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Internationally educated nurses (IENs) play a critical role in strengthening the health care workforce in Ontario; however, many continue to face barriers to registration and practice.

This report describes the registration status, employment outcomes, and nursing skills utilization for 758 IENs not currently working as nurses in the province. To date, there have been very limited timely, accessible, comprehensive data on IENs who have not yet begun the registration process and still intend to apply or on IENs who are no longer pursuing registration. The findings in this report add to the existing data landscape on IENs in Ontario and contribute to ongoing research into the state of its health care workforce.

Better understanding of the number of IENs in the province, including their intentions and challenges, is key to accessing a much-needed talent pool of individuals who have the skills and training to address Ontario’s continuing health sector challenges.