SDG-targeted research helps create health care jobs for Canadian newcomers

A research team at McMaster has been working to accelerate the employment of internationally educated nurses (IENs) in an effort to diversify the health workforce, reduce health inequities for immigrants and refugees across Ontario, and promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

Andrea Baumann, the associate vice-president, Global Health, and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in Primary Care and Health Human Resources, has led the development of a successful employment strategy that has involved partnering with health care employers and non-governmental organizations to match highly skilled newcomer women to available positions.

The strategy includes an analysis of real-time job postings, community profiles, in-person meetings with senior executives and final job matching.

Early results indicate that the strategy has resulted in immediate employment of more than 90% of applicants.

Baumann’s work is significant because, according to the federal government’s review of Canada’s Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, newcomers to Canada face unique barriers to participating fully in their new country, including their ability to enter the workforce.

As a result of unemployment and underemployment, newcomers and their families struggle financially and socially – and the economy loses out.

The employment strategy for IENs directly targets Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8, which aims to “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.”

“Currently, the health care and social assistance sector employs more than two million people Canada-wide, but despite this number, newcomers still face significant challenges in obtaining their first Canadian job in health care,” says Baumann, who recently presented her team’s findings at an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Research Matters event.

To combat and help remove barriers to employment in general for new Canadians, the Canadian government is working with provinces and territories to support newcomers’ employability, assist employers to benefit from the contribution of newcomers, and streamline and improve recognition of foreign qualifications. These are all actions that Baumann and her team have taken to increase employment of IENs.

“Our work is well aligned with Canada’s strategy when it comes to SDG 8 in that we are working towards economic growth that sustainable and inclusive and, in the area of health care, will hopefully result in reduced inequities,” she says. “Because we need a diverse health workforce that caters to our province’s growing and diverse patient population.”