Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Intensive care UK looking to move to Canada

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Hello,

I'm a Advanced Nurse Practitioner who has been working in this role for 6 years in the Uk. I'm keen to emigrate to Canada but I'm having difficulty identifying whether Canada has Nurse Practitioners in Intensive Care and if they do what their role is. My skills would include central line insertion, intubation, insertion of chest drains, arterial lines etc. in addition to diagnostics and management including prescribing infusions and medication.

As far as I can work out Canada has nurse practitioner programmes but they're mostly focused on primary care centres or out in the community. Could someone shed some light on this or give me some direction of where to seek out more information. I really would love to move out there but I want to be sure I've got the career opportunities before spending the considerable amount of money on visa applications etc.

Thanks

Pete

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I can't answer your question about where all NPs work but I would have thought it was highly unlikely they work in the ICU. I've come across them in acute care but the patients weren't big sick. Also, in Canada, they are an extended class of RN and are registered with the provincial college of nurses with an extended scope of practice. This is unlike the UK which requires no registration to be a NP (I know they are looking into it). I'm not sure if you've done a masters to be a NP, however in Canada, a masters degree is mandatory.

I can assure you that Canada is tough to get licensed as a RN, even for nurses from the UK. It all boils down to education. Nurses in Canada are generalist trained, which means they have theory and clinical practice in pediatrics, maternity and mental health. Whereas, the UK is specialist trained for either adult, peds or mental health. Unless your initial education included all three of those areas, any of the provinces will make you do bridging programs to make up the gaps, costing $1000s before they let you register. Some provinces might be better and require less make up of educational gaps than others but I wouldn't know which ones.

It's of course not impossible to register here as a UK trained nurse but expect it to be a long and expensive process! I would have thought your NP experience would also not be recognized unless you have a masters. Even then, the college of nurses will likely find issues with it lol. The only way you can know for sure is to have your credentials evaluated. I'm sure others will give you more feedback. Sorry that my reply isn't more positive. Just thought you need to know what you're up against!

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The NPs I've encountered have worked in acute medicine units, Geriatrics, and family practices. We recently had one roaming the ortho units but we never knew if he was independent or being mentored.

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Choose your province and region wisely. NPs work the most at hospitals in Alberta and Ontario I believe, but in other provinces, the jobs for NPs are limited and many new grads have trouble getting jobs and they go down to the states. In my area I’ve only seen a select number of NPs in primary care (govt funded clinics-very few in number), ICU/CCU, and addictions/mental health.

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Hi,

I'm currently in the NP program at UBC and have previously worked in Ontario as well. Aside from U of Toronto, there are no acute care NP programs and thus, most of the positions in Canada at the moment are in primary care. In BC at least, the direction is heading towards positions like ICU NPs. However, I don't think there would be a position as advance as the one you describe where you're intubating and inserting art lines. Particularly in BC, you will be required to do the OSCE (something not required by any other province) so choose wisely! Ontario's NPs enjoy the most scope of practice and are the role of the NP is most well known to the public there. BC is up and coming and I think the rest of the provinces are about the same as BC. So Ontario would be your best bet in my opinion if you're looking into an ICU NP role. Best of luck!

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I would love to move to Canada. Anyone know about the prospects for a palliative/hospice NP?

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Thanks for all the input guys, do you know if there is a number I could call involved in advance practice or recruitment so I could talk it through with someone?

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18 hours ago, Lunar25 said:

Thanks for all the input guys, do you know if there is a number I could call involved in advance practice or recruitment so I could talk it through with someone?

No national registry or recruitment. Each province has a governing body called a provincial College of Nurses.

Figure out where you want to live and contact that province's College.

Each province has multiple health authorities, you have to look at the ones closest to where you live.

If you move to another province be ready to do it all over again. Being granted a practice permit in one province doesn't give you a practice permit in another.

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Specializes in General.

It is provincial based, not federal based, so you would need to choose your province, then contact the provincial college, then commence your IEN NNAS for General RN, then gain immigration status, then begin practice, then you later apply for advancing standing as NP, then then then then ... it would be a two - three year long process.

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Hi

Im currently living in Washington and planning to return to Vancouver and hopefully be admitted to UBC MN-NP program

I have both Canadian and US RN experience critical care

I was hoping to hear about admission rates and the competitiveness of the program as I am planning to apply for the 2020 cohort

any information would be greatly appreciated

thank you

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Specializes in Cardiac Surgical ICU / Critical care.

I work in an ICU. We do have several NP's in our critical care program in our health authority. It is a new role for us and I believe the scope is limited at this point. We are a teaching hospital, so I am not sure if our NP's are not doing procedures because they were not trained, not in their scope or just because the residents are getting to do all the procedures because of their training needs.

Like others have said, Choose a province first, then get in touch with the appropriate college.

Another place to start would be https://www.nnas.ca/

Good luck

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thanks

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