moving to Ottawa, from Manitoba.. need a job, help!!!

[amburdav1s]

I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Recently just passed my NCLEX-RN exam but haven't registered yet. I want to move with my two children to Ottawa, and have been religiously applying online for all sorts of nursing jobs in Ottawa. Everything from hospitals, home care (agencies), clinics, LTC, even corrections and the city. It's been months of applying and even following up with some applications I sent out prior to passing NCLEX exam, just to tell them I've passed. I'm wanting to leave my city of Winnipeg ASAP and will jump on the next plane pending a job offer only. I've been in contact with an HR person at The Ottawa Hospital that said she would forward my resume to clinical managers as they are requesting, and if I didn't hear anything back in the next couple of weeks to feel free to contact her again... it's been 3 weeks and I contacted her again, through email and voicemail.. and another week since that. I did not hear back from her. I'm feeling really discouraged at this moment as I'm just really wanting to move so If there's anybody out there that could offer some tips or advice on obtaining employment in Ottawa, please message me!! Much appreciated. ☺️

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

Ontario isn't a very good place for new nurses looking for work right now. It's not a great place for nurses with advanced education and experience who are looking for work either. Their Liberal government has made deep cuts into health care; budgets don't balance themselves, despite what Justin Trudeau thinks. So when hospitals are staring at a shrinking pot of money, the first place they make reductions is on wages. To keep that line item on their budget under control, they don't fill vacancies, they lay off staff and they distribute the workload created by those changes among the people remaining on the payroll. So what's happening to you isn't really surprising. Ottawa, like Toronto, is a difficult market to break into. There's an expectation that people receiving government pay cheques are functionally bilingual, for example. Cost of living is quite high and the population is relatively static. I have both family and friends who are nurses who have had a LOT of trouble finding jobs. One friend is a nurse practitioner with years of experience in ENT, neurosurgery and critical care in three provinces whose spouse was transferred to Ottawa for his job. Took her more than a year to find work. My cousin had her full-time equivalent reduced by her employer while she was on maternity leave. So you see what you're up against. It's going to take a lot of persistence on your part to make this work. Call the HR person again. Email again, this time with delivery status notification and return receipt on it so you know it's been delivered AND opened. Keep records of who, when and how you contacted HR so when you escalate your efforts you can say, "On May 11, 2017 I left a detailed voicemail for Mary Mary Quite Contrary with a request that she call me. On May 12, 2017 I followed up my phone call with an email containing the same information and request. Today is May 19 and I have had neither acknowledgment nor response." Keep filling out online applications for everything and anything. But be prepared for it to take some time to succeed.

For some background: Cuts + Restructuring - Ontario Health Coalition

[amburdav1s]

Oh boy.. that's so unfortunate í ½í¸”í ½í¸”. Thank you for taking the time to respond to me I really appreciate that. Also, thank you for the advice on how to be a little more aggressive with HR. I'll definitely do so. I'm new here and this was my first post. Nice to know someone heard me! ☺️

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

I'm so sorry your welcome to allnurses.com was so bleak.