Canuck Fan

Hi all,

I realise there is a 'nurse' section on here to post specific nursing questions but i am unable to find how to start a thread on there.

Basically, I am just starting my 2nd year in Adult Nursing and Im looking ahead as the time is flying by on my course.
I am interested in moving to the Vancouver or surrounding area when I qualify in 2010.

Firstly, do I hang on until i've finished my training and qualified before applying for a skilled visa or sponsored visa, or bearing in mind the 4-5 year wait on skilled worker applications, am I able to apply now before I qualify?

Secondly, I have asked my University whether they allow any of our placements in years 2 or 3 to be experienced abroad. It would appear that we can although it is not sponsored. That is fine, but I was wondering whether any other qualified nurses or current student nurses have undertaken a placement abroad so as to gain experience, and if so, how did you organise it?


Many thanks

fozzy33

Hi,

Not sure about BC, but in Alberta you need to have completed 1125 post reg to apply for a nursing permit.

Have found this site for you, should be useful.www.crnbc.ca:)

Good luck with the rest of your training.

VanSte2000

Hi Canunck,

I dont know anything about a placement overseas, but as said above I think your best bet would be contacting CRNBC and asking them, they are very helpful.

I am a nurse and we are moving to North Vancouver in 3 weeks, I went through NurseVancouver.com. They are not a agency but they cover all the health provinces in BC. You are best checking with them but I think you need at least one year of experience as working as a fully quailfied nurse.

Good Luck.

Canuck Fan

Thank you to the two posts above, your help was very much appreciated.

I have since contacted Providence Health HR re employment as a newly qualified UK Adult nurse, and they have responded to me by saying I would need 2 years minimum experience before being considered. Does anybody out there know whether all Health Authorities in the Vancouver district stipulate the same conditions when sponsoring a potential overseas employee?

I was also told that an elective placement there during my training would not be possible because: 1) there is a shortage of student placements for their own trainees (which I was quite surprised at), and 2) you have to be registered, which of course is only possible once qualified.

Many thanks
CF

terese677

As far as I know Vancouver Coastal Health is the same, but I will check for you
Terese

Canuck Fan

Thanks Terese fpr your offer of help. I have found the general email address for Coastal Health and was going to contact them regards to employment after qualifying.

If anybody has any other information it would be greatly appreciated. I was under the impression that BC aswell as the rest of Canada were in short supply of nurses?

Caithness lass

Even just in the Grampian Health Board, Scotland there is the same rule. In our area the first 2 years post-qualifying you do a mentored programme called staff development.

You are not able to apply for a staff nurse post within the trust until you have completed these 2 years. A lot of nursing homes have also now joined the scheme.

It may be worth checking with a few areas in Canada just to see if they all have the 2 year rule but I would not be surprised if you discover they do.

Yoong

Hi Canuck Fan,
Apply after you have written your nursing exam.If there is no hiring
freeze and the shortages remain acute,they may hire you.

For example here at St.Pauls ,we have 5 positions for psych.emergency
nurses and we tried to recruite the new grads to work there but there
were no takers.On the job posting it stated 2 yrs.experience but realistically
we have to hire whoever is qualified for the job and do longer preceptoring.

Yoong

Wispor

Hi,

I know most people have answered your thread by now but just thought I'd mention my experience of applying to nurse in Vancouver.

I answered a UK ad on the back of Nursing times from Nursing Vancouver. They wanted 2 years post qualifying experience and evidence that you have worked above a cetainnumber of hours. From what I can gather, most provinces require this as a minimum requirement to ensure you have experience.

I will have to work as a Graduate Nurse until I pass the Canadian Nursing exam, but hopefully, once this is done and I get full RN status it should be all systems go.

Hope this helps

x

Canuck Fan

Thanks folks for all your info.
I have just received the following reply from the nice lady at Nurse Vancouver, it reads.................
"Thank you for this email. I know this can be frustrating. A lot of the UK nurses we have hired have either received their education outside of the UK or finished their diploma before the nursing program changes were made in 2000. Just because you are only adult-trained does not mean that you will not be able to gain registration in BC and Canada. If you are lacking clinical hours in some of the areas, CRNBC will require you to do a qualifying course for each area that you are missing. This does not mean that you will need to do the three-year program in all areas; usually there is a one-semester general course that you can do. CRNBC would have more details on that. Gaining registration in BC can be done, but it is just going to take some extra time and money. I hope this helps.

So....It would appear that to gain entry us nurses qualifying after 2000 have to jump through hoops to simply work in canada. If they are desperate for nurses, surely they can employ new qualifiers from the UK as graduate nurses and simply pay them less until they gain more experience, im not quite sure if that's what 'Wispor' was refering to.

agr

Ah, you're confusing employers with professional bodies. Employers want to bring in people to solve their shortages. Professional bodies want to restrict the flow of people into the profession in order to protect the market value of their members. (All that stuff about protecting the public and maintaining professional standards is just a cover story). Unfortunately, the professional bodies have the legal veto. It's not just nursing and it's not just Canada.