What's Nursing Like in Canada?

Ontario's pay scale goes from 22 to 32$ an hour depending on your level of experience, which is a good wage in some parts, but not great if you want to live in Toronto. Vacations start at about 3 weeks a year and increase as you gain seniority. Most hospitals work 12 hour shifts and rotate days and nights, but there are some 8 hour positions and some schedule flexibility if you get hired part time or casual. There are many opportunities for jobs in certain areas, especially med-surg and ICU in my hospital. Some places offer great orientation packages. If you are interested in a certain city, I would suggest you go to www.hospitalsoup.com , click on Canadian hospitals then type in the city name for links to all the hospitals in that town.

We are moving to Toronto from the UK, hopefully in the next couple of months - we just have to sell our house. The process is very long and frustrating - here are the basics to get you started.

Visit the website for Canadian immigration and see if you have enough points to apply as a skilled worker www.cic.gc.ca there is an online self-assessment form. The points changed earlier this year and most people don't reach the 75 unless they have an approved job offer or speak fluent french!!!

Most people need a job offer but employers aren't prepared to wait the necessary amount of time, so many nurses go on a work permit, extend it after 12 months and then apply for permanent residency. You will also get 5 extra points for Adaptability if you have worked for 12 months (this is the route we are taking).

Contact the hospitals in Ontario www.oha.com has a list with all the names and addresses of the various hospitals. Most of the hospitals have a website and you can then contact the person responsible for recruitment. Your specialty may be a problem as they are only allowed to recruit from abroad in certain specialties - all jobs have to be approved by HRDC to ensure that you are not taking a Canadians job!!! When I applied they were only taking on nurses in ICU, theatres, oncology, A&E, and psyche - though if you are very specialised a hospital may be able to argue the case for employing you.

Once you have found a job you will need to apply to the College of Nurses of Ontario www.cno.org and they will send you the details about applying for registration in Ontario. You will have to take the Canadian exam but some hospitals will give you temporary registration as long as you pass the exam within a year. Some people fly over to Canada and take it as it probably makes you more "employable". The exam is multiple choice and you can get a book with sample questions to give you an idea of what to expect. The CNO need lots of verification of your experience and qualifications which can prove pretty expensive, but they will include all this info in the package they send, and a lot of the process is on their website.

You also have to pay the NMC £36 to verify your registration and the CNO will need your course transcripts (Nottingham charged me £100 for my transcript - but it is very variable depending on which university you went to!). Some nurses have had a problem with lack of practical hours in their course and need to make up those hours, but the CNO assesses all this and lets you know. It was a very long and slow process before they decided I was eligible to take the exam.

Hope this doesn't put you off too much. We are hoping it will be all worth it in the end. I was actually in Toronto and contacted one of the hospitals who offered me a job - but I do have a lot of ICU experience and am currently a sister in PACU where we take a lot of HDU/ICU patients. I was surprised how difficult it has been to actually go through the process. They reckon that they are desparate for nurses but they certainly don't make it easy, there were many times when we almost gave up.

p.s. we were also delayed because of problems over health cover. If you have a family you may have problems sorting out the OHIP, but if you are single you should be ok.

If you have any further questions don't hesitate to ask. Good luck

Gail

What area to you nurse in? What you can do with or without further training depends on the hospital. All the nurses in my hospital put in IVs on adults (takes a test before you can on kids and infants) and give IV meds, we put in catheters in men and women (it's easier on a man anyways), we have some mechanical lifts, but this varies a lot from hospital to hospital and it's hard to find enough staff to help move patients properly at times. ICUs tend to get the best equipment and ratios for obvious reasons, and med surg units have to do the best they can with what they get. Many hospitals will offer you training in a specialty area they are short in once you get here, so if you are interested in ICU/NICU/L&D, etc. you could see about changing areas.

CNO is the biggest pain in the butt. I came from another province and it took forever to get my lisence here.

I got a letter last week from one of the nursing agencies I approached when we were having problems with my job offer. They said in the letter that they had some posts in Canada if I was interested - don't know what area of nursing they were in.

The agency was Beresford Blake Thomas www.bbt.co.uk (they advertise quite a lot in the Nursing Times). They have an office in Toronto - they phoned me today with the telephone number. I thought it might be useful if St Michael's don't extend my work permit!!!!

If you do get a job offer it is unlikely to be one suitable for a skilled worker application. We wasted a lot of time trying to get them to put in writing that it would be a permanent job if I could get permanent residency. If you have 73 points (same as me) you would get 5 for working on a work permit for a year. You will also get there a lot quicker though it is a pain that you then have to go through the skilled worker application after a year.

