OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ARRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH feel the panic button here !!! Me & Hubby are still only in the early stages of our Canada dream (3yrs !!!!!), and your posts have been abit of an eye opener. We are looking at Red Dear/ Alberta area (Vancouver dream went along time ago hehe), going on hubby's credential's now as they pulled nursing last year. I started way back when as an EN now 25yrs on I'm a RN on a colerectal ward. Unlike yourselves I have not sent transcripts, looked at CARNA yet but, thinking oh hec at how long the whole process is and I, think I'd better get my act together ............... or my nursing career will be over before touchdown on Canadian soil !!!!!!! Debbiex

Well if it's any consolation, I have no idea of nursing requirements for Alberta, they vary from province to province. I would get started though, I dithered about whether I wanted to pursue nursing over here, and waited until we got here, only to realise that I do want to work, and do what I loved, and now I have to wait however long it takes!! Sighs...

I work as an x ray tech. I was band 8a, here i have chosen to work part time and band 6 equivalent. It took me a long while to get used to the difference in job levels, self imposed. What still irritates me at times is the difference in work methods and responsibility between the two places. However, most of the time i enjoy working here, of course much of that is down the the department i work in but there is satisfaction in getting back to basics.

I have an RN friend who has just received permission to sit her RPN exams but the first opportunity is August. That will be 18 months from application. She's looking at PSW jobs in the meantime.

I feel really low right now, I thought I could come here without my work and it would be ok, it would be for the greater good of everybody. I guess I'm realising how much of my identity was tied up with what I do. The idea of taking everyone home for my part time endoscopy job seems ridiculous, but I loved it and I was good at it, and I would have upped my hrs, gone for promotion, done my degree when my youngest went to school. I've just been looking at the link Siouxie posted, trying to work out whether it's feasible for me to commute four hrs a day for 20 months and pay $12,000 dollars for the course, plus the inevitable childcare. The area we have gone to has lost three doctors, and only my husband has arrived, he's inundated- people are desperate for a family doctor, and I would feel super guilty about us leaving... another off day heading my way I guess.

Bats- that must be tough going from the band 8 to the 6... Are you overall happy with your work/ life that it overrides that? Have you got opportunity to go further up in the future?

Edited to add....I probably just need to suck it up don't I?

The grade drop was my choice. I was burned out, done. My job was too stressful. Now i go in, treat some patients, help out with admin and go home without work problems churning in my head. I no longer dread going in. Life has worked out ok for us but it took some years, you don't want to hear that do you!

Pm me with email and Facebook contact and we can chat more in private.

I'm an RN here in Victoria. I was lucky and moved over before they changed the recommendations and the whole SEC thing. I qualified (in the UK) in 1990 and did the traditional hospital based RGN training which meant that I met the hours in theory and practice that the CRNBC ask for.

I have had to do an online course through UVIC, to get my degree, the "Post RN BSN". It took me 3 years and I had to pay for it myself, but it was online and I worked fulltime in an RN position while doing it.

It has meant I was qualified to apply for different positions, and I was fortunate to get a Public Health Nursing position recently.

My role and responsibilities are different here than in the UK, I find the health system is geared towards medical based practice and they do not utilize nurses as much as they could.
I do love my job though, and wouldn't live or work anywhere else.

I worked as a band 7 in the UK - much of my work was self managed and autonomous. I worked mon - weds 9-5. I realised i would not have the same here, and accepted that i would have to work my way up, work in different roles and also work different hours.

I struggled to get any work at all initially - even as a PSW! I worked as a PSW in the community for a short while - long hours for very little pay, and I found it very hard to just rush in and rush out as you are expected to do in a timed visit! I hated it, but I loved being able to care - even though it was very basic care. That essentially is part of being a nurse anyway!!

It does not bother me that I am not at the level I was at in the UK. My job here will hopefully eventually grow into that - and i am also lucky that my job is Mon-fri 830-5pm. Yes, I am an RPN (well I will be as soon as the CNO enters it on their database) but I can still practice and do the job I love.

bats - cant your friend write the RPN exam in may? The whole process is so dragged out!!

Try messaging peeshpie - she is looking at nursing in Alberta. She will be able to steer you in the right direction- much easier process that Ontario it would seem!!!!

No, May is full so August it is.

Pretty much like me with the OSCE - the only dates for this year were august and november - i cant do the august because it is middle of school hols and the kids, and moving, so have november - which is 18 months from when they originally told me to wait for OSCE dates!!!!

I didnt think they had limited places for the exams? I thought it was just a cut off date? The cut off date is only march 10th for the may RPN exam?

http://www.cno.org/en/become-a-nurse...ions/rpn-exam/

Dunno, she just said she registered online and could only book for August and then it was for a date not listed.

Aaah, okay - i doubt it was for RPN then, maybe for OSCE for RN? That you have to regiater online and may and june were full

Oh maybe i misheard. That's good then if the RN is getting closer.