A program that helps match internationally trained nurses with employers in New Brunswick is expanding.

Last week, the province announced that workers in other regulated professions will become eligible for navigation services.

Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Trevor Holder said they have had great success with the initial program, which launched in 2019.

“We went from virtually not recruiting anybody to more than 200 nurses over the last couple of years,” Holder said in a phone interview.

Holder said newcomers who are interested can work with an employment counsellor at WorkingNB to develop an employment action plan.

The counsellor, he said, will look at what credentials they currently have, which ones can be recognized, and what they need to do in terms of testing or bridging.

Holder said they want New Brunswick to be a welcoming and inviting province and ensure newcomers stay here to help fill some of our labour demands.

“Newcomers have been frustrated that they don’t know where to go [in the process],” he said. “In many cases, they are either not working in the health sector, or they just get frustrated and they leave and go to other parts of Canada. That has to stop.”

New Brunswick has hired two more navigators for the program. One will focus on health professionals, the second on other regulated professions.

The service will expand immediately to include all other regulated health care professionals. The service for other regulated professions will be ramping up over the coming weeks.

“We are committed to helping health professionals get recognition for the qualifications they earned abroad so they can be a part of providing high-quality care to New Brunswickers,” Health Minister Bruce Fitch said in a news release.

You can find contact information for your local WorkingNB office by clicking here.