The Rapidly Evolving Field of Recruitment and Retention of Internationally Educated Nurses.

Exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, shortfalls in the current and predicted nursing workforce have propelled provincial and territorial governments to find solutions to provide the nursing care needed by a population that is increasing in size, age and complexity. Internationally educated nurses (IENs) are not new to Canada - they have been part of nursing's history for centuries (Indar et al. 2025). When faced by the shortages in the nursing workforce following the pandemic, all provinces and territories accelerated recruitment of IENs. In fact, this year the College of Nurses of Ontario (2025) reported that, for the first time, the number of new internationally educated registered nurses (RNs) exceeded the number of new Canadian-educated RN registrants.