I moved to Canada as a nurse!!!!! - Page 5

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  1. Jun 29, '11 by
    Quote from Fiona59
    Thank you for telling your experience. Several of us Canadian nurses have been trying to tell people this for the last couple of years and have been called "naysayers" and worse for saying exactly what you have.
    Fiona as an IEN myself I would like to share my experiences as I moved on with my career here in Canada. It is tough out here for us who are not nursing graduates from Canada.Filipinos are optimistic by nature and always believed that there is a rainbow at the end of the storm. I hope that IEN's will equip and prepare themselves for the challenges that lay ahead. As I said before it is tough but with preparedness,patience and learning to navigate in the nursing job market here,who knows an IEN can land on a job.I have read a lot of threads of many IEN's coming from the Philippines wanting to practice their profession in Canada. Let's accept it that many are clueless of what is to be expected and what are the processes involved in order to successfully integrate onself in the new environment.I don't have anything against them but it would really be helpful to learn as much as possible about the place we are migrating into,the support system available,the job market we are getting into,etc..

    I recently had my vacation in the Philippines and I noticed proliferation of agencies encouraging nurses to migrate to Canada offering this and that and painting a rosy picture of what their life is gonna be here.What I disliked most is the fact that these agencies do not affer a clear picture of what is the process involved in registering as an RN in provinces where they wanna migrate. Most often they would inform these interested people that they will need to do a bridging program. Many also will convince these applicants to take IELTS General Training instead of the Academic Training .It's absolutely ridiculous that the applicant take the GT instead of the AT if that person wants to practice as a nurse in Canada. Isn't it a waste of money to take the GT first and then take the AT once here in Canada.That is only my opinion by the way and if that particular applicant wants to take the GT first then that is their prerogative. Nevertheless those options should have been properly discussed with these applicants for migration.While I was on vacation several friends and relatives approached me about this and I am displeased that it was not part of their seminar regarding the assessment process if they want to practice nursing.
    Fiona59 likes this.
  2. Jun 29, '11 by
    Quote from Fiona59
    If Canadian hospitals are so sub-par in your professional opinion why do you want to work here?
    Same reasons why so many canadian nurses migrate to US to work. Currently, I work with so many canadian nurses in my hospital across the border. leave this bs of "canadian nurses are more educated and well trained" It wasn't like this before 2005. According to a canadian nurse I work with "It's all about the benjamin", "period"
    tokidoki7, bonsai_25, CarribRN, and 1 other like this.
  3. Jul 18, '11 by
    Hi Nataliak,
    Thank you for your word of encouragement, I realy appreciate it. I am an IEN as well I did the crne in ONTARIO from 2009 and was successful. I have been trying to get employment since, in order to apply for my license and my work permit without any success. I think every hospital and nursing home have a copy of my resume by now.I just recently applied to Nova Scotia for registration and licensure and had to send all my document to crnns with fees all over again. (I dont really mind doing that.) I just need to know that I will have a chance of getting employed. Could you email me the name of the agency that helped you. my email address is elainecjz@yahoo.com All I need is for CRNNS to assess me since I have already done the exam. I hope the proceedure wont take as long as nine months.Looking foward for your response
  4. Admin
    Jul 18, '11 by
    Quote from elacoha
    Hi Nataliak,
    Thank you for your word of encouragement, I realy appreciate it. I am an IEN as well I did the crne in ONTARIO from 2009 and was successful. I have been trying to get employment since, in order to apply for my license and my work permit without any success. I think every hospital and nursing home have a copy of my resume by now.I just recently applied to Nova Scotia for registration and licensure and had to send all my document to crnns with fees all over again. (I dont really mind doing that.) I just need to know that I will have a chance of getting employed. Could you email me the name of the agency that helped you. my email address is elainecjz@yahoo.com All I need is for CRNNS to assess me since I have already done the exam. I hope the proceedure wont take as long as nine months.Looking foward for your response
    seeing less and less jobs advertised here in NS. last time I checked the health authority was only advertising internally. You could try contacting LTC facilities
    Fiona59 likes this.
  5. Aug 11, '11 by
    Quote from NataliaK
    Hi,

    just want to share my personal experience moving to Canada to work as a nurse.

    And I would like to encourage anybody who is dreaming to move to Canada to work as a nurse.

    Originally I am from Russia but I received my Associate of nursing degree in USA. After graduation from Denver School of Nursing, Colorado I had been working as a registered nurse (RN) for almost one year.
    I really liked to live and work in USA. But unfortunately I was urged to move from USA due to the fact that I did not have bachelor of Nursing and with ASN I could not get my US work visa. It is funny to see all these ads after that claiming that USA needs nurses. May be it does but it is very difficult for foreign nationality to stay in USA.

