Nursing

The Profession

As professionals, nurses play a central role in the delivery of health care services. Using their nursing skills and knowledge, they care for clients and help educate those people who, for whatever reason, cannot meet their own health requirements. Nurses also work to meet the needs of clients’ families by providing information and support as required.

Nursing is a multidisciplinary profession, drawn from several different bodies of knowledge – scientific knowledge as it relates to health, disease and illness; technical knowledge as it relates to procedures and technology in clinical healthcare; knowledge of communication and observation skills to perceive information clients cannot or do not communicate; and the decision-making skills needed for optimal client health care.

Graduates must successfully pass the Nursing Professional examination in order to practice nursing in Québec. The licence is granted by the Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers de Québec (OIIQ).

Entry to the Profession

The Nursing Professional licensing examinations

To write the Nursing Professional examinations, candidates must be Canadian citizens or have landed immigrant status. Students must have completed a DEC by end of July to be eligible to write the exam in September and have completed a DEC by the end of January to write in March.

Québec’s French requirement

In addition, the Québec Professional Nursing license is based on a working knowledge of the French language. Students who cannot show proof of three years secondary, or post-secondary, instruction in French must pass a language exam set by the Office de la langue française (OLF).  If you graduated from an approved high school in Québec after 1986, you do not have to write the OLF exams.

Nursing Profession

Successful completion of the licensing exam and French requirement (if necessary) will allow the graduate to practice nursing in Québec. To practice in other provinces or the U.S. contact the specific province or state nursing licensing organization.

For a complete list of courses taught by the Nursing department, please visit the Nursing section of the Program Planner.