Mercan Recruit - Canada

Search the the threads. There has already been a discussion of the nurses arriving in Capital Health. Some are good, some have been found in need of remedial classes due to very limited skills.

Becareful of what you get yourself into. It is not always what it is cracked up to be.

chill_out,

One of the thing that bothered me with regards to Mercan is that RN's here gets to work as LPN in Alberta. And they have to take CRNE (canadian registered nurses exam) LPN..whereas in saskatchewan,we were offered a grad nurse license with a starting salary of 25CAD/hour and gets to sit on the CRNE RN exam, after passing you can work as an RN in canada..Its just weird why in capital health alberta hires RN here to work as LPN..Its up to you to decide if its healthy for your career though...So many options are there...also Mercan usually manpools nurses, some nurses I know that were hired last november are still here..when in fact working permit only takes 6-8months processing in philippines...oh well...

the thing with working in alberta is that you start as a LPN, then you move on to be a graduate nurse (GN) once you're assessed by CARNA and found to be eligible to take the CRNE. However, CARNA also has SEC (Substantially Equivalent Competence). Once yoiu submit your application for review, you might be required to undergo SEC which tests your clinical skills, they have 3 areas of assessment: medical-surgical, psychiatric and pediatric. You might be required to undergo 1, 2 or all 3 areas which would be a 2-3 days examination. Once you pass SEC, you can then take teh CRNE...lots of studying is needed..when you pass CRNE that's when you are officially a registered nurse..
compare all this to applying in saskatchewan..same application requirements but you don't have to undergo SEC anymore, just the CRNE..
they have lots of applicants, their first batch were interviewed nov 2007, 300 i think, they were able to first deploy them in march 2008m but some are still stuck here. Then they just had this hiring last july, another 600..i just wonder when they can be deployed considering that they haven't deployed all the applicants of the first batch yet..
this might be good if you plan to stay in Canada, but if you plan to go somewhere else afterwards, some employers don't count LPN experience as RN experience..

Oh my.. Obviously its a tedious process, now I'm wondering if its still possible to become RNs after we finish our 2 years of contract as LPN..

You have to keep in mind that each province in Canada is in charge of their own health care. Each province has a College of Registered Nurses which protects the health care interests of the public in the province by regulating nursing practice. Alberta obviously has higher standards for their nurses than Saskatchewan does, thus the more rigorous assessment of education and skills before permitting licensure. That is not to say that Saskatchewan's standards are inadequate, just not the same as Alberta's. Alberta has examined the curriculum and clinical preparation of BScN programs in the Philippines and determined that the closest equivalent program in Alberta is that of their LPN training. Therefore, graduates of those programs in the Philippines are only equivalent to LPNs in Alberta. Ergo they will only be licensed in Alberta as LPNs, following the successful completion of the Canadian Licensed Practical Nurse Examination. Should they wish to be registered and employed as RNs in Alberta they will have to upgrade their education to meet Alberta's educational and clinical standards. It's that simple and that complex. If you want to work in Alberta, you must meet Alberta's standards.

just to add...according to the agency, nurses who've passed the NCLEX exam can work as LPNs there, but then the term is "LICENSED" practical nurse, but they don't have to take any exam, because there's some sort of agreement between capitol and the government i think or something like that as what they've explained. i haven't gotten a chance to confirm this with anyone yet who has already been deployed there by this agency. i don't even know why they would use NCLEX since this is a US licensure exam..

If you want to work as a nurse in Canada you have to sit their nursing exam, There was talk in the International forum of people being exempt but not sure how this works as Canadian nurses have to sit it as do USA nurses and other foreign nurses that want to work in Canada with no exemption