What to expect — COVID-19
NCAS is an essential service that supports the healthcare labour force. We are committed to stopping the spread of COVID-19 by closely following provincial health guidelines for the health and safety of our Assessment Takers and staff.
International Travel
- If you are travelling into Canada to complete your NCAS assessment, we encourage you to contact Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to get clarity on your circumstance before booking your travel. NCAS is unable to assure your entry into any province for the purposes of taking our assessment, and we are not responsible for any travel or accommodation expenses.
- Once you have a scheduled SLA date with NCAS, we may be able to provide a customized Letter of Invitation for Business Visitors to Canada that would include some information on the NCAS assessment for Immigration Officials. Please contact us directly if this applies to you; note it will take between 3-5 business days to prepare.
- Upon entering the country, you may be subject to Provincial Health orders and required to complete a quarantine period. Please plan ahead to ensure that you are able to complete your quarantine prior to your SLA date; you will be denied entry to the NCAS Assessment Centre if this quarantine period is not completed.
Health and Safety Protocols
- The NCAS CBA is administered by Prometric at their testing centres across Canada and in many locations around the world. Please click here for information on their COVID-19 test centre protocols.
- We reserve the right to deny entry to the NCAS Assessment Centre to any person, and strongly encourage you to ensure you are eligible to enter prior to your assessment day. As this is an important and costly assessment for you, we encourage COVID-cautious behaviour leading up to your SLA date - for some Assessment Takers, this may involve a period of self-isolation prior to your SLA date.
- If you are denied entry to the Assessment Centre, your SLA will be rescheduled free of charge. If you need to reschedule your SLA, please contact us immediately.
- Hand hygiene is extremely important. There are hand-washing stations and plentiful hand sanitizer available in the Assessment Centre. To learn how to properly wash your hands, please view this short video. To learn how to properly use hand sanitizer, please view this short video.
- All persons must wear a mask at all times while in the Assessment Centre. We encourage you to bring your own fitted and clean mask but have disposable non-medical masks available as well. Please bring at least two masks to replace yours should it become moist or soiled.
- Masks do make it harder to hear what you are saying, so please do you best to speak loudly and clearly throughout your SLA.
- Our Standardized Patients are there to enact patient scenarios with you. Please maintain appropriate physical distance whenever possible, though all scenarios may involve some physical touch and patient interaction. Again, we stress that hand hygiene is extremely important.
- You may choose to bring a change of clothes for after your assessment is complete.
- Like all of us, NCAS is monitoring the evolving situation with COVID-19 and following our Provincial Health Office(s) closely for updates. Should we be required to close our Assessment Centre(s) at any time, all Assessment Takers will be notified immediately and placed on a prioritized waitlist for when we are able to resume SLA assessments. Please note that NCAS will not be responsible for any Assessment Taker travel expenses in the event of an Assessment Centre closure.