Nurses working in Quebec hospitals will not be required to hold a university degree, the Quebec government has decided.
L’Ordre des infermières et des infermiers du Québec (OIIQ) is the main group representing Quebec nurses. They lobbied in June 2012 for the provincial government to require any nurse practicing in the province to hold a baccalaureate in nursing.
But Dr. Réjean Hébert, Quebec’s minister of health and social services said in a Jan. 8 press release that there was no consensus regarding the proposal, which had not yet been implemented. Currently, nurses must only complete a three-year CEGEP program.
“We are fortunate in Québec to have competent and dedicated nurses who play a key role in the daily delivery of care, and to strengthen the first line,” he said.
Ariane Lareau, the ministry’s press officer, said via email that “a common vision of all partners is essential to undertake a reform like this.”
“In addition, we retain the fact that the majority of members expressed the desire to keep a qualifying college education,” she wrote. “We must ensure that we offer to the next nurses the training best suited for responding to the evolution of the needs and the health of the population of Québec.”
The Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), or the Inter-professional Health Federation of Québec in English, is an organization that opposed the initial proposal.
The FIQ is a labour organization composed of 60 unions, which have joined together to rally for the collective rights of health care professionals in Québec.
“The university [degree] was never something that [nurses] had to do . . . It’s not a change,” Vanessa Bevilacqua, the union adviser for the Communication-Information Services at FIQ, said.
In a translation of a press release posted Jan. 8 on the group’s website, Régine Laurent, president of the FIQ, stated that the initial training of nurses “avoids a drastic shift that would have been catastrophic for the health care system.”
“We believe that the recognition of knowledge acquired by work experience, expertise, and continuing education is the way that will guarantee better delivery of care,” Laurent said, also explaining that the FIQ fully supports improving the training of nurses.
In Ontario, registered nurses must hold a current General Certificate of Registration with the College of Nurses of Ontario, according to the HealthForceOntario website. To be eligible, nurses must attain a practical nursing diploma or a nursing program that is equivalent to Ontario’s four-year bachelor’s degree in nursing.
