The development of CELBANPrep can be understood through several stages.
CELBANPrep began, in 2009, with a focus on supporting Internationally Educated Nurses preparing for CELBAN and developing discipline-specific English communication for healthcare consistent with Stage II and III of the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB).
2011: CELBANPrep Publishing begins
The first CELBANPrep e-books were introduced in 2011.
Priced between $5 and $10, these e-books provided affordable resources for IENs who want to study independently.
The publishing work also reflected CELBANPrep's Compassionate Pricing Policy: an effort and intention to make educational resources both affordable and accessible.
This approach was intended to ensure that IENs preparing for CELBAN could access useful and trustworthy study resources with guidance and direction immediately upon purchase, regardless of their financial circumstances. It remains the same even today.
The same year, Dear Kim began as a place where Kim responded to questions and concerns from learners, sent by email and posted as a blog.
This created two different forms of easily accessible support:
published resources for learning, and
written responses for the questions IENs were asking.
2012: Coaching and mentoring expand
As the community grew, Kim developed a coaching and mentoring system.
Having experienced the principles and impact of CELBANPrep courses personally, CELBANPrep graduates became writing coaches and speaking mentors. They created another layer of support for learners who need more than self-study.
Under Kim's direct training and mentorship, these graduates also deepen their own communication, teaching, coaching, and professional skills. The experience gave them an opportunity to apply what they learned, support other learners, and continue developing in their own careers.
The ecosystem expanded:
Online courses => Coaching => Books => Mentoring
2014: CELBAN changes and CELBANPrep adapts
CELBAN went through a period when the assessment was unavailable because of administrative challenges and needed changes.
Kim responded by continuing to support Internationally Educated Nurses rather than simply stopping when the examination is unavailable. She reframed the situation as a "gift of time" and started hosting "Hope Sessions" to maintain motivation levels and provide encouragment during the transition.
This became an important part of the history of CELBANPrep: the purpose of providing emotional support through transition was becoming larger than the preparation for the examination itself.
2014: The Canadian healthcare landscape changes
The same period also brought changes to the licensure pathway for Internationally Educated Nurses in Canada.
The creation of the National Nursing Assessment Service (NNAS) was intended to streamline the administrative process. Previously, IENs encountered several provincial entry points. Under the new model, NNAS became a centralized service that collected required documents, prepared an assessment report, and sent the relevant materials to the provincial college or colleges of nursing selected by the IEN.
The creation of NNAS was external to the educational world Kim was building through CELBANPrep. Nevertheless, it affected the environment in which IENs were trying to understand their options and move toward licensure.
The transition also created considerable confusion despite the intention for a degree of administrative streamlining for IENs. The changing licensure landscape became part of the broader context reflected in the Dear Kim blog, where learners raised questions about preparation, assessment, professional pathways, and what to do next.
2020: Examination delivery changes
The COVID-19 pandemic changed many aspects of how CELBAN was delivered and how candidates prepared for the assessment.
During this period, the previous three-attempt limit was removed, and a computer-based testing (CBT) version of CELBAN became available.
The CBT version expanded access to the assessment. Candidates no longer had to be physically present in Canada to complete the CELBAN in a face-to-face testing context. This created a major shift in the environment in which CELBAN candidates prepared, because preparation was no longer shaped only by local, in-person circumstances within Canada.
And handwriting issues were replaced with keyboarding skills.
At the same time, the wider availability of the CELBAN reinforced a concern that had become increasingly important to Kim: learners needed to evaluate preparation information and resources carefully.
As access expanded from within Canada's boundaries to a global, worldwide learner community, candidates could and would encounter preparation information from many different sources and educational traditions. Kim deeply understood the CELBAN's connection to the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB), Canadian educational processes, and the implications of the Canadian in healthcare workplace.
Those foundations include nuances that would most certainly be missed by teachers or preparation providers who do not understand the Canadian education system, the CLB, and the way Canadian culture influences healthcare workplace skills assessed through a CLB-based CELBAN.
The expansion of access therefore created a greater need for learners to discern the quality, relevance, and Canadian context of preparation information rather than simply trusting anyone who claimed to have the answers.
2020: Language-proficiency processes change
Also at that time, during the pandemic changed how English-language proficiency was handled within the nursing-licensure pathway.
Before these changes, the National Nursing Assessment Service (NNAS) collected English-proficiency results for the language assessments accepted at the time. CELBAN and IELTS were the two accepted assessments in that earlier process. The number of English proficiency exams had previously been decreased in number from the 5 that were accepted when Kim began her work with IENs in 2009 to these two options.
