The Strand, investigative report: How immigrant nurses answered the call to respond to Canada’s COVID-19 pandemic

Masks with straps that don’t tie, gowns that fail to fully cover bodies, and shortages of personal protective equipment all characterized working conditions faced by nurses at the start of Canada’s COVID-19 pandemic. 

About one in ten nurses in Canada—7.7 percent—are licensed to practice in Canada, but are immigrants. These nurses, despite facing the same hazards treating COVID-19 patients as their colleagues with citizenship, face barriers to career promotion, distrust from fellow nurses and patients, and wage penalties.

As Canada experiences its second wave of COVID-19 cases, some advocates are calling for better recognition of the contributions from foreign-educated nurses by legislators and nursing regulatory bodies. Ahtisham Younas, a Ph.D. candidate at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, is one of them.

Read more at the full article linked here.