So why not quickly offer part-time refresher training to foreign workers who have to earn a living?
It is imperative to accelerate and facilitate the journey of immigrants who arrive here without a compass. To do this, there needs to be better co-operation between the various players, as the Conseil interprofessionnel du Québec recommends as part of a project to modernize the laws surrounding the professions.
The professional integration of graduates from outside Quebec represents 15% of all permits granted by the 46 orders, which requires a lot of resources. The process must be as efficient as possible, as immigration is a key element in solving the labor shortage, especially in the health field.
These people leave their family and their country to take care of the most vulnerable people in our country. And rebuild their lives here. The least we could do would be to facilitate their reception and professional integration. For them. And also for Quebec.