Job prospects in Canada

vwbeetle · Jul 2, 2011

Hi janfrn,

Thank you for such a prompt response.

That is a huge wage gap. The starting salary is somewhere in 21$ an hour, once you pass the OIIQ Nursing exam. So, that makes sense, that due to lowest salary within Canada + the French language requirement, that every single hospitals and Quebec Health Services are always looking for nurses.

(because the rest of Canada isn't hiring right now so Quebec will do!...

Then let me ask you this, how come there are waiting lists in some Nursing programs in BC?

I know Camosun College in Victoria, VCC in Vancouver have waiting lists.

There are no hiring, especially for the newly grads, but the Nursing programs have waiting lists of people wanting to get into their programs??

I emailed the Vancouver Health Services and UCB in Okanagan last year, as to what are the job placement like? None of them replied me back.

Is it because they were reluctant to tell me the sad truth about the job market OR is it because they are trying to keep away out-of-province candidates?

joanna73, BSN, RN · Jul 2, 2011

The schools will gladly accept your tuition fees. Remember, it's a business like any other. However, the economy has not improved all that much. Obtaining a degree and finding employment are two separate entities.

Fiona59 · Jul 2, 2011

Provinces tend to hire their own, locally educated nurses first before looking at "outsiders".

The days of graduating at one end of Canada and finding a job before graduation across the country are pretty much a memory.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Jul 2, 2011

There are limited numbers of seats in nursing programs across the country, partly due to directives from government, funding shortfalls and a shortage of nursing faculty. For these reasons there will always be a waiting list for nursing schools. Nothing has changed since 1990 when I was waitlisted to 1992...

There needs to be a certain number of new grads each year to replace those nurses who will be retiring. Let's not forget that those nurses who are starting in the fall won't graduate for 4 years and we all know how much can change in four years. Alberta went from such a desperate shortage of RNs that they were importing them wholesale from Asia to a "surplus" of RNs for whom a voluntary exit plan was devised in fewer than 6 months, only to learn a year after that there actually was a shortage of about 1000!

Fiona59 · Jul 2, 2011

Jan, what I'm seing isn't an actual shortage of nurses but a shortage of nurses who will work evening, nights, and weekends.

The word drifting around my hospital is 2/3rds of the float pool will only book Monday to Friday Days or "A" shifts. Which leaves all the rest to be covered by part timers (who already work E/N/B shifts in their rotations) or full timers picking up OT. Last month we had one weekend where on one unit there was only ONE staff member there on straight time. The casuals all were "unavailable".

Tired, cranky, and fed up of working weekends (I have the every other weekend as part of my rotation but due to "a shortage of staff" have pretty much been on OT every other weekend. The casuals? Monday-Friday days.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Jul 2, 2011

Agreed. I am in a small town. For the longest time, we had 2 positions posted in acute care. Couldn't fill them. Now, we have 3 positions posted in LTC. Most of the casuals we do have only work when they want, leaving the full time staff working OT regularly. Drives us nuts. Or new hires saying they only want days. What about the senior nurses who deserve shift preference?

I moved from TO for the job, which I actually like. Now, while this is not ideal for everyone, I notice too many new grads on here complaining about no work. There are jobs, but you have to be willing to make sacrifices. Back home, many many people are still unemployed a year later because they refuse to accept anything less than "ideal". Stupid, IMO, since they could have been getting nursing experience SOMEWHERE during this year, instead of zero.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Jul 2, 2011

Fiona and Joanna, I see the same thing. So many of the new hires where I work have it in their minds that they will only work A's, as few weekends as possible and NO holidays. Plus, they're getting married in July or August and must have 2 weeks off for their honeymooons... We have a couple of casuals that work routine numbers of any of the shifts but many more who only do weekday A's. (When I referred to the "short 1000 nurses" that was right after the Cookie Caper and since then there have been a pile of new grads hired.) The Regularization of the Workforce Initiative has begun and the first unit in this zone to be regularized's OT and casual hours added up to the equivalent of 14 FTEs! So 14 positions were posted for that unit all on the same day. It's not uncommon for that unit to have as many as 6 people on OT per shift for 3 or more shifts in a row. The staff there are ll quite unhappy.

But we can't just look at positions posted when we speak of a nursing shortage. There are so many positions that AREN'T being posted and are just left vacant, all across the country. Does it really matter that on so many units, patient ratios are very high and patients may only get the most essential care? It would seem not. And what about over-capacity protocols? They're popping up in hospitals all over the place. And the ever-burgeoning wait-lists? If they're not about shortages of personnel, I'm not getting it.

itsmejuli · Jul 2, 2011

I don't understand how people can expect to find the "perfect" job immediately upon graduation. I think this is happening in the younger generations more so than for those of us over the age of 40.

I was fortunate to get hired at the first place I applied to here in Calgary. I don't have a lot of nursing experience, my availability and age is what got me hired. I have no problem working every other weekend, evenings and I'm not about to get pregnant. I also pick up shifts whenever I'm called, I haven't refused a shift yet.

justdani · Jul 18, 2011

if you have a car and are willing to do community homecare nursing then you can pretty much go anywhere - big or small town, and work up to FT hours. I left homecare almost 10 years ago, and it was in a desperate state - even then. Now, I think the demand for nurses is even greater. Something worth considering. I'm considering returning to Visiting Nursing one day, and even though you don't get as much as a union hospital job, your hours are flexible and you get a nice chunk of $$ back at tax time for car expenses, (mine was several thousand/year)