Nurses from UK in canada

World UK

Published

Hi all

For the nurses who have moved from the UK to Canada on this forum, what have been your impressions on the canadian health system as compared to the NHS. Do you thinK that the NHS is more organised or not and is how we nurse in UK better or not. Im psyche trained (project 2000) RMN working in AB.

Just curious:nurse:

Specializes in PICU.

Hey all....

I keep doing my research and will be sending my form off to CARNA in the next week or so...but from what I keep reading they are making it more and more difficult for us IEN to get into Canada (alberta).

I am educated to Diploma level and only Paeds trained....but by the sounds of things it is going to be very hard to get into a country I love and do the job I enjoy.

I find this so hard to believe when you speak to people and say the hospitals are crying out for nurses, what does it matter if I have a diploma or a degree, it won't make me a better nurse just because I have a degree!

I am starting to think that will I have to tel my other half we have to give up on our dream if I can't get in or do I sacrifice the job I trained for 3 years for and the job I love for a better standard of living in Canada! :banghead:

Supose I will have to wait and see what CARNA have to say and what my next move will be...SEC or CRNE or both! Arghhh

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Hey all....

I keep doing my research and will be sending my form off to CARNA in the next week or so...but from what I keep reading they are making it more and more difficult for us IEN to get into Canada (alberta).

I am educated to Diploma level and only Paeds trained....but by the sounds of things it is going to be very hard to get into a country I love and do the job I enjoy.

I find this so hard to believe when you speak to people and say the hospitals are crying out for nurses, what does it matter if I have a diploma or a degree, it won't make me a better nurse just because I have a degree!

I am starting to think that will I have to tel my other half we have to give up on our dream if I can't get in or do I sacrifice the job I trained for 3 years for and the job I love for a better standard of living in Canada! :banghead:

Supose I will have to wait and see what CARNA have to say and what my next move will be...SEC or CRNE or both! Arghhh

It isn't a case on making it harder for IEN but that the IEN meets the same requirements as the Canadian nurse. Canadian nurses train generically where as the UK is now more specialised and not always obtaining hours in all areas when training. I have been trained as EN 1988 and RN 1997 an I think I too will have to do some sort of assessment, trying to case my transcripts but having had problems with Sheffield university before I am expecting problems when I ring them next week

Specializes in ITU.

Its not easy, Im 4 years qualified in ITU and have just found out that unless you qualified before 2000 you probably wont have enough theory training hours to register so start finding out now how many hours you will do and how many you need. I have now got to take a 2 day practical, theory and oral exam and the 1 day multiple choice.

Best wishes

Specializes in ITU.

Ah bless you, Im in the same boat, got a job offer 4 years in Itu behind me and cant register as im 50 hours short from when i trained, with no obs, paeds or psychie. I too am wondering if i will just be a lamb to the slaughter if i attempt the 2 day practical and 1 day writen i now need to do. Concidering English nursing is ment to be one of the best how come we are not good enough for most other places.

Keep at it and keep the dream going

Specializes in Nursing Home ,Dementia Care,Neurology..

Up until the start of P2K we did do all the different parts necessary to be able to work in other countries.It makes you wonder if the specialised training adopted with P2K was to stop British nurses from going abroad!

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Up until the start of P2K we did do all the different parts necessary to be able to work in other countries.It makes you wonder if the specialised training adopted with P2K was to stop British nurses from going abroad!

That too is something I have said and thought, I know when I worked general medical it was normal to get mental health patients admitted with medical problems and their cares still have to be met but someone with no experience even as a student may find it hard going. I personally feel a lot of things overlap and having student experience in all areas would certainly give some sort of base block

Specializes in PICU.

IT's just all too confusing and to be honest I don't find CARNA that helpfull with information, but hey will just send my form off and suppose go from there!

I bet in a few years time Canada will follow down the route of adult only, peads only ect just like the UK!

Just a bit disheartened as I only want to work in paeds have no desire to work with adults ect and I know basic life support for adults as well...but hey another countrys rules got to abide by them!

