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Mission

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ICAN’s mission is to alleviate the global nursing shortage, and empower unemployed women graduates in Sri Lanka by training them to be nurses and placing them with hospitals.
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Two Problems

The world has a severe shortage of registered nurses (RNs), the backbone of healthcare delivery. An adequate number of RNs is essential for ensuring access to affordable healthcare for the world's citizens. Many US and global studies suggest that the current RN shortage will grow in severity in the next few decades, due to aging population and increasing medical complexity.The USA alone will need 1 million new RNs by 2020, per US Dept. of HHS projections, while Europe and Japan also have dramatic deficiencies. As countries like China, India and Brazil develop, and their populations demand higher levels of healthcare, the global nursing shortage will accelerate.

Sri Lanka has highly educated but underutilized talent. A large number of its university graduates are unemployed or underemployed. University admissions are very competitive, but Sri Lanka’s economy cannot absorb the 10,000 new university graduates every year, and less than half find jobs right away. The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 96% (highest in South Asia and almost double neighboring India’s 49%) and English is widely spoken. Over 13% of Sri Lanka’s workforce is forced to go overseas, and 60% are females working as domestic laborers earning less than $200 per month.

ICAN will bridge these two problems to create a single solution.

Single Solution

ICAN will start nursing schools in Sri Lanka to train unemployed/underemployed college-graduated women in an accelerated RN/BSN nursing program that stresses American cultural immersion, English language and modern technology. Once trained, ICAN will match this new pool of nurses with positions in hospitals and healthcare institutions around the world.

Key highlights:

  • ICAN will train unemployed/underemployed college graduated women in an accelerated nursing program in Sri Lanka.
  • ICAN graduates will increase the available pool of nurses serving in the worldwide healthcare system.
  • ICAN avoids “brain drainâ€� of existing nurses by creating a brand new pool in training women who otherwise would not have the opportunity to enter this important field.
  • ICAN graduates will remit money to their families and communities resulting in valuable foreign exchange for Sri Lanka.
  • ICAN's direct investments help boost the Sri Lankan economy and creates jobs.
  • ICAN’s innovative tuition plan defers all tuition until after students graduate and start earning, allowing women from all economic strata to participate.
  • Tuition is scaled according to opportunity chosen, at 10% of earned income for 10 years.
  • Tuition is waived if income is low in any year, encouraging the choice of social jobs and time off to raise families.
  • ICAN will stress American cultural immersion and English language for its students.
  • ICAN’s accelerated nursing program is planned over two years in six consecutive trimesters with rolling admissions.
  • ICAN’s curriculum based on WHO and AACN standards has been approved.
  • ICAN has strong support from the Sri Lankan government and many institutions.
  • ICAN students will be drawn primarily from university-graduated women in Sri Lanka as well as from USA and other countries.
  • ICAN students will receive essential hands-on clinical training at a 700 bed government hospital approved for this purpose.
  • ICAN will collaborate on tailoring training specific to the needs of hospital customers.
  • ICAN's English-speaking, accent-trained and double-degree nurses, productive on the first day of work, will benefit employing Hospitals.
  • ICAN is a not-for-profit corporation registered in Illinois, and a 501(c)(3) application is in process.