Canadian husband wants to move back

dayandnight · Aug 22, 2020

On 8/20/2020 at 9:49 AM, StudentRN56 said:
Hi
I am a US citizen and will graduate with an ADN next week - I will take the NCLEX-RN in September or October. My husband is a Canadian citizen. We've lived in the US for 20+ years but he would like to return home to help care for his aging parents in BC. If I want to work as an RN in Canada, I believe I need a BSN. I plan to work on that online after getting my license in the US, so my question is where to go.
Does anyone know if Western Governors University or Capella University RN-to-BSN programs, both are CCNE accredited, are accepted by the BCCNP and the NNAS? The immigration and licensure websites both have somewhat vague information - and it makes sense because of Covid-19 and because they can't really list every program they do and don't accept... I have to do the NNAS before I can do the BCCNP, so I just want to make sure if I get the BSN, it will work internationally.
Thanks in advance!

I am a BSN from Seattle and moved to BC Canada almost 10 years ago. My husband is a US citizen trying to transfer his license with a ADN right now (through NNAS). BC has never required bachelor’s for their foreign nurses (even though all Canadian RN education is BSN now), so it is still possible to get licensed as a ADN in some provinces.
Even with the RN to BSN, since Canada doesn’t have a lot of that type of programs anymore, there is a chance your education might be assessed as somewhat or not comparable (it’s all based on how similar the curriculum is to here)

For BC, the NCAS exam will probably be mandatory for ADN nurses as this is the case for foreign nurses with BSNs from non-English country. (I have never seen a foreign degree nurse get exempted for this exam unless they have a BSN from the US). After the NCAS exam BCCNP will decide whether you need a refresher course which varies between 3 months, clinical or clinical +theory portion of up to a year. The only caveat is that the refresher course offered in the Vancouver area has a requirement of a permanent residency status.

You can work on your BSN while starting to gather documents for the NNAS process since the whole process takes forever nowadays... hope this helps!

Mrecalde12 · Feb 25, 2023

Hello, can u let me know if u were able to transfer capella to Canada? Did u use NNAS. Trying to do the same.

thanks

StudentRN56, BSN, RN · Feb 26, 2023

I had to use NNAS but my application is still in the process of being evaluated - it's been a long process. In BC (and possibly all of Canada - I only paid attention to BC since that's where my in-laws live) only NNAS can be used to verify your information and get a nursing license.

I took the NCLEX-RN after April 1, 2012 - so (as of February 2023) they are now accepting that as proof that my nursing school curriculum aligns with BC nursing school curriculum. I actually took the NCLEX-RN with an ADN degree - so my Capella degree isn't necessarily the one they focus on. But they want to evaluate all nursing related schooling. Capella was pretty good about sending NNAS the required information. Capella sends the curriculum information directly to the NNAS but the transcripts were tricky. I had to have them sent twice and the second time I had them send them to the NNAS with the ATTN line in the 1st line because the transcripts got lost in the shuffle somewhere and no tracking information was available (Capella uses a 3rd party to send transcripts and they do not offer tracking).

That's another thing to be aware of - you have to reach out to all schools attended and coordinate them sending curriculum and transcripts as well as your last 5 years of employment. Then you need to monitor your account for receipt of those documents. If they don't arrive when expected you have to track down what went wrong. For me, Capella had the transcript trouble - with no option for tracking, I had to pay twice to have them sent. My community college where I received my associates degree needed to send them more specific information about the curriculum. And one of my employers had to send the employment verification forms 3 times - the last time I had the gal actually going to the post office herself and they paid for tracking.

The whole process of applying and then doing reaching out to schools and employers took exactly 1 year. Then the NNAS hopes to get that all evaluated in 12 weeks. But they have a serious backlog - so I'm hoping to hear from them in the next month or two (my 12 weeks has passed already). On the bright side, if you get everything in within a year of applying you don't have to pay again - otherwise it is ~ $120 to renew. I've talked to their customer service folks a few times and they've all been helpful.

Good luck to you!

StudentRN56, BSN, RN · Sep 6, 2023

Just wanted to give an update - I finally called NNAS at the end of March and they quickly finished my review. In the meantime, BC joined the Maritime Provinces to use the NCAS to have everything evaluated. So, NNAS sent NCAS my report and NCAS had me fill out similar forms and send them to my previous employers and schools - NCAS received them quickly and I was told I probably had 4-6 months for BC College of Nurses and Midwives to evaluate everything. But it was actually much faster than that. Since I went to nursing school in the US, (I believe it includes the US, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand - since they are all English speaking with similar quality of education) I was eligible to be fast-tracked. By the end of July, I'd secured a position in the town I now live in. I have 1 class to take - Introduction to the Canadian Healthcare System within the next 6 months and I have a preceptor for my first 250 hrs.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out (eventually).

With the NCAS - they really have streamlined to process. BC has BC Health Match, to get you lined up with a job as well as offering bursaries if you sign a 2 year contract with the local health authority.