UK Nurse to Canada - Please Help
#16
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2016
Location: Gold Coast QLD
Posts: 61
Re: UK Nurse to Canada - Please Help
Hi, sorry do jump in, but could you share the nnas report with me too.. just to, as you said, compare what they are assessing against their requirements.. i ve been waiting for ages and keep getting the "you are under review" for the last 30 weeks (since it was made "ready for review)..
Thanks !!
Thanks !!
#17
Phaedrus by Plato (not5)
Joined: May 2017
Location: Vernon, BC
Posts: 206
Re: UK Nurse to Canada - Please Help
The quote above "They won't be months long or anything like that." is sadly incorrect.
Brooks52 sounds like it could be my wife! My wife is also Canadian, was an LPN for 5yrs before moving to England with me, her British husband. We relocated back to BC after 12yrs last Spring. While in UK she completed a degree in Nursing in England, graduating with a 1st, and subsequently worked as a Surgical Nurse.
She has been through the NNAS, BCCNP, etc etc process as described by others above and is now partway through her course at TRU. It seems clear that every nurse from England has to undergo this 'return to practice' course which is a full school year long, despite having worked in BC previously.
Yes, the process is expensive, yes it takes a long time, yes it is frustrating and yes it is ridiculous that we watch on TV adverts about nursing shortages and live 10mins from a local major hospital and yet my wife is unable to work there yet despite some 15+yrs experience in healthcare.
Im sorry for not mincing my words but do not underestimate how long, painful, expensive and frustrating the experience is. Is it doable? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely to get to live in BC, which we love. But it sure aint easy.
So, advice on how to make it work? Well, we are living mainly on my income, my wife is managing to work part time while doing her course on days off, evenings and weekends, and remember that houses in Canada are much bigger so we are utilising our basement suite, initially for airbnb income, and currently have two international students renting the 2 bedrooms down there and living with us for the school year which helps supplement income. If you want it bad enough you can make it work.
Brooks52 sounds like it could be my wife! My wife is also Canadian, was an LPN for 5yrs before moving to England with me, her British husband. We relocated back to BC after 12yrs last Spring. While in UK she completed a degree in Nursing in England, graduating with a 1st, and subsequently worked as a Surgical Nurse.
She has been through the NNAS, BCCNP, etc etc process as described by others above and is now partway through her course at TRU. It seems clear that every nurse from England has to undergo this 'return to practice' course which is a full school year long, despite having worked in BC previously.
Yes, the process is expensive, yes it takes a long time, yes it is frustrating and yes it is ridiculous that we watch on TV adverts about nursing shortages and live 10mins from a local major hospital and yet my wife is unable to work there yet despite some 15+yrs experience in healthcare.
Im sorry for not mincing my words but do not underestimate how long, painful, expensive and frustrating the experience is. Is it doable? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely to get to live in BC, which we love. But it sure aint easy.
So, advice on how to make it work? Well, we are living mainly on my income, my wife is managing to work part time while doing her course on days off, evenings and weekends, and remember that houses in Canada are much bigger so we are utilising our basement suite, initially for airbnb income, and currently have two international students renting the 2 bedrooms down there and living with us for the school year which helps supplement income. If you want it bad enough you can make it work.
#18
Phaedrus by Plato (not5)
Joined: May 2017
Location: Vernon, BC
Posts: 206
Re: UK Nurse to Canada - Please Help
Oh and as an aside, why Vancouver? If you are leaving the UK to get away from traffic, crowds, high cost of living, rain etc its pretty pointless. I highly recommend the Interior, North, Kootenays, infact anywhere but Vancouver haha! And everywhere else has much more achievable living costs. (i.e. we left behind a small 3 bed, 1 bath, ex-council semi-detached house in the UK Midlands to now having a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom, double garage detached home on 1/3 acre with a lake view on a lower income than i had in the UK. I dont think i could afford a small apartment in Vancouver.
#19
Re: UK Nurse to Canada - Please Help
Depends on the duration of the course. If she did have to do that then she would be leaving her family here in the UK until the courses are complete, which I highly doubt she or anybody else would want to do.
If all of the courses could be completed here in the UK while shes still working then that would be absolutely brilliant. Then when shes completed them and registered then she could search for vacancies and apply before we move permanently.
To me it seems that Canada makes it as difficult and as expensive as possible for an International Nurse to work in the country. I presume its because they're trying to protect their own nurses? But i've recently read an article on the internet which states that Canada is on track to have a shortage of 60,000 nurses in the next 2 years. I can see this shortage increasing with the ever so strict and difficult process to register.
Article https://www.canadim.com/blog/canada-...00-new-nurses/
Apologies, I don't understand that, seems strange. Could you elaborate more please?
If all of the courses could be completed here in the UK while shes still working then that would be absolutely brilliant. Then when shes completed them and registered then she could search for vacancies and apply before we move permanently.
To me it seems that Canada makes it as difficult and as expensive as possible for an International Nurse to work in the country. I presume its because they're trying to protect their own nurses? But i've recently read an article on the internet which states that Canada is on track to have a shortage of 60,000 nurses in the next 2 years. I can see this shortage increasing with the ever so strict and difficult process to register.
Article https://www.canadim.com/blog/canada-...00-new-nurses/
Apologies, I don't understand that, seems strange. Could you elaborate more please?
#20
Re: UK Nurse to Canada - Please Help
#21
Phaedrus by Plato (not5)
Joined: May 2017
Location: Vernon, BC
Posts: 206
Re: UK Nurse to Canada - Please Help
It isnt full-time per se, as I alluded to my wife is managing to work part time aswell, As someone else rightly said above the TRU course (Kamloops) is open learning, so one could choose to work full time (outside of healthcare) and do the school work on evenings and weekends - but as for duration the course is a full 'school year' meaning Sept to June. I dont know if that is new but with the experience my wife has of Nursing both in Canada and in the UK as an RN and yet still having to do the course I imagine it is at the least a minimum.
#22
Re: UK Nurse to Canada - Please Help
It isnt full-time per se, as I alluded to my wife is managing to work part time aswell, As someone else rightly said above the TRU course (Kamloops) is open learning, so one could choose to work full time (outside of healthcare) and do the school work on evenings and weekends - but as for duration the course is a full 'school year' meaning Sept to June. I dont know if that is new but with the experience my wife has of Nursing both in Canada and in the UK as an RN and yet still having to do the course I imagine it is at the least a minimum.
#23
Re: UK Nurse to Canada - Please Help
Please open a new thread as this thread is now closed. Thanks.