Nurse Practitioners in Canada

[MaritimeNurse]

Hello All,

I'm trying to research the Nurse Practitioner programs in Canada. Are there any NPs out there that can give me their opinions on the best programs in the country? I'm looking for a pediatric care focus. Would like to do pediatric critical care. I know adult critical care streams and neonatal streams are more popular. Also what is the main difference between CNS and NPs?

Thanks everyone for any advice, info you can give me.

[Nurseinator]

hey, this the website for the np in ontario. it list's the schools that offer the np program. i am going to guess that each province has their own website on this.

http://np-education.ca

[SandBetweenMyToes, BSN, RN]

I would like to hear the experiences of any nurses who have gone through the relatively new in Canada NP Certificate program. I have been accepted into this program at Univ. of Windsor, and I understand I can do a bridging program after to get my MSN if I desire. At any rate, I would be able to practice in Canada as an NP after one year of full time studies (after passing the licensing exam). I am pretty sure that I would need the full MSN to get credentialed in the US, since (I believe) the minimum to practice there is a MSN. Any comments would be appreciated.

[jer_sd]

I finished a primary care NP program from Canada in 2003 (not recently). To recieve recognition in the US and Certification you will need a MSN now for medicare reinbursement. After this program I have completed a WHNP and FNP back in the US.

I recieved a great education and it was a great foundation for my practice.

Jeremy

[FNP45]

Is the program online? How about the Financial Aid? Do you still qualify for Financial Aid in USA?

[SandBetweenMyToes, BSN, RN]

The program I am in is in Ontario. In Ontario, the Primary Health Care NP program is offered by a consortium of 8 universities. We all are taking the same courses at the same time with the same content. Two of the four main courses are online and all the universities come online once weekly at the same time to participate. For the full-time program, we meet one full day a week at our local university, and the rest is online. I don't know if you can get reimbursement through the US. In Canada, you can practice as an NP after completing a post bachelors certificate (and passing the licensing exam which I hear is very similar to that in the US...in fact they used to use the US exam). It is 12 months in duration. For us, all the NP coursework is at the grad level, so if you want to complete your masters, it is 3 more courses after the certificate. It all amounts to about 5 semesters total. Hope that helps.