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The provincial regulatory body may require Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs) to complete a Substantially Equivalent Competency (SEC) assessment. To complete a SEC, you must fill the following requirements:

  • Meet your provincial regulatory body's English language proficiency requirement
  • Have a letter from your provincial regulatory body indicating the need for an assessment. You may be required to have an assessment in the areas of:
    • General nursing
    • Maternal newborn health nursing
    • Child health nursing
    • Mental health nursing

Overview of the SEC assessment

The SEC is a comprehensive assessment that uses the following four strategies to evaluate the competencies of registered nurses:

  • Online Diagnostic Assessment exam
  • Clinical Judgement Assessment
  • Triple Jump Assessment
  • Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)

Note: The SEC assessment strategies and tools were developed at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta and Saskatchewan Polytechnic in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Online Diagnostic Assessment Exam
The online diagnostic assessment exam includes multiple choice and short answer questions that test general and focused (specialty) nursing knowledge required of professional nurses in Canada.
Clinical Judgement Assessment

The Clinical Judgement Assessment is an interview-style assessment that evaluates your ability to make sound clinical judgements in situations that are complex and have no "simple" answers. A clinical judgement situation will assess the ability of the candidate to think deliberately and critically through a nursing situation, apply essential and relevant knowledge, consider possibilities and options and take reasoned, reflective and insightful decisions and actions.

The Clinical Judgement Self Assessment resource may help you to prepare for this portion of the SEC assessment.

Triple Jump Assessment
Problem solving and critical thinking skills are tested using an assessment interview called the Triple Jump. In the interview, candidates will be presented with a brief client situation and asked to:
  • Generate a problem list/hypotheses about the client's situation
  • Identify and collect relevant data about the client/family
  • Revise his/her problem list based on the data
  • Develop an intervention/management plan
  • Self-evaluate
The process will assess knowledge, problem-solving, critical thinking, organizational, client assessment and self-evaluation skills, as well as self-directed learning abilities.

An online introduction to the Triple Jump Self Assessmenthttps://wwwacad.mtroyal.ca/healthcomm/ien/triplejump/ interview may help you prepare for this portion of the SEC assessment. This resource provides the opportunity to test yourself on selected portions of the assessment. It is not exactly the same as the actual Triple Jump assessment but will still give you an idea of how the interview will be conducted.
Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)
This assessment is conducted in a lab setting, where a candidate will role play the nurse in response to client/family health situations and demonstrate his or her abilities to apply knowledge by holistically caring for this client/family. The OSCE is used to assess the following knowledge and skills:
  • Nurse-client interactions and relationships
  • Critical thinking and clinical judgement skills
  • Health assessment and nursing skills
  • Ethical decision making skills
  • Pharmacology and pathophysiology
  • Rapidly changing patient situations

Self assessment of the provincial regulatory body's nursing practice standards

Candidates will have the opportunity to provide a self-assessment of how they have met the professional standards during nursing practice in their country of origin.

What you can do to prepare for your SEC assessment

  • Become familiar with the assessment strategies information on this website so that you know what to expect in a similar actual SEC assessment
  • Work through the sample Clinical Judgment Scenarios and Triple Jump scenario links on this website
  • Refer to your provincial regulatory body to review the Standards and Foundation Competencies
  • Refer to the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) to review the "CNA Code of Ethics document"
  • Review current nursing textbook(s) (published within past five years), that cover the knowledge, practices, and procedures of medical/surgical nursing practice
  • If you are referred for a focused (specialty) assessment, you would also benefit from reviewing a current textbook in maternal-newborn health, child health, and/or mental health nursing

SEC assessment results

Following your assessment, the results will be sent to the provincial regulatory body and you can expect to hear from them in about three to five weeks. Please note that the assessors will not be discussing your performance with you during or after your SEC assessment.

*Special thanks to the School of Nursing, Mount Royal University for the use of these SEC assessment preparation exercises.