During the pandemic, NNAS was no longer required - by the provincial colleges of nursing - to collect English-proficiency scores for assessments such as CELBAN and IELTS. These individual provincial colleges of nurses, the regulatory bodies, developed their own plans and processes for assessing English proficiency in response to the problems presented by the pandemic.
We simply needed more nurses in the field, and the answer was in improving the processes for IENs and their entry-to-practice.
Over time, these individual processes resulted in additional assessments being accepted, including the Occupational English Test (OET).
Although offering more assessment options created flexibility, it also created a new source of confusion for IENs. Many Internationally Educated Nurses have become overwhelmed by the number of choices and spend substantial time, money, effort, and motivation moving from one examination to another instead of choosing one appropriate pathway and staying with it long enough to develop the required skills.
Changing examinations does not automatically resolve the underlying language-development gaps and needs.
A more productive approach is to understand the feedback provided in the CELBAN results report, particularly the feedback related to writing and speaking, and use it to create a clear path for improvement. The report is intended to help candidates identify areas for development, increase their language capacity, and improve their scores through focused learning.
The expansion of accepted assessments therefore reinforced an additional concern that had become increasingly important to Kim: IENs need to make informed decisions rather than continually switching from one examination to another.
The expansion of access and assessment choices therefore created a greater need for learners to choose a coherent preparation pathway and use assessment feedback to guide continued skill development.
2021: CELBANPrep University emerges
In 2020, independent of the pandemic but in response to concerns that had become increasingly visible, Kim began developing a new way to organize and expand the educational work.
She drew on her master's degree in education and her experience as a web designer, graphic designer, instructional designer, educator, and curriculum developer. Her goals were to create an app-based learning environment that would:
provide a clear understanding of the CLB-based nature of CELBAN;
help IENs evaluate the quality and relevance of preparation information and resources before investing their time, money, energy, and motivation; and
expand the courses she had taught over the previous ten years by bringing the material together into three learning bundles based on different learner needs.
The three intended learner groups were:
IENs at the beginning of their journey who were seeking information. (The Bronze Bundle);
IENs who had taken CELBAN, received their results report, and did not pass. (The Silver Bundle); and
IENs who were ready to prepare for CELBAN. (The GOLD Bundle).
After three attempts with three different app companies, CELBANPrep launched an app-based virtual campus in 2021. This virtual campus became known as CELBANPrep University.
CELBANPrep University was structured around three connected landscapes:
an Information Centre for understanding CELBAN, the CLB, assessment pathways, and related decisions;
a Resource Centre for accessing intensive learning materials and preparation resources for IENs who had taken the CELBAN; and
a Learning Centre for structured CLB-based courses, lessons, and CLB Stage II and III skill development for IENs preparing for the CELBAN.
This changed the structure of Kim's work and created a response to two major concerns that had become especially visible during the pandemic and the changes to CELBAN administration and the role of NNAS:
IENs needed clear, reliable information about the CLB-based nature of CELBAN and the changing assessment environment; and
IENs needed a way to distinguish useful, relevant resources from resources that might consume their time, energy, money, and motivation without addressing their actual language-development needs.
Books can provide resources.
Coaches can provide guidance.
But a virtual campus can provide a global learning environment.
CELBANPrep University developed into a place where information, resources, and structured learning could exist together.
2024 onward: The work expands beyond CELBAN
By 2024, Kim Kara's work had begun to expand beyond Internationally Educated Nurses preparing specifically for CELBAN.
This expansion grew naturally from the work already developed through CELBANPrep University and from Kim's experience working with Internationally Educated Nurses, Veterinarians, Pharmacists, Physiotherapists, and other Internationally Educated Health Professionals.
Because CELBAN is rooted in the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) and situated within a healthcare context, Kim recognized that the communication competencies required at CLB Stages II and III, and therefore within CELBAN, were not exclusive to nursing or to one examination.
They were transferable healthcare communication competencies.
These competencies include:
Interacting with Others.
Understanding Information.
Giving and Receiving Instructions.
Getting Things Done.
Kim recognized that these communication competencies were relevant not only to nursing, but also to other healthcare professions and, more broadly, to professional communication in many fields.
This understanding led her to complete the Medical Collocation Dictionaries and the Medical Grammar Compilation. She also began focusing her courses and resources increasingly on Internationally Educated Health Professionals beyond nursing, while continuing to build on the communication skills and healthcare context that shaped the original work.
This was an important transition.
CELBAN was the beginning of the work.
It provided the original context, the original learner population, and the original healthcare communication focus.
It is no longer the entire definition of the work.
The work now includes a broader commitment to helping Internationally Educated Professionals in Canada develop transferable communication competencies for healthcare, professional practice, and life beyond any single language examination.
