Hey folks,

Total noob here. 30 y/o nurse from Glasgow seriously thinking about relocating to Canada. I'm degree-educated with 3 years post-reg experience (half in acute, half in palliative). I've been reading a lot around the area and at the moment, my big question to anyone who has gone from the UK to Canada to nurse is this: How do you cope with the crappy vacation allowance? Working in the UK, my time off equates to around 6 weeks and it's a big factor in keeping me sane! Any advice?

Thanks in advance!

Hi, welcome to BE.

I've moved your thread to our main Canada forum, it wasn't in the wrong place but I know that we have quite a few nurses that post in the Canada forums and I'm not sure they'll see your thread in the nursing section of the forum, so I thought you might get more responses here.

Have you checked to see if you're eligible for a visa yet? Best to make sure you are before worrying about holiday allowance etc, but I'm sure our lovely nurses will be along to help you out with that side of things.

Best of luck with it all.

Oh, thank you! Yeah, it appears that I would be eligible for a visa, although I could be on entirely the wrong website. There's a 'Live in Canada' event in Glasgow next weekend, hopefully they'll be able to confirm that for me!

If you're on the CIC website, then you're in the right place! There's an eligibility test on there that you should take, if that's telling you you're eligible then that's a good starting point. If it's telling you that you're eligible for Express Entry, then that's great but you'll also need to check that you are scoring enough to actually get selected from the pool of applicants and invited to apply for PR. You can do that here, 450ish is what you would be aiming for as a minimum - Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) tool - Skilled immigrants (Express Entry)

And you might want to search the forum for info on those events, have you bought your ticket already?

Yeah, that's where I've been! I haven't bought a ticket yet, no. I've never been to one before, not sure what to expect or if it's worthwhile.

Hi there, im not in the nursing proffession but i do understand your concern about the appalling vacation allowance in Canada.

When i was in the UK i got 5 weeks vacation at every company i worked for, I got a pathetic two weeks here for the first 4 years now i have three weeks!! (whoopy bloody doo!) i have to put in 10 years service, then i will get 4 weeks...which is approaching a humane level of vacation allowance.

What makes it worse is that i may not even make my 10 year mark at the the company i currently work for, as prospects are not rosey at the moment and i could get laid off....then i'll be having to find another job and start at the insulting 2 weeks again through no fault of my own! At least you wont have to worry about that being a public sector worker, but its something that really bugs me, its wrong.

I suppose it something you just have to accept if you want to live in Canada, for me personally the advantages of living here outweigh the sad vacation allowance....i just keep looking at the bigger picture. Being a nurse and working for the government, the situation will be a little better for you Id have thought, as you will never lose vacation once you have earned it through years of service, dont quote me on that though.

Paul.

My daughter was a nurse in one of Toronto's trauma units and then emigrated to the UK and did the same job in London. She said the vacation actually available was very similar, in both cases she juggled shifts so as to get several weeks off all together once a year. She preferred working in London as she felt she was treated as more of a team member and less of a doctor's servant than she had been here. That, of course, could be a function of the specific hospitals in question.

Something worth noting is that seniority seems critical to scheduling vacation. My daughter is not unusual in flying back to Toronto to take one shift each year in order to maintain her status.

A search should tell you, but generally most think they're a waste of time and money. If it's local to you and you can get a free tickets (there's usually lots floating around the internet), then go for it but I certainly wouldn't travel far or spend lots getting there.

I used to work at lots of expos including Canada Live, and the majority of stands will be for Oz or NZ, with only a handful of stands for Canada, generally all or most immigration consultants with lovely people trying to get you to sign up with them (yep, I was one of them!).

With the shift pattern I work I don't do too bad for days off and vacation. Initially I earned 1 hour vacation for 17 hours worked and you had to wait for it to build up before taking. Unions are very strong here in Canada and hard to find full time position to start with, most start casual or part time. Biggest issue really is getting registration sorted which is expensive and long winded. From starting nursing here in NS I was lucky they took my UK experience into account so started well and have more or less doubled what I made in the UK

Yes it is. Jobs in Canada | Immigration to Canada | Working In Canada

That is how we got nomination to New Brunswick. Although am sure if the NB programme its still on. Good luck

That's a different exhibition, just so the OP knows.

I'm an RN here in BC. I work in Public Health full time, which means no shifts (regular work days ). I get 4 weeks paid vacation each year. It does increase to 5 soon for me.
I still miss the 6 weeks I got in the NHS I have to admit.
I can take unpaid leave, which I did last year when I needed to fly back to the UK when my sister was unwell.
I can also take flex time, and swap shifts....so it is possible to get longer paid time off (if you put in the hours beforehand ).

Public Health is a sweet gig, I tried getting into it during my time in Ontario but it's such a hard place to break into. They only seem to post contract positions, the pay is GREAT and it's a low stress environment compared to front line nursing.

Pay in Ontario for RNs is usually starting 31/hr and caps off at 46/hr after about 10 years. After which you can choose to stay in your current position or maybe pursue nurse educating or NP.

Good thing about working as a RN in the hospital is we are unionized so the shifts are 2 day shifts 2 night shifts and 5 days off. If you can request some vacation days off or even get switches you can easily take a holiday without even booking vacation time off.

Most likely you will start off as casual just like all new grads do, which means you will work per diem and pick up shifts when you can. Eventually you can gain seniority and apply for a full time line. When you work per diem you don't get benefits or vacation time so you are instead paid 14% per diem on top of your regular pay.


edit: Also from what I've heard (correct me if I'm wrong) getting an RN license in Canada as a foreign trained nurse is very difficult, most end up getting an RPN/LPN license instead. Can anyone confirm? I'm not a foreign trained RN

Yes it is extremely difficult to get licensed these days as a IEN