Canadian nursers leaving to work in the USA.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Feb 9, 2004

I left Canada after 6 years per diem. If they wanted me they had their chance. No sympathy here.

fergus51 · Feb 9, 2004

I feel annoyed that hospitals and the government don't seem to care enough to make the province attractive to nurses. They are also going to Alberta from BC. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to keep them. I left for another province and don't regret it for a second.

epg_pei · Feb 9, 2004

I listened (eavesdropped) the other day as a 4th year student narrated a letter she was writing (recipient unknown) discussing the current shortage. She talked about whether the shortage was genuine or a fiction of the media and governments. She asked why, when governments talk of nursing as a way to return something to our communities, do they make it so difficult for new nurses to do so. Nothing but part-time positions available in our province for new grads, as I understood her to say. Her frustration was more and more evident as she reviewed her letter.

I am considering my own future, even though I am only in the 2nd year of my program. Do I want to return to my own province, at the age of 40, to work part-time paying off a student loan and rebuilding the RRSP I will have depleted? No. Does the idea of a full-time job in another province/state sound appealing? Hell yes!

As the other poster said, "No sympathy here."

RN Student-NIC · Feb 11, 2004

Thanks fergus51, canoehead, and epg-pei.

Your comments are appreciated.

Any ideas what could be changed to keep nurses in Canada?

______________

RN Student-NIC

fergus51 · Feb 11, 2004

Give them full time jobs, training in specialty areas and good ratios.

epg_pei · Feb 11, 2004

Give them full time jobs, training in specialty areas and good ratios.

Ditto, and do it FAST !!!

TraumaNurse · Feb 11, 2004

Canada will continue to lose nurses to the US as long as they are treated like they are currently. When I graduated 9 years ago, there was no work except scattered casual where you were lucky to get 8 hrs/pp. I moved to the US, 3 months after graduation and had a full time job ever since with as much OT as I want. My salary is almost 2 X what I could make in Canada and I have more opportunities for advancement (I start CRNA school in about 2 months). Sure, I miss Canada and I love to visit my family, but fact is, I will never get the respect, autonomy, security, opportunity or salary that I can here in the US...so here I stay! Only when the hospitals are falling down around them will the Canadian Gov. realize that nurses are essential to healthcare and maybe then they will stop treating us like dirt! IMO.

JACALA_CL · Feb 13, 2004

when i graduated(92), the hospitals in windsor had no (zip zilch zero) jobs for me even though i lived in windsor ,went to the university of windsor for my bsn, so i went to detroit for a job, then a couple of years later when there was actually a lack of nurses in the windsor area local citizens were so very quick to write scathing letters to the editor about the canadian nurses defecting to the usa. hypocrites. where were they wehn i graduating demanding jobs for canadians in canada? did they think i was going to leave a job with 3 years seniority to start at the bottom of the totem pole??

go where the best job is.

hey!! NAFTA!!!

FutureNurse2005 · Feb 17, 2004

I'm not even a nursing student yet, but I know that I will be leaving Canada when I graduate. Unless of course between now and then this mess gets cleaned up!

RN Student-NIC · Feb 20, 2004

Thanks Trauma Nurse and Jacala CL.

To work accross the border, was the processing(papers), fee (if any), and waiting time reasonable?

Do you have plan to work (back) in Canada?

RN Student-NIC · Feb 20, 2004

Thanks Trauma Nurse and Jacala CL.

To work across the border, was the processing of papers, fee (if any), and waiting time reasonable?

Do you have plan to work (back) in Canada?