Keep you posed with how I get on! if anyone gets any info in the mean time please share ha ha x:banghead:

Specializes in OR, and more recently PACU and SDC.

Wow, I sure can feel the pain and frustration. I wish we could get a couple of boat loads of UK nurses to help lighten the load over here. If it's any consolation, a new law was passed last week here in Canada. Until now, when you crossed a border to work in another province, you had to "re-qualify" . Not so any longer. An RN, is an RN in every province regardless of where and when you got your license. Maybe this will help the CRNE relax some of their criteria. Who knows!?

Almost 2 years ago I was attempting to move to UK, to practise as a specialist, to which I had found several job postings. My stumbling block....the English language proficiency test! Not that I couldn't sucessfully do it, but, why should I have to. I understand the rationalle behind this, however, my mothertongue, education, and entire life has been immersed in the english language. Aargh! One day I might just have the ambition to go ahead and do the test, just for fun.

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
IT's just all too confusing and to be honest I don't find CARNA that helpfull with information, but hey will just send my form off and suppose go from there!

You have to realise that CARNA is largely composed of academics who haven't done bedside care in a very long time. They use many words when a few will do, they focus on things that aren't big priorities for nurses providing direct care and they like being in control. We regularly get communiques from hem saying things like, "Well, we've made a whole bunch of changes to how we're going to manage registrations. From here on you'll have to pay for your registration by the end of August, even though your registration doesn't expire until the end of September. Oh and by the way, we're increasing your fees again, by x% to pay for all thses changes..."

I bet in a few years time Canada will follow down the route of adult only, peads only ect just like the UK!

Just a bit disheartened as I only want to work in paeds have no desire to work with adults ect and I know basic life support for adults as well...but hey another countrys rules got to abide by them!

I strongly doubt that Canada will ever do that. Too much of this country is rural and isolated, where nurses have to be able to cope with whatever comes through the door. There are huge areas of the country where the nurse is the only health care provider available (like much of Manitoba where the health care facility is a nursing station) and the nurses do xrays, sutures, put on casts, dispense drugs and a host of other responsibilities. When the nearest hospital is a three hour flight in a small plane away, the nurse has to be at the top of his or her game. Yes, we're an industrialized nation, but we have the second largest country by landmass with the same population as California. The specialist model would never work for us.

Specializes in intensive care, recovery, anesthetics.

I'm just back from Saskatchewan and couldn't agree more with Jan. You need to be a generalist, you need to be independent with good critical thinking skills, just as an example when transferring a critical child, it'll be you and a resp. therapist.

In Regina they hace a mixed ICU for adults and children and as mentioned before in rural areas it's you:)

So specialists won't be good.

5cats

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
I'm just back from Saskatchewan and couldn't agree more with Jan. You need to be a generalist, you need to be independent with good critical thinking skills, just as an example when transferring a critical child, it'll be you and a resp. therapist.

In Regina they have a mixed ICU for adults and children and as mentioned before in rural areas it's you:)

So specialists won't be good.

5cats

Unfortunately I don't have a whole lot of faith in the medical decisions made when it comes to peds patients in that ICU in Regina that you mentioned. They tend to hold on to kids far longer than they should, considering that they aren't a dedicated PICU. There is a PICU at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon that they should look to much sooner in some cases. In the space of a couple of weeks last year we sent a baby home in a casket and another one back there to die because things were past the point of fixing them by the time they sent the child to us. But that isn't a reflection on the nursing care there.

Specializes in med/surg.

Almost 2 years ago I was attempting to move to UK, to practise as a specialist, to which I had found several job postings. My stumbling block....the English language proficiency test! Not that I couldn't sucessfully do it, but, why should I have to. I understand the rationalle behind this, however, my mothertongue, education, and entire life has been immersed in the english language. Aargh! One day I might just have the ambition to go ahead and do the test, just for fun.

They brought in the English test across the board because the European Union - in it's infinitely stupid wisdom - said that workers from the EU couldn't be discriminated against on the grounds of language! The only way around that was for the NMC to administer the test in a non-discriminatory manner, which meant to everyone regardless of their native tongue!

+ Add a Comment