Health committee  Was that question for me?

Health committee  I know there are others who may want to respond. I do think there needs to be collaboration among the regulatory bodies that are part of this national organization, and perhaps agreement across the country about what the steps are. Maybe have a good look at how to reduce the st

Health committee  Yes, that's the contradiction in the system. There is the National Nursing Assessment Service. The members of the National Nursing Assessment Service are all the regulatory bodies in all jurisdictions. It's supposed to be a sort of one boutique type of thing, but from my understa

Health committee  That's a really good question. I think the process is very slow, and unnecessarily slow. There is this national assessment portal. It's the national assessment [Technical difficulty—Editor]. It would be to work with that national organization, because that incorporates all the p

Health committee  Again, you're asking the wrong person, because this is regulatory. Yes, they seem to come out with gaps, but I'm not the best person, really, because I don't know the areas from which they come out with gaps.

Health committee  Sure. The process, as I understand it, is that there is a national portal, and they apply to that national assessment centre. All the data goes to this group in the United States that evaluates and assesses their credentials and their knowledge. I think that process takes about a

Health committee  Okay. I'll be very quick. Actually, there is no problem with the application demand. The pool of applicants for nursing is very, very high. As I said, we have been graduating over 12,000 annually for the last five years. That's higher than it's ever been. There is no problem in

Health committee  The clinical placement situation is a big barrier. One of the ways is, following the graduation, to have residency programs for nurses. I think this is a very important step forward, but during the program itself, there needs to be collaboration between education and service to c

Health committee  I don't have data on how many are available, but I do have data on how many were employed last year as clinical instructors, and the year before, and the year before that.

Health committee  I'm not sure I understand your question. The number of clinical instructors.... The clinical instructors are hired by the schools of nursing. They may be borrowed from a hospital or a health care institution, but they are hired by the education program itself.

Health committee  Okay. Is that better?

Health committee  How's that?

Health committee  Okay. CASN conducts an annual nursing student and faculty survey. The number of new registered nurses entering the health care workforce has climbed steadily from a low of 4,816 in 2000. In the last five years, schools of nursing have been graduating more than 12,000 RNs annual

Health committee  Thank you. My name is Cynthia Baker. I'm the executive director of the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing. I'd like to respectfully acknowledge that the CASN national office is located on unceded Algonquin territory. Thank you for providing me with this opportunity to

Health committee  Okay. As I said, there have been repeated curricular disruptions—