ponylife

Yes, send me your email, I will have to find a way to edit it so nobody can steal my identity 😅

Phaedru5

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.

Phaedru5

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.

Silverdragon102

unions are very strong and most facilities or hospitals will have a collective agreement in place. Any job that is advertised would be offered internally before externally. Everything is based on seniority so important thing would be getting foot through the door and start paying union fees as that starts you on the seniority list. Sure it is an expensive process but so it is for a lot of professions and even once you are licensed as a nurse you have to pay for your license annually and that isn’t cheap and although you have seen articles talking about nursing shortage this is more likely to be seen in rural areas where it is a struggle to find professional people compared to cities

christmasoompa

Hmmm, very odd, loads of others have managed without having to spend a year studying full-time for a year. Is that a new thing I wonder?

Phaedru5

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.

christmasoompa

Jerseygirl

Please open a new thread as this thread is now closed. Thanks.