Canadian Language Benchmark Assessment For Nurses (CELBAN)

Find out more about CELBAN at www.CELBAN.org.

What is CELBAN?

The Canadian English Language Benchmark Assessment for Nurses (CELBAN) was designed to assess, within a nursing context, the communication skills of internationally-educated nurses whose native language is not English. It is a task-based evaluation of four communication skills which aligns the score to the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) in: speaking, listening, writing and reading.  The CLB is a descriptive scale of communicative proficiency in English as a second language.

What are the benefits of the CELBAN?

The CELBAN provides a realistic measure of the language skills required to work as a nurse in a Canadian workplace context. The CELBAN provides feedback on strengths and weaknesses that will inform further language training if required.

The CELBAN was developed and pilot tested with internationally-educated nurses. The CELBAN was developed in consultation with members of the nursing community from regulatory bodies, associations, unions, nursing refresher programs as well as internationally-educated nurses