Have you contacted any of the hospitals yet! Another thing we considered was applying to a different province under the PNP programme (Calgary want a lot of nurses), then moving to Ontario after a while - but again it is a longer process than going on a permit and you have to move.

Gail

Originally posted by Gailsimps:

We are moving to Toronto from the UK, hopefully in the next couple of months - we just have to sell our house. The process is very long and frustrating . . . The CNO need lots of verification of your experience and qualifications which can prove pretty expensive. . . Some nurses have had a problem with lack of practical hours in their course and need to make up those hours, but the CNO assesses all this and lets you know. It was a very long and slow process before they decided I was eligible to take the exam.. . . .I was surprised how difficult it has been to actually go through the process. They reckon that they are desparate for nurses but they certainly don't make it easy, there were many times when we almost gave up.

HI!

YOUR STORY SOUNDS A LOT LIKE MINE!

I APPLIED IN APRIL FOR A LICENSE IN B.C. AND AFTER MANY DELAYS AND QUESTIONS RE: MY QUALIFICATIONS . . . I HAVE FINALLY BEEN APPROVED TO TAKE THE CANADIAN EXAM (AFTER PROVIDING NUMEROUS TRANSCRIPTS AND EXPERIENCE VERIFICATIONS)

I HAVE ALREADY PAID A FEE FOR GETTING THIS FAR AND NOW HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF YET ANOTHER FEE TO TAKE THE TEST! AYE AYE AYE . . .

I AGREE THAT THEY MUST NOT REALLY NEED NURSES THAT BAD TO CREATE ALL THIS RIGAMOROLE . . . WHY ON EARTH THEY DON'T HAVE RECIPROCAL LICENSING FOR U.S. OR U.K. NURSES IS BEYOND ME

PLUS, I'VE READ ELSEWHERE ON THIS FORUM OF CANADIAN NURSES HAVING DIFFICULTY FINDING STEADY WORK . . . AND PART OF THE HOOK SEEMS TO BE THAT AN IMMIGRANT NEEDS A JOB OFFER TO GO TO CANADA BUT THE PROCESS TAKES SO LONG, WHAT ASSURANCE IS THERE THAT THEY WOULD HOLD A JOB FOR FOUR TO SIX MONTHS TO PROCESS IMMIGRATION PAPERS . . . AFTER ALL THEY SAID HIRING PREFERENCES ALWAYS GO TO CANADIANS FIRST

I'M TO THE POINT WHERE I DON'T KNOW IF I WANT TO INVEST ANYMORE TIME OR MONEY WITH SUCH FLIMSY COMMITMENTS BY THE CANADIAN AUTHORITIES

~ORAIBI

I am American and have been here in Ontario for 15 years, so the rules are probably different now.

I came up on a work visa and the only reason I believe I even got it was that I did have a firm job offer (with the government, ironic) at a Child/Adol. Psych Centre. I was hired for a management position (a whole other story) and I had my MSN in Child/Adol. Psych. Ment. Health Nursing.

At the time, there were no programs here in Canada offering that specific degree. That meant there were no Canadian nurses who could do my job (theoretically), so in immigration's eyes, I wasn't taking a job away from a Canadian citizen.

However, the work visa meant I could only work at the place I was hired at, e.g. couldn't quit and go work somewhere else. It turns out that was a bit of a pain since I had had enough after a year.

I can't believe your problems with the College. Something has really changed, because I interviewed in July and moved here and started working in October with my permanent certificate. I didn't have to take any boards and there was reciprocity. My understanding was that the boards I had originally taken in the States were the "old ones" with each clinical area tested individually...and apparently the newer "integrated" US boards that replaced them don't do that and are therefore not sufficient for reciprocity. That's what I heard.

I probably could never have passed boards again-I had been out of school for 10 years and only worked in psych. Lucky for me!

I feel for all of you trying to get here. I imagine with 9/11, etc. the bureaucracy with Canadian Immigration must be impossible to deal with...it was even back when I started trying to get here.

(This included the Imm. Officer who put my file in her desk drawer and transferred and it sat there for 7 months.)

Good luck, get here soon! We need you!!!!

Hi All,

I just dropped by the website for the test mentioned, they've dropped the level to 67 points, which I found easy to get past. Perhaps they realise they need more skilled workers?

Hi,

From what I read, you are all very educated and experienced and that is what we need. Especially "specialty trained" nurses.

Canada is a great place to live, raise a family, etc...all provinces are unique and have many things to offer.

Research your area of interest...

Welcome/Bienvennue

Sarah