Making It Happen
NOT GIVING UP Manpreet Kaur recently earned her master's degree and has a position the BC Cancer Agency while she works to secure her nursing licence in BC.
Manpreet Kaur recalls her childhood with something approximating wistfulness. "I was a very studious kid, but the thing I loved most was playing games, especially badminton and carom [a game where players take turns striking checker-like pieces into one of four corner-pockets on a square board]," Kaur recalls. "I used to play with my sisters, one of whom is now an emergency-room doctor."
Kaur grew up in the district of Tarn Taran in the state of Punjab, India, in what she describes as an "average family," not far from the city of Amritsar, home of the famed Golden Temple and the beating heart of Sikhism. "We lived in a three-room house with water and electricity, but money was a constant challenge, and us kids didn't get a lot of pocket money or new clothes because my father was saving every penny for our future studies," she explains.
Kaur had excellent grades throughout school and dreamed of going into dentistry. "There was a lot of competition to get into the program, but the biggest hurdle was the cost," she says. "It was just not affordable." Instead, Kaur opted for nursing and was accepted into a four-year program at the University College of Nursing in the city of Faridkot. "I was just 18 when I began the program," she recalls, "leaving home and living in a hostel." Kaur remembers that first week as a heady mix of fear and excitement. "We had our theory classes from 08:00 to 12:00, a break for lunch, and then from 13:00 to 16:00 we were in clinical – for the first two months I cried every day," she says.
In 2013 – following her graduation – Kaur was hired by a multinational hospital on the campus of the nursing college where she had been studying. "I was on a med/surg floor and was told that we would have two to three patients to care for on an eight-hour shift, but it was more like five or six or more patients, and the shifts sometimes lasted 10 or 11 hours, though we'd only be paid for eight – it was a difficult time," she says. "I wasn't sleeping well, and I wasn't eating well and after a few months of being there I decided to leave."
- Manpreet Kaur
Kaur then returned to her hometown and was hired as an instructor by a private nursing college. "I really enjoyed the work, teaching clinical, health education, community health, and perinatal assessments," she says, "but I was restless. I was only making $200 a month and I didn't feel like I was growing or learning anything new." In the meantime, Kaur's friends were seeking opportunities in Australia, the UK and Canada. In 2015, she obtained a visa to study for a master's degree in public health at a campus in Vancouver. She arrived in BC in 2016.
While completing her degree, Kaur initiated the application process to get her nursing licence. After graduating in 2018, she received a work permit and was hired as a night-shift manager at Vancouver International Airport. "After a while I was promoted to supervisor and spent my days-off studying for the IELTS [International English language testing system] exam," she says. "I took the test three times – in 2017, 2019, and 2020 – and each time I was unsuccessful. I needed to score a 7 in academic writing but was only able to score a 6.5. On every other component I achieved a successful score."
Kaur is philosophical about what she calls the "hurdle of the English language" and is confident she will successfully meet the standard. For now, she is readying herself to attend the College of Nursing Studies in Prince Edward Island to fulfill additional requirements for her nursing licence while continuing to work as a unit clerk at the BC Cancer Agency. "I am fine to go back to school, Kaur says. "The program is accessible and less expensive than comparable programs here, and it is accepted by the BC College of Nurses and Midwives."
A desire to help others is what keeps Kaur going. "I want to do something nice, to do good in the world," she says. "I remember the feeling I had when I was helping to debride a burn – the relief it brought to the patient – it was a nice feeling, the best feeling, to give relief."
Kaur also notes that she couldn't have made it this far without the support of her husband, Rajwinder, and Valerie Wong, a career coach at Douglas College. "It's been a long and difficult journey and there's still more to be done to achieve my dream, but I'm not giving up, I'll never give up," she says.
And you just know she'll make that dream happen. •
UPDATE (Fall 2022)
RECRUITMENT REQUIRES SUPPORT
Canada’s nurses release position statement on internationally educated nurses
Canada’s worsening nursing shortage has led to a renewed focus on internationally educated nurses (IENs), both those currently in Canada and others working outside the country. The nurse staffing crisis is global in scale, and Canada in not alone in its need for skilled care providers. That’s why it’s important to ensure that the recruitment and retention of IENs within Canada is the first priority of governments and health policy makers.
This position was articulated recently in a statement published this year by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU). The CFNU recognizes that international nurse recruitment should be part of a comprehensive health human resource plan, but it states that provincial and territorial governments should not target nurses from countries that are experiencing a chronic or temporary shortage of nurses.
When international migration occurs, the CFNU will advocate to protect nurses’ interests and rights to ensure decent work. It also strongly supports IENs’ right to freedom of association, including the right to join a union in the pursuit of collective workplace goals arrived at through the collective bargaining process.
The CFNU recognizes that many internationally educated nurses currently in Canada are unemployed or underemployed, and the barriers to working as a nurse in Canada are onerous, expensive and time-consuming. Internationally educated nurses have the right to expect appropriate clinical and cultural orientation, and supportive supervision in their workplaces. They also have the right to fair and equal treatment on employment-related issues, including working conditions, promotion and access to career development.
The CFNU sates that nurses’ unions will actively engage with employers to ensure that IENs have conditions of employment as favourable as those of other nurses in Canada, and to encourage a workplace environment that is culturally safe, and respects diversity and multicultural perspectives. Click here to read the full statement.