By Merih Akalin Yegin, as told to Sharon Aschaiek

Workplace Communication Skills for Internationally Educated Nurses

In 2023, Merih Akalin Yegin immigrated to Canada from Turkey and joined her husband in Toronto. Yegin worked as a neonatal intensive care nurse for seven years in Istanbul, and she wanted to establish her nursing career in Ontario.

What supported Yegin’s journey to nursing employment was a unique, free college course: Workplace Communication Skills for Internationally Educated Nurses. Taking this 180-hour course online at Centennial College, she learned how to effectively communicate with others in a hospital, clinic, nursing home or other health care setting.

The training Yegin received helped her secure a job as a neonatal intensive care nurse at a Toronto hospital.

Here, Merih Akalin Yegin shares the value she gained from the OSLT course.

What are some of the most useful things you learned in this course about workplace communications in a health care environment?

It helped me learn how to communicate effectively and professionally with patients, co-workers and supervisors in different contexts. For instance, how to take information from a patient about their condition, particularly when the questions are sensitive; or how to handover case files to another nurse when there is a shift change. After each class, we received assignments that allowed me to practise my verbal and oral communication skills. There were a lot of opportunities to practise writing a proper email to a worker or manager, which was very helpful.

What other aspects of the course did you appreciate?

Our instructor got us to act out scenarios of different workplace communication situations with our classmates. She provided a lot of helpful feedback on things like our word choice, pronunciation and tone of voice. There was also a focus on making small talk, which wasn’t part of workplace culture in Turkey. I realized how helpful this can be when interacting with others at work. I also got a lot of excellent information for developing strong cover letters when applying for different jobs. I met other internationally experienced nurses from countries such as Brazil, India and Spain. We now stay in touch via a chat group and support one another on our career journeys.

How beneficial was this course in helping you rebuild your nursing career in Ontario?

Our last class focused on how to do well in a job interview. This was very useful for understanding how to stand out and present my work experience and achievements to an employer in a professional way. I got a lot of constructive feedback from the instructor. What I learned from this activity helped me with my job interview with the hospital the following week, and I was successful. I gained a lot of confidence in my professional interactions through this course. It empowered me to be more active in contributing to conversations and meetings at work. I keep my course assignments on my tablet and refer back to them regularly. Any nurse who is a newcomer would benefit from this course because it provides essential workplace communication skills, boosts your confidence and helps you navigate the health care job market in Ontario.