B.C. vs. California Health Care Systems

[Marra Jade]

Hi! My name is Marra and I am a student nurse in Canada. I am doing a comparsion between B.C.'s and California's health care systems. I was hoping that someone could help me with some questions I have:

1) In B.C., to specialize after the RN exams, nurses go to a college for 12 week programs and recieve a small pay increase. The hospitals, in most cases, will help pay for the specialization. Is this similar to California? What is the cost of the programs?

2) In B.C., we are raising our Medical Services Plan by 50% in April. This means that my husband and I will be paying $170.00 a month for basic plus extended medical coverage. Is this amount comparable to the Californian medical coverage?

3) In B.C., our nurses recently recieved a 17% percent increase in wages so that the starting salary will be approximately $25.00 Canadian an hour. Do Californian's have a set starting amount or does it vary from hospital to hospital?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and hopefully answer some of my questions. I really appreciate your support and assistance.

Marra Jade:)

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

Hi Marra. I'm about as far away from California as you can get and still be in the USA. I know NONE of the answers.

I just wanted to say hello and welcome.

P

[fergus51]

Marra, have you talked to any recruiters from California? You should know that most hospitals here in BC won't pay for you to specialize until you have experience on med-surg. I do know California's salaries vary from hospital to hospital and they are a lot more money than ours (A nursing student who used to live with me will be graduating in a few weeks and moving to California where they are training her in a specialty area at 30$ CDN to start and will pay for her courses to get her Masters)