Anybody knows??

The nursing specialties seem to work here just about the same as they do in the US. At least from what I can tell so for. In Halifax we have something called the Regestered Nurses Professional Development center. They have a number of classes at very reasonable rates. Looks like you can take in house courses, outside and university courses. I might add if you come in on a Work permit you have to get another type of permit from immigration to take extra courses. At this point I've applied for a permenent residency via marriage so my route will probably be different as far as immigration goes here on out. You can go through your employer to get a permenent residency but its a longer process.

It can depend on the speciality. I have seen college courses for coronary care, geriatrics,and OR nursing. I know a girl who got a job in the dialysis unit at the hospital and she got on the job training. When I was in school I did a placement in a mental health facility and they did on the job training.

There are differences, but in this sense they're pretty trivial. We don't keep track of every 2x2 or alcohol swab we use, and we have indigent patients in beds next to the local elite... no VIP suites here. Once you've got a hospital gown on, you're just like everybody else, for the most part. As for specialty training, each province handles things a little differently and each health region or hospital develops their own methods based on the directives of the province. When I started working in PICU in 1997, I didn't have to have or take any specialty courses to get the job. There was one available but it wasn't compulsory. Here in northern Alberta, each specialty has its own list of competencies and certifications that one must meet before being permitted to perform the skill or treatment. In PICU we have seven certifications that we obtain during our orientation program, and we are recertified every year. I just completed mine this week. But in this part of the province there isn't a specific pediatric critical care course, like there is in Manitoba. For people who go into adult critical care, or emergency services, the health region pays for them to attend a course run by Grant McEwan College without which they can't practice.