Hi all,

Both my wife and I are Registered Nurses hoping to Emigrate... I also have a Midwifery qualification, but this has lapsed (about 10 years back).

I have done a preliminary internet search for nursing jobs on Canada, but haven't managed to find a definitive site. Also, we haven't decided which area of Canada to aim for as yet... still researching.

Also, I have heard a rumour that Midwives are in greater demand than are Nurses in Canada (though I suppose this would depend on whereabouts!)

My questions are:

1. Does anyone know of / has used a 'Nursing jobs website' for the Canadian provinces? Was it useful?

2. Would I be able to do a return to Midwifery practice course once in Canada, or would I need to look to doing it here in Britain?

3. Is it better advisable to contact the Canadian Hospitals directly from Britain for potential job offers?

4. What is the market like for foreign nurses and/or midwives?

I understand that the immigration procedure is that bit more quicker if you have an agreed job offer from a Canadian company or institution.

Advice or recommendations gratefully received.

Thanks in anticipation

Now I don't know much, but I did read and have it front of me an article on Alberta Health

"This year the province's goverment will once again be working alongside health employers on international recruitment campaigns. .....Job recuritment fair that will be held in the UK this spring.

www.health.alberta.ca for more information."

The article also mentions the other provinces and basically they are all really short. I know Alberta is now doing the PNP to get nurses here (within 6 months of applying, which compared to a 4 year wait is worth having)

I would recommend that you look on the website above as a start.

It may worth having a look here too: http://www.healthmatchbc.org/hmbc_nurses.asp?pageid=619

I am a mental health nurse and responded to a huge advert in the nursing press for Calgary Health Region, which are desperately short of all nurses. There seems to be a general shortage across Canada. We chose Calgary because of the shortage of skilled workers and it suited us to be in a city that was close to the rockies which seems like a world apart from our location in SW London.

If you would like the contact for Calgary Health Region, please PM me. Also, this might be irrelevant to you but I was told by this contact as a Psychiatric nurse I could have been in Canada sooner than the usual six month period, although we chose to take a different route to ensure PR status from day one.

Good luck!

Hi,

I am a nurse moving to Nova Scotia this year (if I sell my house).

Nursing in Canada is subject to provincial regulation, so you really need to decide which province you want to go to first.

Look at coast v inland, climate, size of community, city or rural etc. and perhaps arrange to visit your area of choice for a reccie before making up your mind.

There is a process to go to getting your UK training approved then taking the Canadian Registered Nurse Exam. It is worth noting that some provinces require a degree, others still accept diploma.

As far as midwifery is concerned, not all provinces have midwives as we know in the UK, more like independent midwives and I wouldn't recommend that you do this on a lapsed qualification with no recent experience. There are opportunities for midwifery in some places but other people may advise you better about this. If you are a general nurse in current practice, this would probably be your best way in.

You may want to look at www.cna-nurses.ca which gives alot of info about nursing in Canada, and especially this page http://www.cna-nurses.ca/CNA/nursing...default_e.aspx as it gives you links to all the regulatory bodies in Canada and they will tell you all the details about how to get registered in each or the provinces.

As far as getting a job is concerned, there are loads of opportunities for internationally trained nurses in Canada. Generally speaking, they expect you to get your training transcripts approved for their province so that at least they can be sure that you are eligible for registration in Canada. The process of getting your training approved took about 6 weeks for me, but I have heard that other nurses found it took months. Alot depends upon how geared up they are where you trained.

You can get a job by applying directly to the hospital you are interested in, some have online recruitment systems and this is the only way you can apply. If you are coming on a reccie I would recommend contacting the HR departments where you want to work and ask for an informal meeting/tour even if you haven't yet applied for a job. They will value the personal approach. If you can't do this, then at least phone them for a chat.

Once you want to apply look at the WIKI (tab at the top of the page) on CV's so that you can put yours into a Canadian style. If you get an interview it will probably be on the phone. Loads of us have had them and will be happy to advise.

Good luck with whatever you decide and feel free to ask anything else you need to know.

Hi there i'm a nurse waiting on my licence for alberta (calgary) and if your interested have the name of a contact for Calgary Health. I also have the name for a contact for Vancouver Health if your thinking that area as well.

Other than that, look up Calgary Health and Vancouver Health's individual websites as there's info there and a list of some jobs.

Hope this helps a little.

That is a fabulous post, DNS. With some tweaks, I've used it as the basis for a Wiki article on Nursing.

