First nurse registers through new program

For Sukh Kaur, the first nurse to register through a new program CNO recently launched with Ontario Health, all the excitement started in a parking lot.

It was there, at a long-term care home in Wingham, that a health care colleague asked Kaur if she knew about CNO’s new Supervised Practice Experience Partnership (SPEP).

Kaur, who practiced as a nurse in India before moving to Canada, where she’s been a personal support worker for two years, wasn’t familiar with SPEP. The colleague explained that the program provides an opportunity for applicants in CNO’s registration process to complete the evidence of practice and, if outstanding, language proficiency requirements.

“I just told him my story: I hadn’t done my evidence yet. I was planning to go back to India for that,” Kaur says, adding she hadn’t completed her language proficiency requirements. It turned out Kaur was an ideal candidate for SPEP and, only a few weeks after that parking lot conversation, she was a Registered Practical Nurse (RPN).