The College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) is launching a new project in collaboration with the Centre for the Evaluation of Health Professionals Educated Abroad (CEHPEA) to develop a process which will support assessment of Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs). We are looking for Registered Nurses who are interested in developing new items for the IEN clinical examination. This new examination will assess the IEN’s readiness to sit the Canadian Registered Nurse Examination (CRNE). 

The next two-day item writing workshops will be held in October 2012 (dates TBD) at the CEHPEA facility in downtown Toronto.  If you are available for the full two-day period and you meet the criteria listed below, please apply no later than Friday, September 7, 2012 (please note: you must be available for the full two-day period). The stipend for this project is $450/day as well as associated travel costs for those outside the GTA.

For this upcoming session, we are looking for an additional 10-15 nurses to participate.  Please note that there will be more sessions over the next several months, so we encourage you to submit your application as this will be an ongoing process.

 Item Writer Eligibility Criteria

• Current registration with CNO as a Registered Nurse
• Entitled to practice with no restrictions – no history of Discipline Committee findings
• Minimum 5 years of experience as a Registered Nurse
• Experience with objective test item writing an asset
• Current practice/recent practice (<12 months) in the following clinical settings:
  • Academic (responsible for teaching basic/undergraduate students in clinical areas)
  • Acute Care-adult
  • Community/Public Health
  • Long-term Care/Rehabilitation/Complex Continuing Care
  • Mental Health/Corrections
  • Paediatrics
  • Palliative Care

About CEHPEA and the Clinical Examination

• CEHPEA is an assessment centre for internationally educated health professionals seeking access to training or registration in Ontario.
• The purpose and unique feature of our examinations is the requirement that the results assign candidates to different levels of competence (e.g. unsatisfactory, needing major bridging activities, needing to fill minor gaps, ready for licensure examination).
• The clinical exam uses an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) format.
• An OSCE is a type of examination where clinical scenarios using trained standardized patients are used to assess each candidate in a consistent way.

Application Form