The College’s Outlook for 2023

New year brings continued focus on regulatory excellence, commitment to process improvements in service of the public interest

Strategic Outlook

As 2023 gets underway, our focus remains on protecting and serving the public interest, supported by our commitment to excellence in registered nursing regulation. This year marks the final year of the Public Benefit Policy cycle, signalling the completion of work in support of the College’s four strategic goals:

Strategic Outcomes and Goals for 2023

Public Confidence in Excellent Regulation

Outcome Statement:
The public can expect and understand that the College sets the conditions for registered nurses to practice safely, professionally, and with integrity in all domains of practice. The public can rely on fair, transparent, timely, effective and objective regulatory processes.

2023 Strategic Goal:

The College will track and report on the impact and outcomes of registration process improvements implemented in 2022.

Accountable, Quality Professional Practice

Outcome Statement:
Ethical, competent, and accountable registered nurses practise safely, effectively, and collaboratively, consistent with the Standards of Practice, practice expectations and Code of Ethics. They actively participate in continuous quality improvement that aligns with their scope of practice and builds continuing competence.

2023 Strategic Goal:

The College will identify, analyze and address risks to quality nursing practice that can be addressed through regulatory activity. This includes measuring regulatory processes to proactively mitigate risks in the areas of safe prescribing practices.

Collaboration for Health System Impact

Outcome Statement:

Collaborative working relationships within the regulatory and the health care sectors are advanced to build effective regulation, public safety, and quality care for the public. The government and stakeholders have compelling evidence from the College to inform policy decisions.

2023 Strategic Goal:

The College will collaborate with its partners within the government and health system to provide innovative right touch solutions for workforce and system issues.

Operational Goal

The College will complete the following projects that support the achievement of the College’s strategic goals through:

Implementation of integrated registrant management system (database) and
Supporting continuous improvement initiatives that require workflows, IT application development or acquisition

A review of the work supporting the strategic outcomes completed in the past year will be published in our 2022 Annual Report, available at the end of April.

Underpinning this work is a continued focus on effective regulatory governance. This year will mark the second round of appointments to Council through a skills-based selection process, which will begin accepting applications in February.

As the current strategic plan draws to a close, we are setting our sights on the future of registered nursing regulation in the province, and will be undertaking a robust strategic planning process that will include direct consultations with the public, registrants and stakeholders. Concurrently, we will also be working on developing our commitment to reconciliation in registered nursing regulation. Further information will be available on our website, social media channels, and in our newsletters as we finalize the overall engagement and strategy development roadmap for these two important initiatives.

Operational Focus Areas

Operationally, a major focus this year will be implementing a new registrant database system that will offer stability and facilitate improvements to our application and renewal processes, as well as a variety of other areas. We remain focused on our ongoing work to implement improvements in our application process for internationally educated applicants. The following process improvements and initiatives are underway or have been completed/implemented:

Engaging internationally educated applicants and registrants
- Survey reviewing experiences and perceived challenges to registration in Manitoba showed overall strong understanding of the application process and use of College-provided resources, but that financial barriers, language testing, document expiry, and outdated or inaccurate information circulating posed challenges for applicants.
  - Process completed August 2022
Increasing process flexibility
- Provide option for qualified internationally educated applicants to choose to do the full Nurse Re-Entry Program instead of a Clinical Competence Assessment
  - Implemented September 2022
Streamlining the application process
- Removing the requirement to demonstrate English language proficiency as part of the NNAS application process
  - Implemented October 2022
- Removing the requirement to provide proof of immigration documentation to initiate an application with the College
  - Implemented November 2022
- Changing the timing of the requirement to demonstrate English language proficiency to minimize the impacts on applicants of test expiry, and providing a 2-year period of eligibility for applicants who complete required courses in the NREP
  - Implemented November 2022
- Update language proficiency test cut scores following a national research review
  - Implemented November 2022
Implementing the UNE role for internationally educated applicants
- Initial consultations with employers and health sector leadership
  - Completed July/September 2022
- Update College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba General Regulation and Supervision of UNEs practice direction
  - Completed November and December 2022
- Working with employers and educators to determine eligibility criteria
  - Ongoing
- Working with Shared Health Manitoba to determine and finalize implementation and communications considerations
  - Ongoing

Moving Forward in Service of the Public Interest

As we mark the College’s 110^th year, we remain as committed as ever to ensuring the public interest is at the centre of our work. We understand that the health system and the RNs, RN(AP)s, and RN(NP)s who work within it are under tremendous strain as health human resource challenges continue to affect not only practitioners, but all who receive care in Manitoba. We are committed to working collaboratively with the public, registrants, and all of our stakeholders to provide effective regulation of the profession, ensure patient safety, and to strive for continuous improvement in all that we do. I look forward to working in partnership with you and with all Manitobans throughout 2023.

Sincerely,

Deb Elias, RN MN
CEO/Registrar