Do i really need work experience?

i just graduated this march 2008, and passed the local board here in the philippines this june 2008. i'm planning to assess my education in the provinces of onatrio, british columbia and saskatchawen...but i think they need to see documents that i've been previously employed. which now comes to my question...do i really need work experience? and which province doesn't require you to have work experience before they can assess you?

appreciate your replies...:loveya:

hi there!

in my opinion, yes, you need work experience. most of our colleagues here suggest that you get employed experience instead of volunteer experience. but, if you can't have the former, just get hospital exposure and a certificate of training. please think twice before planning to file an application to the provinces you mentioned. they always ask the number of hours you have worked and that is usually 1125 hours if i'm not mistaken.

i further suggest that you read thoroughly first the instructions for iens in their respective website before you do your next move.

also, your ielts certification is also needed.

hope this helps:heartbeat

hi ikang!

i hope you won't get offended by this..

whether your agency or employer asks for an experience or not.. i advise that you should train/volunteer/work in a hospital to hone your skills and master your theories.. by doing this, you will be competitive enough to render care to your patients in a safest way.. you will also be confident to perform basic nursing skills and to learn new ones.. & it will help keep us away from being accused of malpractice or negligence.. -- this is our responsibility for ourselves, it doesn't need to be a requirement just to gain an experience..

good luck! :)

thanks for the replies.

to chill out, i really can't get any work experience cause if i do, i'll lose my dependency with my parents. Our family has an on going immigration application, and i'm considered their dependent in our application. if i work i lose dependency therefore lose my chance to come with my family to canada so the only way i could still become their dependent is by studying and nothing more. But i appreciate the advice...but i'm restricted to do such things at the moment.

aah.. :):)

try to google different hospital in the places you've mentioned, and contact them.. thru email perhaps?

most of the time, experiences are required by the agencies here in the philippines, but not by employers abroad .. its for the reason that the more experience you gain here, the higher your salary rate will be (more money for the agency..) :wink2:

i think our kababayans in canada will be more informative regarding this matter..

i'll try to be more helpful next time.. hahaha :chuckle

What you have to remember is the hospitals may accept you with no work experience but it is the province that will have the final say as they are the ones responsible for issuing licenses even temp ones

I agree with silverdragon..the hospital may accept you but not as a "registered nurse". To become a registered nurse in canada, you have to register with their respective boards of nursing, most of which, if not all, require 1125 hours of work and does not include volunteer work. Weigh your options, is your parents' immigration papers approved already? how long will it be before you can migrate to canada?

meanwhile, enroll in course like BLS, ACLS, IV training, ECG and other continuing education courses. All these will be very useful in the future. Try to decide which area of nursing you want to be in - emergency, icu, ob-gyne, nicu, OR - and find a way to be exposed in these areas..which in the Phils right now means you will have to just volunteer/train..

Follow up question on work experience..since there is a slim chance, or worse none at all, for us new nurses to gain experience here in Phils, will work in Middle East be considered as good nursing experience? I am considering working in KSA just so I could have valuable hospital experience prior to applying in Canada. If so, will there be problems with employment verification? Anyone here done this route? Please share your experiences, thanks.

By the way, goodluck to those leaving for Canada!:wink2:

No problems with employment verification in KSA..its usually your nurse manager/HR in KSA who does this, you just have to follow it up with them or ask someone to follow up your papers with them because sometimes they forget or just keep on delaying it. i worked in KSA, but CARNA didn't send an employment verification form to my employer