NNAS experience?

dishes, BSN, RN · Oct 2, 2016

@tabss, I think the 'OSCE and Clinical Skills' book by Hurley MD is a prep book for the UK medical OSCE not the nursing OSCE and the book 'Passing Your Advanced Nursing OSCE' by Ward, Helen is for the UK nurse practitioner OSCE not the RN OSCE. If the books are not relevant to a RN OSCE they may mislead you, can you cancel them from your order?

Tabss · Oct 3, 2016

Thank you for advice. ..I assume I can return them back because they arrived just 3 days ago

RN_Pro · Oct 7, 2016

I hate to disappoint you Philrnusuk, but it's best to be prepared: your NNAS report will not come back as "comparable". There have been no foreign educated RN's who have had a comparable results from NNAS since the NNAS's official implementation / full integration into the process. The unfortunate part is that they know this even before you submit your paperwork, and therefore the NNAS assessment is a cash-grab.

RN_Pro · Oct 7, 2016

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, the answer to your questions is no. Any education that is not a Canadian education will not pass. There has not been an RN who has received a comparable result from NNAS. The reason is that NNAS requires terminology to be verbatim in order for it to be seen as comparable. Even if the concept is the same, the terminology must be exact. It is set up for nobody to get a comparable result.

CNO (and I'm assuming its the same with other provinces but not sure) will not allow an appeal or will not take a look at the applicant's course syllabi until after they have paid another $400 and completed the one-chance-only Touchstone assessment. So essentially everyone has to, at a minimum, get the NNAS assessment and complete the Touchstone test (IENCAP) before CNO will even touch your paperwork. CNO will not release pass rates but anecdotally, the IENCAP pass rates are low.

lillj I agree with you that the educations are very comparable! In fact, the US education is more thorough!

Tabss · Oct 7, 2016

There has been recent slight changes in RN registration process in which you may can skip OSCE in lieu you need to do some courses... Here is the email i got from HEALTHFORCE ONTARIO:

**************

Ryerson, Trent, Windsor and York universities have announced that they are now accepting applications for their new competency-based consortium courses. Those courses will help Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs) with small competency gaps to meet the educational requirements for registration as a Registered Nurse in Ontario.

An estimated 10% of IENs who have completed the Internationally Educated Nurses Competency Assessment Program (IENCAP) have competency gaps exclusively in the following areas:

1. Ethical Practice,

2. Self-Regulation,

3. Professional Responsibility and Accountability, and

4. Service to the Public.

If you have competency gaps exclusively in one or more of the four areas listed above, you may be interested in learning more about these competency-based courses.

If you are interested in learning more, please visit RN Education – Competency-Based Courses for Internationally-Educated Nurses (IENs) for details.

The competency bridging courses offered by the four-university consortium will assist some IENs in meeting the nursing education requirement outlined on the CNO website. Please note, however, that all requirements listed on the CNO website must be met to achieve registration.

RN_Pro · Oct 8, 2016

Thanks so much for posting this Tabss!

Does the email say that taking these courses will allow you to skip the IENCAP? Because I thought your competency gaps are only identified after you have completed the NNAS and IENCAP. It seems that the application requires the results of your IENCAP in order to apply for the courses.

Also, just a caution, be careful to check with the CNO before taking these courses, because often CNO will not endorse a course. They will not say ahead of time whether a course has the correct content to allow you to meet a competency. They instruct you to take the course first and then submit the syllabus, and then they will decide whether it counts towards your competency. Crazy, I know, because applicants could be taking course after course and never know until after it is completed whether the content was enough for CNO.

This website does not appear to have an author or owner. Since the email came from HealhtForce I would think it's legitimate, but it just seems odd that it's a site created by WordPress. There are a lot of colleges and universities offering courses here and there related to nursing which attracts IENs and earns profits through tuition but the student is not qualified after the course. Niagara College, for example, has a RN-Critical Care program but when you look at the graduate report for the last year, nobody who completed the program is employed in a related field. I wonder how much the courses offered by the consortium will cost?

Thanks again for sharing this information! If I find out anything to add, I will be sure to post.

Tabss · Oct 8, 2016

So far, nothing related to new IENCAP rules is being updated on CNO website. I assume we need to wait for that. So far what I understood, it covers small number of applicants i.e 10%. The flow of RN registration goes like this now.

1. NNAS report -> Assess the education & syllabus - (normally takes 6 months)

2. CNO -> Issues Entry to Practice Competency Form stating the gaps so you need to go for IENCAP(OSCE exam ) - (I was being issued in 2 weeks)

3. IENCAP -> Appear in OSCE exam conducted by Touchstone.

4. Consortium course -> If you fail in any 4 competencies as mentioned by HEALTHFORCE then you can take the consortium course.

Now it's not clear that:

a. DO Competency-Based Courses for Internationally-Educated Nurses (IENs) to be taken on the bases of step 2 or step 3 above?

b. Is this consortium course accredited by CNO & you can end up becoming RN after passing them or not?

Note: I am currently waiting for OSCE exam date.

dishes, BSN, RN · Oct 8, 2016

@CDN_US_educated_RN & Tabs

I believe the RNcompetencies ca program is legitimate and the courses will be accepted by CNO, because according to the Toronto Star article 'Immigrant Nurses face new hurdles with licensing changes' (Nov 11 2014) the CNO was working with the Council of Ontario Universities to develop programs that will address nurse's competency gaps at that time. After two years, the program is ready and applications to program are submitted to the Council of Ontario Universities project manager.

RN_Pro · Oct 9, 2016

Good questions Tabss, I also wonder whether the courses come into play after step 2 or step 3. I've sent an email off to the project coordinator asking about your second question and about the cost of the courses. I will let you know what she says if I hear back from her.

It's been soooooo long since Touchstone has posted new OSCE exam dates. They don't have the capacity to deal with the influx of test-takers which was created by the implementation of the NNAS process.

dishes, BSN, RN · Oct 9, 2016

The cost of the courses is on RNcompetencies "$1,100.00 for each course, $6,600.00 for the six courses not including textbooks"

dishes, BSN, RN · Oct 9, 2016

Hi bobacia,
It's been almost a year now.
I am wondering the exact same things as you, but Touchstone refuses to answer any of those questions. The last test date that we know of is Feb 2017 and they will not give an estimate of when the next exam date will be released. I don't find them to be very transparent at all. And since they are a private company, there is nothing that requires them to be, unfortunately. If you are able to find out any of the answers to these questions, please do post them, and I will do the same.

I would not refer to Touchstone as a private company that is not obligated to be transparent, as they receive most of their funding from public money, according to their annual report 2015-2016 60% of their funding is from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) only 9% of their funding is fees from candidates.

dishes, BSN, RN · Oct 9, 2016

Looking back on past AN posts (starting in 2013), it seems that the IENCAPS were held in the months of Jan, Feb, May, June, Aug, Oct and Nov. I don't know if that means anything for future IENCAPs, it's just an observation.