International PSW/nurse

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I am a nursing student in Australia. I plan to move to Toronto, Canada next year and looking for work options as an international nurse. I am already working as a personal carer as I have completed the subjects to start working as a PCA which is great. The equivalent in Toronto is a PSW. I have emailed afew colleges and nursing agency's and have been told that I need to complete a "personal support worker certificate" even though I am expereinced and internationally certified.This is really discouraging as nursing registration can take a long time so I wanted to start as a PSW when I move but am now finding out I need to do another course? Can someone please tell me what options are available for an international nurse before registration and that don't require extra studying and certificates.It was so easy to start working as a carer in Australia and the only prerequisite was to be a nursing student. I assumed that the same rules would apply in Canada as there are so many international carers.Thanks for your help!

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I have met many IENS who took the path you are thinking of taking, some have been succesful, many have not, before you consider taking this route consider the following;

Many IENs including Australian IENs do not have education that is deemed equivalent to a Canadian BScN

It can take an IEN up to three years to complete the process of becoming eligible for a license, by that time you may no longer have proof of recent RN experience and may have to return to school

As far as working as a PSW, Ontario has over 100,000 PSWs and the schools are churning out >7,000 PSW grads every year. The PSWs that are currently employed with Toronto hospitals, long term care facilities and home care organizations, are holding on to their jobs because they know that there is a surplus of qualified employees looking for work. In Toronto, there has been a surplus of qualified local nurses and PSWs since 2008.

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Thanks for the fast reply :)

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Many LTC and RH's hire nursing students to work as health care aides (PSW without the PSW course). Some places do a small pay gap between the two. I can be difficult to find any nursing job in SW Ontario (and much of Canada). However there are jobs if you are willing to go rural or work at places that pay a little less, particularly RH's. The hospital I work at has very few PSW's and they need the certificate. If your okay with pt or multiple jobs you should be okay.

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Thank you!!

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

What do you mean by Internationally qualified when discussing PSW? Each country has their own requirement I have never heard of a International certificate for PSW. Most provinces are regulated when it comes to PSW or CCA (as it is called in some provinces) and as mentioned in a lot of places there are more people than jobs and even then most start out as casual and work up to either part time or full time positions. How are you planning on moving across to Canada? The process has changed and IEN has to go through NNAS which can take anything from a couple of months to 2 years and then you have to go through the college of RN and it may be better staying and gaining experience whilst going through the process of registering

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

You may find some scketchy LTC facilites that will hire with no PSW certificate. Most agengies and ALL hospitals will require the certificate.

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Thanks so much!

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Specializes in CTICU.
I have met many IENS who took the path you are thinking of taking, some have been succesful, many have not, before you consider taking this route consider the following;

Many IENs including Australian IENs do not have education that is deemed equivalent to a Canadian BScN.

Not necessarily accurate; this may be true for the OP as they are a current student, however Australian-trained RN's who completed the course some time ago are often deemed to have equivalency for Canadian licensure purposes.

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@ghillbert, In Ontario, the baccalaureate as entry to practice came into effect January 1, 2005 and IENs who applied to be licensed since that time must show equivalency to a Canadian BScN. Even if the IEN completed their education prior to 2005, they are not grandfathered under the pre-2005 equivalency to diploma requirement.

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Specializes in CTICU.

I'm not suggesting they are. I am saying that some older degrees have been deemed equivalent to a Canadian BScN.

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