BC to Alberta RN - temporary licensing

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Nov 26, 2009

I find your situation very interesting, since Alberta Health Services has essentially closed the province to all external applicants and this has been in place since April 1. Alberta grads are not being hired unless they were undergraduate nurse employees and therefore already employees of Alberta Health Services. I'm curious to know where this job is and how you got it. All that aside, there have been many nurses who were educated somewhere else who were granted permission to write the CRNE here. Alberta doesn't offer the same sort of temporary graduate nurse registration that BC does. Here they're called certified graduate nurses; the school certifies they've met all the requirements for graduation and that's their authorization. They must work under an RN's license until they receive their own. TILMA throws a bit of a curve ball at the cross-border thing. Licensed graduate nurses from BC are accepted here in the same way that our certified grad nurses are. Check this out: https://www.nurses.ab.ca/Carna-Admin/Uploads/TILMA%20BC%20to%20AB%20JULY%2009%20CG%20comments.pdf this document suggests that the process shouldn't be that lengthy at all, no longer than a local grad's process would be.

journey_bound · Nov 26, 2009

thanks for your response : ) If you take a look on Alberta Health Services job postings, you'll see that there are a (very) few postings that are open to the public, some casual and others are way in the middle of no where are are part-time... So, what you're saying is that instead of getting a temporary interim license like I would here in BC, I simply work as a certified graduate nurse under the license of the RN on the floor? I am registered to write the Feb '10 CRNE and will satisfy all my degree requirements in 4 weeks. Obtaining certified graduate status, you said that all I need is proof of my degree from my university and that's it? I don't have to do any tests (SEC)? I see that according to your link, CARNA will recognize a registered nurse from BC, but if i've yet to write the CRNE, do i have to do an SEC assessment? My concern is time... I'd like to ideally be working by mid Jan, after submitting my application to CARNA by the 20th of Dec...

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Nov 26, 2009

What I would recommend is that you do what you would normally do if you were graduating and moving into a job in BC. Get your temporary graduate license there which will be accepted here under TILMA as equivalent to the certified graduate nurse. Of course you will still have to apply to CARNA for their blessing but under the terms of TILMA they pretty much have to rubber-stamp it. You may request permission to write your CRNE in Alberta; that you've already been approved to write in February is helpful. If you've got a bona fide position in Alberta and you begin work before your CRNE results are in your hand you would then work as a certified grad nurse with the necessary restrictions and the supervision of an RN that any graduate nurse does. SEC assessments are for internationally educated nurses, not nurses educated in other provinces. If you're confused about it, read the sticky FAQ - Substantially Equivalent Competence (SEC) Assessments and it'll all become clear.

I am aware that there are a very small number of positions posted here in Alberta that are open to external candidates. Most of these positions require experience. Your initial post stated that you HAVE a position in Alberta. Does that mean you have an offer of employment in writing, with all the Is dotted and all the Ts crossed? Be very wary, because when the layoffs start, probably early in the new year, you may find yourself on a very precarious perch.

journey_bound · Nov 26, 2009

Thanks so much for your clear and concise response : )

I don't have the position yet; I have an offer but have not made my mind up about it. It concerns me that you mention lay off's in the spring... If I were to accept a position in a small hospital wear people aren't looking to work, is there still a possibility of me getting laid off? I assumed that taking a position in a hospital where people aren't applying and where they need more people would help me to avoid that situation. If I take this position, I will be relocating to another province (obviously) and don't want to find myself with an apartment and no job in AB...

thanks again

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Nov 26, 2009

Our government is making health care all about money - completely and totally about the bottom line. Registered nurses cost a lot of money so we have to lose as many RNs as we can in order to meet the budget. So Dr Duckett introduced his hiring freeze - I mean his vacancy management program - and his brass handshake plan - voluntary exit program purportedly to reduce the number of nurses he has to lay off. He has also made a lot of comments about replacing RNs with LPNs and LPNs with NAs. In the PICU at Alberta Children's Hospital, RNs are being replaced at the bedside by RTs so you know it's not just talk. He has also expressed interest in implementing a care model used at Toronto East General Hospital that will significantly decrease safety, continuity and effectiveness. He denies a lot of this but I believe CARNA's version of the discussion.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Health+board+nurses+tangle+over+plan/2267935/story.html

Health board, nurses tangle over plan

Dispute centres on CEO StephenDuckett's comments on number of new RNs to be hired

By Jodie Sinnema, Edmonton Journal November 26, 2009

A nursing association newsletter outlining plans by Alberta Health Services to hire fewer than 40 per cent of registered nursing grads each year, and to replace RNs with lesser-skilled workers, even in hospital intensive care units, is inaccurate, a spokesman for the province's health superboard says.

Don Stewart said the health authority has asked the college and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta to remove a newsletter from its website that describes how Stephen Duckett, CEO of the health superboard, told nursing leaders during a Nov. 4 meeting that nursing hires will be cut to 40 per cent of university grads, down from 80 per cent hired under the previous health regions.

"It does seriously misrepresent the discussions that took place," Stewart said...

The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario is sounding the alarm on the TEGH model and this link will take you to a wealth of evidence as to its ramifications: http://www.rnao.org/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=3019

You might also want to read the entries and comments on Dr Duckett's Blog. There's a lot to read there but it's important that you see the whole picture for yourself. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors involved in health care in Alberta right now.

Okay, back to your situation. Rural hospitals in Alberta have been scaled back and pruned and trimmed over the last two decades to the point where it wouldn't take much for them to become little more than residential care lodges. Indeed, many of our rural nurses are expecting it and that their jobs are toast. Yes, they're really short of nurses in the rural hospitals but AHS has said they aren't, all they need to do is use them smarter. The focus here in the last year has been centralization - what's to stop them from centralizing everything? All acute care provided by city hospitals and chronic care by community hospitals. So if you were take a position in a rural hospital in January and they started laying off nurses in March, even though no one would be jumping up and down to bump into your job, it's quite likely that your job wouldn't even exist. Unless you actually have a offer of employment in writing with all the details clearly spelled out as to where you'd be working, what your hours of work are to be, hourly wage, date orientation is to begin and the name of your human resources contact, you don't actually have a job and there's nothing you can hold AHS to.

I'm not telling you all of this to be mean or to discourage you. I want you to go into this with your eyes open and all the facts in hand so that you can make an informed decision about your future. Nursing isn't a great place to be right now in many parts of the country, but especially here.