The College of Registered Nurses says nurses that have already applied to work in this province will not be left out of the new, expedited process.

The College and government announced regulatory changes yesterday, significantly cutting down the wait times for nurses applying to work here from out of the province.

In some cases, the time between a person applying and when they can practice in the province has been reduced from months to days.

Some of the regulations are already in effect, while others come into effect this Monday.

As for people who applied to work in the province before the new regulations came into effect, Executive Director Lynn Power says they will be checking applications currently going through the approval process for ones that can be moved to the new, expedited stream.

She says some of the processes have already been sped up thanks to changes they have brought in over the last few years, estimating that they have processed about 20 per cent more applications because of that. She says they will “absolutely” look at where current applicants fit in the new process.