Nurse Jobs In Canada Questions

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Apr 18, 2008

All of your questions have been asked and answered several times, both here and in the International Nursing forum. There's a wealth of information in the similar threads, and if you use the search feature at the top right of your screen, you'll be busy reading for hours.

Short answers:

1. You should apply right away, because the process can be very lengthy. If you wait for an offer of employment, your prospective employer might get tired of waiting for the paperwork to be done.

2. You must write the Canadian Registered Nurse Examination (CRNE) before you will be eligible for full licensure. Some provinces will give you a temporary license while you prepare for the exam; some will only let you work as a nursing assistant in the interim. It's only written three times a year and the deadline for application to write is about 3 months prior to the date of the exam. The next date that you could possibly write will be in October.

3. Each province is autonomous and has their own licensure requirements, processes and permit to practice. You can't work as a nurse in any province without a practice permit issued by that province.

4. Canada doesn't have states, we have provinces and territories. There is no way to answer your question without knowing what you're looking for in the place you live and work. Each province has its good points and its bad ones.

gino_76ph · Apr 19, 2008

All of your questions have been asked and answered several times, both here and in the International Nursing forum. There's a wealth of information in the similar threads, and if you use the search feature at the top right of your screen, you'll be busy reading for hours.
Short answers:
1. You should apply right away, because the process can be very lengthy. If you wait for an offer of employment, your prospective employer might get tired of waiting for the paperwork to be done.
2. You must write the Canadian Registered Nurse Examination (CRNE) before you will be eligible for full licensure. Some provinces will give you a temporary license while you prepare for the exam; some will only let you work as a nursing assistant in the interim. It's only written three times a year and the deadline for application to write is about 3 months prior to the date of the exam. The next date that you could possibly write will be in October.
3. Each province is autonomous and has their own licensure requirements, processes and permit to practice. You can't work as a nurse in any province without a practice permit issued by that province.
4. Canada doesn't have states, we have provinces and territories. There is no way to answer your question without knowing what you're looking for in the place you live and work. Each province has its good points and its bad ones.

forgive me if i'm a bit ignorrant. but let's say i'm applying at British Columbia that would be the CRNBC am i right? but how do i know if for example if i'm applying for or got a job in Alberta what authority do i need to apply for that license?

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Apr 19, 2008

Reuglatory bodies in Canada are provincially driven.

Let's go west to east...

British Columbia is CRNBC

Alberta is CARNA

Saskatchewan is SRNA

Manitoba is CRNM

Ontario has two: CNO and RNAO

Quebec is OOIQ

New Brunswick is NANB

Nova Scotia is CRNNS

Prince Edward Island is ARNPEI

Newfoundland and Labrador is ARNNL

Nunavut and the Northwest Territories have RNANTN

and Yukon is YRNA.

Google searches using just the acronyms will get you to the websites of each board.

gino_76ph · Apr 19, 2008

you said i need to apply straight away as the process is lenghty. the thing is i have applications for B.C. and Ontario. should i just wait before a job has been confirmed before i actually apply for the province's nurse registration? would that be considered much practical?

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Apr 19, 2008

The assessment process followed by most regulatory bodies here is complex and time-consuming. It can take as long as several months (some here would say closer to a year!) to work through the process, and if your education is found not to meet the provincial standard, then you'll have to upgrade before you'll be allowed to write the CRNE. That upgrading will take a minimum of three months. So it doesn't make sense, if you haven't already been recruited and they're holding a job for you, to obtain a job before the process is even close to completion, because you'll just have to wait and wait until you have permission to write the CRNE before you can take your job. It's not like the nursing shortage in Canada is going to go away in the next few months; you'll be able to find a job once the licensing process is near completion. And having a job already doesn't speed up the process, since the two parties are not really connected in any way. A prospective employer may be able to help with the logistics, but in any real practical way.

suzanne4, RN · Apr 20, 2008

Thread moved to International Forum since it is dealing with licensure and immigration questions per the little red banner at the top of the sub-forums.

Thanks for your understanding.

gino_76ph · Apr 22, 2008

i can see what you mean. but currently the "recruitment" people are not saying they are holding a job for me. i havn't heard from Vancouver yet, the Toronto guys from CNO said they are sending an assessment pack to me and Alberta is on the process of "them waiting for me to send my CV and assessed again" i suppose.

i know on the logistics side (travel, accomodation,etc.) they might provide that but as for me it's a case of "wait and see" who's provinve or authority i will a get a job and apply to.

kevin peter · Aug 12, 2008

hai

1st of all i like to tahnk janfrn 4 ur usefull reply and patience to answer to all

like them me started process to cnada and applied for registration exam

agency telling i will get british Columbia

but i dont know how much salary i will get in that temprory lisence and what will b after passing it?

i hav 1 year experience in medical surgical ward

i hope u can help me.

thank u.........

suzanne4, RN · Aug 12, 2008

Where are you actually licensed now? That will make a difference in your requirements that are needed.

The licensing exam is only held three times per year.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Aug 12, 2008

hai
1st of all i like to tahnk janfrn 4 ur usefull reply and patience to answer to all
like them me started process to cnada and applied for registration exam
agency telling i will get british Columbia
but i dont know how much salary i will get in that temprory lisence and what will b after passing it?
i hav 1 year experience in medical surgical ward
i hope u can help me.
thank u.........

First of all, I'm having some difficulty reading your post, partly because of the typos and partly because of the text-talk. Please accept this well-intended criticism at face value and try to make your posts more easily understood.

Secondly, my patience is starting to be stretched thin. I seem to be answering the same questions over and over and over. I've tried to find references that posters can use to answer their own questions and put those resources where they'd be readily found, but it seems most choose the easier route of having me (or someone else) do the work for them. I have spent many, many hours doing searches for wage information, immigration information, licensing information, and so on, then publicly posting the results of my work, only to find a few days later that someone else is asking for that same information without actually looking for it first. It's a puzzle to me that people who can find this website on the internet and can figure out how to use it can't do a Google search here, or anywhere else, to find the answers they need.

As I've indicated many times already, the cross country comparison of wages and benefits prepared and updated by the Canadian Federation of Nursing Unions (that is stuck to the top of the Canadian Nurses forum home page) has that information in an easy-to-navigate format. In BC, those IENs whose education has been accepted as equivalent and have been given permission to sit for the CRNE will start working as graduate nurses (level I) until such time as they write the exam. If they pass the exam they then apply for their licenses and become registered nurses. For each year (full time hours or around 2000 actual hours worked) of experience a nurse brings they move one step up the scale. You would start at the second step. Initially you wouild be paid $28.92 an hour plus shift differentials and once you have a license you would be paid $33.70 an hour plus differentials. However, if you fail the exam you will not be permitted to work as a graduate nurse any longer and would then be classified as a nursing assistant and be paid roughly half as much.

suzanne4, RN · Aug 13, 2008

And the majority of those that are going over to Canada are not going over with the CRNE exam passed and the RN license in hand. One will get paid at the rate for the job that they are able to perform. If in the nursing asst role, then it will be at that pay.

They do not have nurse assistants that pay you at the RN rate, does not matter what any agency promises, just not going to happen.

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And to what Jan has posted: There are so many threads here with instructions on how to get licensed in both Canada as well as the US, but there are some that refuse to do some reading here first.

Please take the time, every single question that we are seeing has been answered over and over again. It just becomes a waste of time for everyone here.