Before someone jumps on me for pretending to be an expert on a topic about which I am not an expert, I make the following disclaimer:

I am not a nurse, never have been a nurse, and have absolutely no intention of becoming a nurse.

However, I think nursing is a topic on which a Wiki article has been needed for some time. My intention in creating a Wiki article is to stimulate others to contribute to it. For example, we sometimes get questions from psychiatric nurses, paediatric nurses, and so on.

Glad to be of use. I have added a couple of things about studying for the exam and changed the rime allowed to take the exam after starting employment as most provinces allow 1 year.

Thanks Judy

Good idea! Well done Judy. It's hard to answer a question like this unless you make it really long and full of every piece of info you can think of as you don't know how much the poster knows. To keep an answer short I make a lot of assumptions (like they have idea of where they want to go and have looked at websites on canadian nursing ?) and if they aren't I assume they will post more questions, but as nursing seems to be becoming an ever more popular subject to post on, the WIKI is a fantastic idea. It will be such a help to all nurses trying through the "going it alone" route or via an agency.

Thanks to all for your replies, information and pointers to resources.

I think we're doing things in the right order... have decided we want to go, now need to decide which area to aim for, then see about areas of practice/hospitals in that area... if there's nothing, we'll look at another area!

We're just waiting on a couple of Canada books to help us with regions and climate, we then plan a week or so's recce, then we'll see about getting jobs, before applying for working visas.

We would rent for a year or so, while we look at the property market regards buying.

Is it possible to access sample CRNE tests anywhere? I have looked for something on the amazon site, but the only search result was due for publication in November 2008 (Schow's 'Canadian CRNE exam prep').
Where are these exams sat, and how long do you have to emigrate once passed?

Thanks again

CRNE is only sat three times a year in Canada Feb, Jun and Oct. Although this is on the Nova Scotia province you may find it useful http://www.crnns.ca/default.asp?id=1...29&search=1175
or http://www.cna-nurses.ca/CNA/nursing...default_e.aspx

[QUOTE=Silverdragon102;5945144]CRNE is only sat three times a year in Canada Feb, Jun and Oct.

Sorry was meant to add this is the same in British Columbia.

The CRNE is the same all over Canada, taken on the same day no matter what province you are in

OK, this could take a while!

We have moved to Vancouver, BC. I am a registered nurse and we moved here last summer. They are DESPERATE for nurses out here - there are vacant posts everywhere you look. It's the opposite of the UK, they are advertising the posts and no one applies as there is such a nursing shortage out here. I really don't know why.

I used an agency to obtain my job offer. It made the whole process reasonably smooth, however once I had obtained the job offer via their network of health regions and a video link interview, I dealt directly with a contact at the hospital and my representative at the agency just became a bit of a hassle as I was always having to update her with what was going on!

I would decide on an area and then contact HR at the hospital/health region directly. There are so many vacant posts at the moment that they aren't even all advertised so I don't think going via that route would be a huge hassle for you. Literally this past week I have decided to pursue neonatal nursing (an area I have always longed to work in). I wrote an e-mail to their charge nurse - just dipping my toe in the water, and I have an interview for a job this week! They will also fully fund a 5 month training course whilst paying me a full time wage, however they are only doing this as I am already an employee of this health region. I feel pretty certain that you would need to renew your midwifery qualification in the UK.

I believe that when I looked into where to move - the thing that swayed it for us is BC is the only province that will take nurses without a degree qualification (I have the diploma) and so obviously that helped us choose between Calgary and Vancouver! I'm not sure weather this is still the case though. The whole process is pretty straight forward once you have a job offer - in fact in the end it was me and jase holding up the move not the paperwork process!

In some ways I miss the adrenaline rush of the NHS and I feel there are some areas severely lacking across here in patient care - however as a move for myself and Jase it has been amazing. I am finally paid (close!) to what I am worth as a skilled and experienced Cardiology Nurse, if I work overtime I get paid double time for it, I am less stressed and don't loose sleep remembering the 1001 jobs that I didn't get done for my patients because I now have time to do anything my patients need (within reason!).

From a hospital perspective I would look at getting yourself working at a tertiary hospital for the region. I am at the biggest hospital in BC and I honestly don't believe it compares to a district general in the UK in terms of patient load, equipment, specialities etc. Just in order to keep any critical skills up-to-date for me, this choice was an important one, but I guess that's a fairly individual thing.

Anything else I can help with feel free to PM me.

Hope this is slightly useful and I haven't rambled too much!

Heather
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