About
These courses have been designed to help internationally educated healthcare professionals across Canada develop the communication competencies they need to succeed in their fields. The course content focuses on patient interactions and includes other profession-specific tasks as relevant.
To ensure everyone can access these programs with minimal wait times, the same courses are offered fully online across the country in collaboration with our partners:
Courses for Nurses
Professional Communication Skills for Nurses
Professional Communication Skills for Nurses helps internationally educated nurses (IENs) communicate effectively with patients in a Canadian healthcare context.
In this course, participants learn expected language use in a nursing context, improve their language skills to help take patient histories and make healthcare plans, learn how to resolve conflicts through communication, and explore intercultural communication and the cultural norms of workplaces.
Please note:
- The course focuses primarily on listening and speaking skills.
- To take this course, you must have minimum Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level of 6.
- This is an online self-study course, monitored by a facilitator who grades the assignments. It is expected to be around 2 months long with 5 to 6 hours of independent study.
For more information or to register, please contact:
Olha Shutikova | 902-406-3085 | healthcarelanguage@isans.ca
Strategies for CELBAN
Strategies for CELBAN is a unique program that helps internationally educated nurses (IENs) prepare for the CELBAN (Canadian English Language Benchmark Assessment for Nurses) test, as well as prepare for work in Canada. It covers a wide variety of nursing tasks that IENs might encounter on the CELBAN or while working. The course covers language skills and strategies to help learners effectively interact with complex language tasks for their intended purposes.
All language in this course is set in a nursing context. It is designed to help IENs increase their language levels to Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 9/8/8/7. These are the scores set by the Canadian Council for Practical Nurse Regulators (CCPNR) to ensure public protection and to maintain standards of practice.
This course has been reviewed by Nova Scotian nurses and Touchstone Institute to ensure it adequately prepares nurses for both the CELBAN and a Canadian nursing context. All the materials in this course are designed to help IENs prepare for CELBAN success and communicate effectively in a health care environment.
Not all IENs require support with all language skills so this course is divided into four independent skill-specific units. IENs can choose which unit(s) to take and can take multiple units at the same time.
Visit the course outline below to learn more about the specific units and their methods of delivery.
For more information or to register, please contact:
Olha Shutikova | 902-406-3085 | healthcarelanguage@isans.ca
"Thank you so much for all your support and guidance during the writing course. I improved a lot after taking this course." - Jincy Job
Course for Medical Graduates and Pharmacists
Communication Strategies for Patient Interactions
Communication Strategies for Patient Interactions (CSPI) helps international medical graduates (IMGs) and international pharmacy graduates (IPGs) develop and enhance the communication strategies and skills they need to pass the OSCE (objective structured clinical examination) licensure exams. Course content is based on the OSCE communication skills competencies, and a wide range of topics are covered. The course primarily focuses on listening and speaking skills.
Please note:
- This is an online course with weekly synchronous sessions, facilitated by an EAL instructor. It is 9 weeks long with 6 to 8 hours per week of independent study.
- Minimum Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) requirement: CLB 6
For more information or to register, please contact:
Olha Shutikova | 902-406-3085 | healthcarelanguage@isans.ca
I just wanted to let you know that I did very well on my NAC OSCE! I especially did well in my communication. I want to thank you once again for the CSPI course, as it played a big part in my success in this exam. - Edú Rafael Herrera Rios
Events
Strategies for CELBAN
Strategies for CELBAN - Speaking (CLB 7+)
- September 3 - December 20, 2024
- January 8 - April 25, 2025
Strategies for CELBAN - Listening (CLB 7+) / Strategies for CELBAN - Reading (CLB 7+) / Strategies for CELBAN - Writing (CLB 6+)
- Ongoing enrolment
Communication Strategies for Patient Interactions
- July 8 - September 20, 2024
- July 29 - October 11, 2024
- September 20 - November 29, 2024
- October 21 - November 29, 2024
- December 9, 2024 - February 25, 2025
- January 6 - March 7, 2025
- March 3 - May 2, 2025
Professional Communication Skills for Nurses
A new CLB 6+ (all skills) class with a focus on speaking and listening will be ready to pilot in September 2024. Exact dates to be determined.
- September – November 2024
- October – December 2024
- November 2024 – February 2025
- January – March 2024