UK Student planning a placment in Vancouver - HELP PLZ

There are no real private hospitals except long term care homes and clinics. Hospitals are generally all government run through regional health authorities. To get a list of the hospitals in the area go to www.hospitalsoup.com and click on Canadian hospitals. Then type in vancouver as the city. As far as nursing schools, most are now BSN programs and include UBC, BCIT and Douglas College. All nurses in BC are registered with RNABC (they are the professional college that represents nurses) and the vast majority are members of BCNU (the union that represents nurses in contract negotiations). Is there a particular area of nursing that interests you (ob, pediatrics, med-surg?)? If so, please feel free to pm me and I may be able to recommend a hospital.

Oh, and you might also want to look at the other cities like Burnaby, New Westminster, richmond, Surrey and North Vancouver as well. They are all within driving distance and considered part of the greater Vancouver area.

Everything here is publicly paid except for certain clinics (like ones that offer MRIs and certain day surgeries). The privately paid clinics are generally used by our worker's compensation board to help people on worker's comp get back to work without waiting in line as long. All the hospitals are free for our citizens at the point of delivery as well. Private insurance hasn't made it's way to the province yet.

We don't have a country wide union, no. The unions are provincial, so all nurses in BC have the same contract. If it was countrywide that would be practically impossible because of the difference in cost of living between provinces. The lisencing boards are also provincial. RNABC isn't the union, it's the lisencing body which determined competency and requirements to register as a nurse in the province. If you wanted to stay, they are the ones who would evaluate your education and give you permission to write the CNAT.

Certain hospitals in Vancouver are specialized. There is a children's hospital, a women's hospital, a cancer center, etc. But most are more general. If you are interested in general med-surg you would probably wind up at Vancouver General Hospital (they have a great burn unit apparently) or St Paul's Hospital (right downtown, older place, has a good renal floor as well as an HIV/AIDS unit I have heard good things about). I have also heard good things about Lion's gate in North Vancouver. My niece did a practicum at the women's hospital and liked it very much.