    So I have less than 6 months to find a good alternative for my US nursing job. Canada was the first on my mind.

    There is a flood of information on Internet but it takes forever to read through all these governmental websites trying to decide what province of Canada I am suitable best and I did not really care what part of Canada to go. All Canadian provinces have their own requirements for licensing of foreign nurses. Now I know that they are pretty much similar but at that time I did not know anything about nursing requirements in Canada. I choose Nova Scotia (Atlantic province of Canada) because I always wanted to live near the ocean.

    I applied as a RN to the College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia to find out that my Associate of nursing degree from US is not enough to be registered as RN here in Canada. I was suggested to come to Halifax, Canada for assessment. For me it was simply impossible.

    First I needed a Canadian visa and besides that I would not be able to return to USA (where I could officially stayed only for short 5 months) and I am not saying that it is a LOT of money to travel to Canada, staying in the hotel plus I still could not be sure how this assessment would go.

    Close to a nervous breakdown I found a local consulting and recruitment agency for foreign-trained nurses in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I was suggested do apply as LPN to the College of Licensed Practical nurses of Nova Scotia. Thankfully my application was approved. I was offered a job by this recruitment agency (everything was FREE) and they found me a place to live in the apartment complex located on the territory of my future work. So it was really convenient. I did not need to buy a car right away everything was close.

    So to summarize my experience: I started looking for the ways to go to Canada in October 2009. My RN application was refused in November. In December I applied as LPN and by April 2010 I was able to come to Canada. By the way my family came later.

    I was just blown away by Canadian Hospitality. I was met at the airport by personal of the agency . They also helped me a lot during my first week in Canada plus found me place to live.

    Some more interesting facts from my Canadian experience:
    1/ It happened that I came already pregnant to Canada. To my big surprise I was eligible to have one year maternity leave after full time of work during my first 8 months in Canada.

    2/ Being an American graduate I even was not asked to go through the Canadian Practical Nurse Registration Exam (CPNRE).

    3/ I applied for permanent residency after one year of staying in Canada through Nova Scotia Nominee program though I am still waiting for it. Hope to receive it soon.

    So it will be soon almost 2 years in Canada. It seems to me that People at work are more relaxed compare to US.

    But I finally got use to this “Canadian slowness “. I love Canada and I think I found my new home.
    Hi NataliaK, may i know the name of the agency? Like you I have been struggling to find a job here in the US, i wanted to move to Canada and start pursuing my career as a nurse. If it will be hard for me to get hired as a nurse there, i wont mind working as a LPN. I just want to start preparing for my future. I hope you could reply to this little favor of mine. Here is my email address: louann008@yahoo.com - Thank you so much and God bless you
  6. Aug 11, '11 by
    Quote from lou_din
    Hi NataliaK, may i know the name of the agency? Like you I have been struggling to find a job here in the US, i wanted to move to Canada and start pursuing my career as a nurse. If it will be hard for me to get hired as a nurse there, i wont mind working as a LPN. I just want to start preparing for my future. I hope you could reply to this little favor of mine. Here is my email address: louann008@yahoo.com - Thank you so much and God bless you

    An LPN is a NURSE. There is no shame in my profession.
    OgopogoLPN and loriangel14 like this.
  7. Aug 12, '11 by
    Quote from Fiona59
    An LPN is a NURSE. There is no shame in my profession.
    Yes I know LPN is a nurse.. It's not a shame to work as an LPN.. What I meant is I can take a job offer as an LPN also. I won't mind because it's also an opportunity and an open door for me because from what I've read, it's hard to get registered, hired and be sponsored as an RN (bsn) in Canada.
  8. Aug 12, '11 by
    Quote from lou_din
    Yes I know LPN is a nurse.. It's not a shame to work as an LPN.. What I meant is I can take a job offer as an LPN also. I won't mind because it's also an opportunity and an open door for me because from what I've read, it's hard to get registered, hired and be sponsored as an RN (bsn) in Canada.
    Canadian health authorities are NOT recruiting overseas. They are filling jobs locally with new grads and under employed nurses.

    Your use of the words "willing to work as an LPN" because it's hard to get hired as a nurse is offensive to Canadian and US LPNs.
    loriangel14 likes this.
  9. Aug 12, '11 by
    Quote from Fiona59
    Canadian health authorities are NOT recruiting overseas. They are filling jobs locally with new grads and under employed nurses.

    Your use of the words "willing to work as an LPN" because it's hard to get hired as a nurse is offensive to Canadian and US LPNs.
    Oh sorry.. I didn't mean to.. Now I know... Thanks for the info
  10. Aug 25, '11 by
    i want to work also as LPN,pls share me your ideas heres my add grace_ann86@hotmail.com..thanks