College of Registered Nurses and Midwives of PEI

Challenges

Melissa Panton, presently the Chief Executive Officer and Registrar of CRNMPEI, first learned of Thentia Cloud at a regulatory conference in 2018. At the time, the team at CRNMPEI was very interested in seeking a new solution as their legacy, homegrown system for managing licensing and other operations was outdated, inefficient, and posed a number of risks. 

Working with a borrowed solution 

Back in 2018, the College was using a homegrown database system that was developed by the Nurses Association of New Brunswick and existed on a server in that province. Consequently, CRNMPEI would have to go through their contacts in New Brunswick whenever they wanted to make changes. Being a different province, PEI had its own legislative requirements that the New Brunswick Association would try to adapt the system to on their behalf. Besides being a major inconvenience, other implications of this included a host of issues. 

An almost completely paper-based application process 

The database CRNMPEI was using stored the majority of its records as scanned documents. Because of this, it did not permit new applications to be submitted online, which required licensees to mail them in along with any other accompanying documents such as criminal checks (which often had to be mailed back to the sender once scanned). The complaints and discipline modules were also paper based, as were graduate registrations. Members only had the ability to view their status after they had been manually entered into the system by an administrator. 

Small regulator budget constraints 

Due to being a relatively small regulatory body, the College had a limited budget when it came to procuring new technology. Despite having limited resources, the team was determined to find a better way to manage operational functions. 

No reporting capabilities 

With the pre-existing database, there was no reporting function – but beyond that, it wasn’t a system that they controlled. When CRNMPEI wanted to pull reports, they had call on the system administrator from New Brunswick – another expense for CRNMPEI and a time-consuming work-around. 

Addressing these challenges was a pressing need, and CRNMPEI felt confident after a demonstration of Thentia Cloud, that this solution would address all their needs – and much more.

Solution

With Thentia Cloud, Panton recognized the platform would be able to completely digitize processes such as new license applications as well as renewals, continuing education tracking, complaints and discipline, all while seamlessly integrating with external systems for data sharing such as testing centers. 

In particular, Panton appreciated that applicants would have the ability to not only start their application process online, but also complete all the required steps for licensure online, including uploading documents like ID, education and job history, through Thentia’s License Application Portal. “Before, if there was anything supplemental, they needed to submit it to us. If we were concerned that they weren’t meeting the practice hour requirement, they’d have to get a form completed by their employer, which they would then have to give to us and we would upload,” Panton explains. 

Configured with CRNMPEI’s specific needs in mind 

Being able to get what felt like a customized solution was possible thanks to Thentia Cloud’s low-code configurability. “With Thentia, we did have a lot of input into the things that we needed based on our legislation, and with our continuing competence module, it was configured exactly as we wanted it,” Panton reports. 

Facilitating the transition 

Transitions to new software can be challenging and confronting for administrators and members. CRNMPEI bore this in mind as they worked with Thentia on the configuration to ensure that the interface would not be too unfamiliar to users of the previous system. “It was easy for us in the transition as staff,” says Panton, adding that for its members, CRNMPEI created a guide to the new system that helped ward off user questions and errors. 

Seamless integration with national assessment and testing services 

In Canada, the National Nursing Assessment Service (NNAS) provides an Advisory Report that includes an evaluation of a candidate’s education in correspondence with Canadian standards. Therefore, applicants to CRNMPEI need to have their files connected to those with NNAS. Thanks to Thentia Cloud, the integration between the two systems became automatic.  “Prior to Thentia Cloud we would have to log into the NNAS database, pull all those files, upload them and then attach them to the registration profile and the old database. And now it’s very seamless,” Panton says. 

Additionally, nurse applicants must take the NCLEX-RN exam provided through Pearson VUE test centers. In order to ensure that testing information is correctly associated to applicants, Pearson VUE creates a profile for the applicant and then CRNMPEI indicates when the applicant is eligible to take the exam. “When they pass the exam, that information is sent back to Thentia Cloud”, says Panton. “Those are a lot of efficiencies that the system created where we had manual or jaggy processes before,” she adds.