“If you are a nurse, you will always be a nurse.”
Study participant
This website was made possible by seed funding from the Health Research Institute, working in partnership with UNBC, NH, and PHSA.
We partnered with Northern Health and PHSA to discover and record Northern BC IEN experiences. We have shared our findings with our BC regulator, assessment service, nursing union, university, and local colleges via a workshop in May 2024.
We have discovered that listening to northern IEN’s stories must include actions for change.
The next chapter of our work was a Michael Smith C2 grant, which focused on building northern education options for IENs. This was completed in 2024, and we have posted our survey findings.
Across the province, there are three post-secondary providers actively working on developing new IEN re-entry programs.
Survey: Please consider completing
There are four options in this survey that any IEN can fill out.
This is intended for all IENs who are: 1) considering employment in British Columbia; 2) undergoing assessment; 3) pursuing translational education; or 4) currently employed in BC.
The survey is anonymous. As you progress to registration, you may complete the survey section that applies to you. You can complete the survey more than once as you progress through stages 1-4.
Please use the link or the QR code to complete the survey.
The survey is an ongoing approach to gathering yearly data to inform of changes in how IENs access support, education, or employment.
Our stories and poems pages now hold outputs from our work; please visit using the navigation tools on the right of this page.
The Team
Caroline is an internationally educated nurse from the UK. A children’s nurse with over three decades of experience, she came to Northern BC in 2016. After completing her IEN assessment and registration journey, she works in both an academic and clinical setting. She is keen to support other IENs in their journey to healthcare careers in northern BC.
Danielle is a research assistant and a full-time student living in Prince George, BC. She is currently in her fourth year at the University of Northern British Columbia, pursuing a joint undergraduate degree in English and Women’s Studies. Danielle is passionate about amplifying the voices of IENs, aiming to promote diversity and inclusivity within the healthcare profession.
Madison graduated from the UNBC Nursing program in 2011, working in several areas and settling in labor and delivery and neonatal intensive care nursing. She completed BCIT Perinatal Specialty Certification in 2012 and became a Neonatal Resuscitation Instructor in 2015. Since 2020, she has been an instructor with UNBC and is completing her Master’s in Science in Nursing.
Carolee is a teaching and learning advisor at Okanagan College, focusing on universal design for learning in higher education. Her work strives to create an engaging and inclusive learning space for everyone through proactive design. Carolee also works as a sessional instructor in education and nursing at the University of Northern British Columbia, bringing her varied background of support and education to this project.
Terri works as a librarian at the Geoffrey R. Weller Library at UNBC, supporting students and faculty in health research. Before starting her career in library services, Terri worked for almost ten years as a registered nurse in a variety of settings. She is proud to be part of this project supporting IEN’s
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