Generally speaking, the clinical and technical skills that immigrants bring with them meet or exceed Canadian standards. For IEHPs, the differences in approaches to healthcare delivery in Canada are what often prove challenging to master. What on the surface may appear as a technical procedure similar to one mastered in a different setting may differ in terms of appropriate and expected interpersonal and cross-professional communication and documentation standards.

The proposed OCECCA would offer diagnostic, performance-based, communication assessments to help with raising awareness and planning a professional development training pathway. In visioning the centre, the OCECCA Project saw dynamic, performance-based assessments as the most relevant and expedient process by which to evaluate and develop communications skills in context.

OCECCA’s Knowledge Centre would create and administer professional development programs, such as off-the-shelf or customized intensive assessment sessions (with feedback), specialized cross-cultural communication workshops for individuals or teams, or small group training in healthcare communication.

In order to support high quality assessments as well as relevant and dynamic professional development services, OCECCA’s Knowledge Centre would offer specialized services that would facilitate the successful embedding of communication supports in the sector. These services would address the needs of all stakeholders in the sector: IEHPs, regulators, and employers. Examples of these are standard-setting calibration to help regulators set standards that are fair and defensible; test item bank management to support assessment validity;  assessor training and certification to increase capacity for high stakes assessments; and the development of customized assessment or training services.