What to do after SEC assessment?

to atzrn

hi! I got my SEC invitation after I applied for CRNBC approval. Re the immigrant visa, it is an option but I would be working with an immigration agency. That is why it is costly. I am not sure yet if that is really what i will do. Does anyone know if SEC Assessment can be taken in other provinces? Like, my invitation says for me to go to Surrey, BC but can I take it in Ontario? Do they offer the SEC assessment there?

SEC isn't the same as the CRNE. Not all provinces require an SEC assessment. Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan and NS are the four I am aware of who do require some form of it. The process was first started in Alberta; the other provinces using it have come on board over the last six months or less and have modeled their assessment on Alberta's. BUT... that doesn't mean that the assessments are identical or even similar. Each province sets their own requirements and evaluates people according to their own needs. So if you're told to go to Surrey to do your SEC, that's where you have to go. Why would you want to do it in Ontario? There are about 4,000 miles and half a country between BC and Ontario!

I have all the same issues and am looking to find someone who has taken the assessments to gve me an idea of what I am up against. Can anyone help. I am an experienced ITU I am an RN (UK) Adult, with a dipolma in nursing, the post reg specialist critical care course (ENB 100) 13 years itu experience (6 of those as a sister) and an honours degree in acute care. However I have been asked to sit the SEC assessment for maternal and mental health as despite covering these areas in my basic training I have been qualified so long that my university no longer holds a copy of my training transcript. It appears I am being penalised for having experience.

I have already secured myself a full time post in BC and they are keen for me to start. I took a research trip last year to check out the job & unit and am very keen to start however now I have been told I have to sit the SEC having already shelled out for the visa and registration application with CRNBC. I have read previous postings that say this is because of poor recruitment in the past, however to get the job offer in BC I sat a test in London and had a face to face interview with a nurse manager followed by a telephone interview with my proposed manager.
This trip over to sit the SECwill cost me a lot of money with no guarantee of a temporary registration. The whole business is very frustrating - I feel my qualifications and experience count for nothing. I started this whole process after reading about the terrible shortage of nurses in Canada however reading some of the postings it seems to me that many of them think that we are just not good enough!

Anyway enough said, can anyone who has sat the assessment shed any light on the matter please. I have already visited Kwantlens website and Mount Royal and CRNBC and even CARNA, I have also contacted tham all by e-mail trying to ascertain the coursework that the SEC is assessed on and none of them will tell me. Thanks in anticipation.

You are not being penalised. I am in a similar situation with Nova Scotia and have to do some courses to make up because my transcripts for Mental health and midwifery (clinical only) wasn't broken down. Remember UK training now is more specialised where as in Canada it is very much general. We have seen a few UK nurses now have to do SEC (I trained as EN in 86 and RN in 97) so have plenty of years as a nurse

As silverdragon102 has said, Canadian nursing education produces nurses who are generalists and can, with the appropriate orientation, work in any area of nursing. The reasons for this approach have already been explained, but in summary, Canada is a very large country with a small population. Many communities are several hours' drive from the nearest major centre and the nearest tertiary care hospital. Nurses working in rural hospitals may stitch up a trauma patient in the morning, deliver a baby in the afternoon, defuse a suicidal teenager in the evening and comfort a dying great-grandma at night. In northern nursing stations, the nurse IS the health care provider... no handy physicians sitting around drinking coffee. So Canadian nursing education programmes must turn out nurses who are minimally prepared for anything.

Your education and experience are not being devalued; our standards are being followed. That is all. You may have more success learning what coursework is provided to local students by contacting any of the universities in BC and requesting a syllabus. For maternity, they will be testing you on your knowledge of normal pregnancy and sommon complications, normal labour and delivery, normal newborn appearance and behaviour, common complications for both mother and baby, and postpartum care for both. For mental health, the focus will be on therapeutic communication, common DSM-IV diagnoses, knowledge of psychotropic medications and adjunctive therapies and their side-effects, terminology and very superficial understanding of the Mental Health Act. There is no actual hands-on examination; it is entirely situation/scenario based with critical thinking and basic knowledge base testing. There is no pass-fail either. If your performance doesn't meet requirements you will be given a learning plan to bring you up to minimum preparation. With all your experience, even maternity will not be a difficult topic to review. And because of your experience, your transition into the working world here will be easy once you've gotten your ducks in a row.

Best wishes on a successful assessment and a swift completion of the remainder of the process.

hi!
I'm new here in the forum. As I was reading all your posts, It seems that all those who have applied for assessment of their credentials in CRNBC for an eligibility are required to have the SEC, as implemented beginning this year.

I'm planning to send all the needed requirements for assessment in CRNBC,do I have a greater chance to be eligible without having a SEC exam? As mentioned, its a case to case basis, as the credentials are assessed individually but then it was pointed also that those applicants who does'nt have their hospital experience yet and graduated within the 5 years were given the eligibility.I have my BSN degree in 2007 and no hospital experience yet. How true is that?

Does the SEC requirement gives an applicant a timeframe wherein they can comply with the said assessment test? If yes, how long?

Please shed light on this. Thanks in Advance!

The need for an SEC assessment relates to the education one received. Canada's nurses are all generalists, meaning they've been trained in the basics of all five main nursing subspecialties of pediatrics, medicine, surgery, mental health and maternal-child. This has all been posted before. If the education programme you have taken does not include enough of either lecture or clinical in any (or all) of these areas, or if CRNBC cannot assess your education simply from the documentation provided, you will have to do SEC. No way around it.

There doesn't seem to be a time limit for completion of the SEC. Kwantlen College is the assessor and they will arrange your SEC at your convenience. Did you read the sticky on the SEC: FAQ - Substantially Equivalent Competence (SEC) Assessmentsand did you read through the dozen or so pages of information for IENs on the CRNBC website: http://www.crnbc.ca/RegRenewal/Apply...Applicant.aspx ? If you haven't I'd ask you to do so.

Thank you so much janfrn!!

Hello everyone! I need some help...particularly help in interpreting something.

This is regards to the SEC Assessment results...

In the Assessment Guide it states...

<i>Following your assessment, the results will be sent to CRNBC and you can expect to hear from CRNBC in about 3-5 weeks. Please note that the nurse consultant/assessors will not be discussing your performance with you during or after your SEC assessment. </i>



Does that mean, the day after I finish my assessment, I can start counting the 3-5 weeks and I will hopefully hear from CRNBC during that period of time?
Or after CRNBC receives the results, then the 3-5weeks counting begins?

Sorry, I'm a bit O.C. I really get into details..so please help!

Thank you.

I would expect that to mean that once CRNBC gets the results you'll hear from them in 3-5 weeks. There's no way to predict how long it'll take Kwantlen to get the results to CRNBC, although one would hope it would be fairly quickly done, so CRNBC can't really promise anything out of ther own control, right?