By Talar Stockton | Yukon News
The Yukon government has launched a navigation service to help foreign-trained healthcare workers get their Canadian medical licences.
The Foreign Credential Recognition Navigation Service was announced on Jan. 9. The service pairs foreign-trained healthcare workers to navigators who will offer counselling and information on requirements to work in the Yukon. The service is for those with foreign credentials already in the Yukon, or expressing a desire to move to the Yukon.
Those who are already in the Yukon may qualify for financial assistance to help with the cost of exams, licensing, or credential requirements.
“We’re not here to make them a medical professional. The assumption is that they already are one,” said Anton Solomon, the director of labour market development for Economic Development.
The service, while designed and operated by YG, is funded by the federal government, according to Solomon.
Per previous reporting done by the News, the territory has grappled with a shortage of healthcare workers, even calling in undeployed military healthcare personnel to help fill gaps.
“Our job is to help them get through the process, so the process is not the reason why they choose to leave the territory,” Solomon told the News in an interview on Jan. 13. Solomon told the News that in order to get licensed, foreign trained personnel often have to go to other jurisdictions.
Solomon said there are around 40 people in the territory that they know of who may be able to get licensed using this program.
Interested people can reach out to a navigator from Economic Development, the navigator will help them build a plan for how they can get licensed and practice in the territory, said Solomon.
“Our goal is not to tell them what training should you have in order to be a successful nurse in the Yukon,” said Solomon. “What we will be able to tell them, though, is, here’s what the nursing union requires of you. Here’s what the employer, if you want to work in the hospital, requires of you.”
The Economic Development website has a specific webpage for those who wish to have their foreign credentials recognized to work in healthcare in the Yukon to get in touch with a navigator.
Dr. Derek Bryant, the president of the Yukon Medical Association, told the News the program sounds beneficial. However, he did say the problem facing foreign-trained healthcare workers still remains.
“This navigation program doesn’t add a new pathway. It simply supports people in understanding what the existing pathways are,” he said.
Currently, if someone has gotten their medical degree in a different country, they would have to either do a residency in Canada if they haven’t done a residency before, or do a practice-ready assessment where they either undergo examination or are observed by a preceptor in a healthcare environment, said Bryant.
Both pathways have their challenges: there are limited residency spots available to international graduates and practice-ready assessments are only offered in certain jurisdictions. Neither option is available in the Yukon.
Bryant said he recently spoke with a Yukoner who attended medical school abroad. Upon their return to Canada, they became licensed through a residency program in one of the provinces.
“As a condition of their residency program, they have a return of service to that program,” said Bryant.
“So this individual, who’s from the Yukon actually can’t even return to the territory until they complete the return of service, which is unfortunate, because that may have been what that person would have wanted to do.”
Bryant said it would be worth exploring different avenues for someone to be credentialed in the territory.
“One way that that could potentially be done is through a residency program in in the territory,” he said. “If we had our own residency program, then we could potentially admit people who are from the Yukon and who have trained abroad and that would be one pathway to getting licensed in the territory where they could actually continue to practice in this territory.”
Bryant said the Yukon Medical Association is currently pushing to develop a residency program in the Yukon, which involves being associated with a medical school.
In the meantime, Economic Development is working with a team of two navigators to try to get healthcare workers’ credentials recognized in the Yukon, said Solomon.
“It’s a pilot project, so we expect to learn as we go in this as well, because anytime you put something new out the field that is citizen-driven, you will eventually run into citizens that you haven’t thought of because, of course, I’m not a medical professional, and I’ve never trained outside of Canada to be one,” said Solomon. “So what is needed and what are the challenges, is something we expect to learn as we go.”
