Hi all

I am Heidi and me and my family have been thinking about leaving the UK and going to live in Calgary when I qualify as a Nurse.

Any advice would be great like how to get started. Also if I wanted to take my parents over with me(assuming we get granted visas) would my father having diabetes and High blood pressure stop them from being able to come over with us?

Also, would I get work as a nurse by only doing the Diploma or would I have to do the degree?

Hope to hear from some people soon

Heidi

Not sure about degree Vs diploma.

BUT

Forget about bringing the parents with you. You'll have to sponsor them at a later and it aint quick (or particularly easy)

Hello, heidireed1976, and welcome to the BE forum.

To add to what Butch Cassidy has said .......

I'm not a nurse, but my understanding from reading this forum is that you don't need a degree in Alberta.

There is a Wiki article about Nursing in Canada, and there is a Nursing forum. But, with that having been said, there are several nurses who participate on the Canada forum too.

As Butch said, you'd need to sponsor your parents, and you'd only be able to do that once you were established in Canada. If memory serves me correctly, you have to be a permanent resident of Canada and you have to have been earning income from Canadian sources for twelve months before you can sponsor a family member.

See the Wiki article called Retiring in Canada. Follow the links in that article. One of them mentions a potential workaround.

Also see the Wiki article called Medical Conditions-Canadian Immigration. There are members of this forum who are insulin-dependent diabetics who have gained entry to Canada. Note, though, that most of the provincial health care insurance plans (sort of like Canada's version of the NHS) do not cover the cost of prescription medication taken outside of a hospital setting, so they do not cover the cost of insulin. In the thread entitled Diabetic child, Almost Canadian said his insulin cost about $1,000 for a three-month supply.

Immigration authorities may think your father's high blood pressure is problematic, but there's no telling what they'll actually think until he submits his application for permanent residence and undergoes a medical exam for immigration purposes.

The workaround to which I referred earlier (in connection with the Wiki article called Retiring in Canada) involves parents visiting you in Canada for extended periods. Keep in mind that visitors are not entitled to provincial health care insurance, so your parents would have to have private medical insurance to cover them for emergencies if they visited you in Canada. But several insurance companies exclude pre-existing conditions, so that might be a problem.

But I don't know why I'm even discussing all those other ramifications, because you haven't even qualified as a nurse in the UK yet. A lot of water has to flow under the bridge before you'll be facing any of these issues.

Still, I hope this helps.
x

Hi Heidi & co,

Can't add anything to Judy's superb reply above. All the same...welcome to BE.

Eamonn & Janet.

hi, if you qualify as a nurse here, then when you get over you will have to do a years university course over in canada to qualify you as a canadian nurse! ( they don't recognise our qaulification) Your best option is to qualify here, then apply for training through a university over there.
As for sponsering your parents, you will have to be a permanent resident ( which i think takes 3 years) berfore you can sponser, then it is a long process for your parents unfortunately, my inlaws are going through it all now!

Thankyou all for the replies.

You have definately given me some food for thought.

I can see myself becoming quite a regular on here.

Thanks again.

Heidi

Hi Heidi,

We look forward to seeing a lot more of you.

As Judy said you can start the sponsorship thing after 12 months (or maybe its a full tax year which runs Jan to Jan) There are actually (in alberta) two streams one is the traditional (which most have used to sponsor parents) and involves you agreeing to 'support' the sponsored for 10 years and a new one under PNP (provincial nomination program) whereby the sponsered party needs to have a past secondary qualification (at least 12 months of study).

We are looking into both:
First to sponsor my F-I-L
Second to sponsor my B-I-L (I'm not bothered about him coming but I miss My 'niece' )

I am not sure where you got this info from but it certainly doesn't apply to any other nurses I know.

You have to get your UK training transcripts approved by the regulatory body in the province where you want to work. If they are approved you then get a temporary license and have to sit the Canadian Registered Nurse Exam.

A problem that you may encounter is that you may not have covered enough specialties in your training to get your transcripts approved. You need to have done theory and practice in meds/surg/paeds/obs/psych etc. This is less common for nurses who trained as RGN but when project 2000 came into being many students didn't get the opportunity to cover areas outside their branch.

It may be that universities (in Canada or the UK) can offer "catch up" courses to cover areas that you lack, but it is by no means mandatory for all nurses.

It is also worthy of note that some provinces require a degree (I know Ontario does for sure) and this may be where the Uni course comes in if you did diploma in the UK.

The thing to remember is that there are differences in each province so as Judy suggested, read the WIKI where you will find links to the regulatory body relevant to you.

Hi Hedi,

I dont know what provinice you are thinking about but I have a little knowledge about apply as a nurse to Alberta.

Some provinices, require you to be educated to degree level and some dont, so you could look into that, also in Alberta you need to have worked a min of 1125 hours before you can apply for your nursing licence, not sure about else where.

Your university transcripts are required to be sent to the nursing board and they assess if you are up to standard, if not in some cases you may need to sit a competenicies exam.

Hope this helps a bit.

Hi all

Thanks again for the replies.

Hi Fozzy33, it will actually be Alberta that we are hoping to move to, Calgary.

I take it the 1125 hours are post registration in the UK?

Heidi

Hi Hedi,

It is post reg, this is there web address, hopes its useful
http://www.nurses.ab.ca.:)

Thanks!