Nursing in Alberta

joanna73, BSN, RN · Nov 28, 2012

Right. When I was a new grad, casual would not have helped much in paying any of my bills, or honing my nursing skills. I wanted to work full time, so I gladly left ON, as did many others I went to school with. Whatever works for your situation. ON was and still is one of the worst Provinces for nursing employment. AB fairs a little better, but the job market in the cities is still not what it was say 6 years ago.

knina · Dec 2, 2012

Just to add to what others have said about the job market. I'm currently finishing nursing school in Calgary and my classmates have found it much easier to get job offers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba than in Alberta, but only in rural areas. It seems like all Canadian cities are over saturated with nurses. Right now Alberta Health Services has a Transitional Graduate Nurse hiring program for new grads (which is competitive and not the 100% hiring they put out a press release about). They say the reason they created this program is to keep local grads in Alberta because of expected retirements (otherwise most new grads who didn't get lucky with a final practicum place would in fact have a lot of trouble finding a job). The other reason is that they want more nurses to work full time in order to reduce overtime and benefit costs. Most of the nurses on the units where I work would prefer to work part time and pick up extra shifts as needed because the full-time shifts/schedules are so brutal.

Where the nursing jobs are: small towns in the prairie provinces. And when you look at the glowing career website of Alberta Health Services, take it all with a big grain of salt. But you guys know that already.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Dec 2, 2012

The new grad hiring initiatives are propaganda. Some will be hired, many will not. Same deal when I graduated in 2010 from ON. They lied. You will have more options for work after you have 2 years of full time experience. As a new grad, take whatever you can find and make the most of it. New grads everywhere have been in the same boat since 2008.

knina · Dec 2, 2012

joanna73 speaks the truth, sigh. Good advice.

The profs at my faculty of nursing totally believe the hiring initiative propaganda. One would think that they would have a clue about the realities of working as a nurse or getting a job as a nurse but they don't seem to.

Fiona59 · Dec 2, 2012

Most AHS RNs want part time because of the overtime clause. Work on your slash days for double time, be unavailable on straightvtime days. .5ftes can make nearly full time wages by working a total of seven days. They don't want to work full time.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Dec 2, 2012

joanna73 speaks the truth, sigh. Good advice.
The profs at my faculty of nursing totally believe the hiring initiative propaganda. One would think that they would have a clue about the realities of working as a nurse or getting a job as a nurse but they don't seem to.

I graduated a long time ago and even then the faculty at my nursing school had no clue what the realities were. They'd take us onto the wards for clinical ostensibly believing that the nurses buddied with us had 4 patients each... when it was more like 7 or 8. Then they'd feign shock to learn that one nurse might have 3 students to supervise.

Most AHS RNs want part time because of the overtime clause. Work on your slash days for double time, be unavailable on straightvtime days. .5ftes can make nearly full time wages by working a total of seven days. They don't want to work full time.

This is such a generalization. While it's true there are some part-time nurses who abuse the DDO clause, the majority of them - myself included - are in part time lines because that's what works for our families and our health. Part time lines are highly sought-after by the nurses with young families who want to be home with their kids and by those whose partners work in the patch so their childcare arrangements are easier. The ones on my unit who are raking in the OT are the full-timers, some of whom make $50K a year 'extra'. As a charge nurse I'm well aware of the cancellation pecking order... casuals, then part-timers then full-timers in reverse order of when they booked themselves for the shift. We have about 120 regular staff, 60% or more of them full-time. There's a LOT of OT on my unit, most of it going to the same small cohort of full-timers who might work nine 12-hour shifts in a row. I can think of at least a dozen of our part-timers who never work on a DDO ever. In 10 years I have NEVER picked up an extra shift... straight time or OT... I work a 0.7 FTE for a reason. If LPNs had the DDO clause, how much OT would you work?

joanna73, BSN, RN · Dec 3, 2012

I agree with Jan. I am part time because I chose to stay with the line I was hired in to. I just don't want to work 40 shifts every 3 months. 40 shifts is too much, especially when our actual work day amounts to at least 12.5 hours, not 12. I also volunteer for the occasional shift, which will not get me overtime. That's fine. However, if they call last minute, then it's overtime.

knina · Dec 3, 2012

nursesmarty, I still think it is worth pursuing taking the CRNE in Canada and finding out what else CARNA would want you to do to be able to practice in Alberta.

I recently talked to an RN from Texas on the unit where I work (her husband got a job here) and CARNA had her take some kind of refresher clinical. She is able to work as a "graduate nurse" now, before taking her CRNE exam. My unit hired another US nurse in Calgary recently but she hasn't passed the CARNA obstacles yet or actually showed up on the unit. CARNA does not make it easy, that is for sure.

Anyway, might as well try. It may well work out around the same time you are ready to make a move!

joanna73, BSN, RN · Dec 3, 2012

CARNA shouldn't make it easy for anyone, especially if they have foreign credentials. The same is true if I want to work in the US, Australia, or the UK. I would need to apply and meet all of their requirments. Each country, state, and Province sets the standard.

knina · Dec 4, 2012

And yes, AHS is currently making budget cuts again. I'm looking for a job in mental health so that is what I'm hearing about, not sure what is happening in other areas. One manager said that there were different "envelopes" of funding. The envelope for the new South Health Campus in Calgary is open. But the Mental Health and Addictions budget is being cut pretty much everywhere else.

Two of the mental health managers I talked to said there was currently a hiring freeze. Another manager said there wasn't a "hiring freeze," but that higher management had suggested that vacant lines go unfilled. One of the managers also said that AHS has a plan to move hiring decisions up the hierarchy and eventually take them out of the hands of the unit or patient care managers.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Dec 4, 2012

Sadly, there are budget cuts to all zones and in all fields across AHS, and other Provinces as well. Health care costs billions of dollars, and we are at the tail end of a major recession. Truth be told, the government cares less about health and more about the bottom line. That's nothing new. In my zone, we were told they needed to slash about a million dollars. Also, due to E people, many HR managers are/were receiving their pink slips this year and next. Take whatever you can get for now. I will be relocating as well, but I'm prepared that I may need to venture to another rural area. It is what it is....

Fiona59 · Dec 4, 2012

I.
This is such a generalization. While it's true there are some part-time nurses who abuse the DDO clause, the majority of them - myself included - are in part time lines because that's what works for our families and our health. Part time lines are highly sought-after by the nurses with young families who want to be home with their kids and by those whose partners work in the patch so their childcare arrangements are easier. The ones on my unit who are raking in the OT are the full-timers, some of whom make $50K a year 'extra'. As a charge nurse I'm well aware of the cancellation pecking order... casuals, then part-timers then full-timers in reverse order of when they booked themselves for the shift. We have about 120 regular staff, 60% or more of them full-time. There's a LOT of OT on my unit, most of it going to the same small cohort of full-timers who might work nine 12-hour shifts in a row. I can think of at least a dozen of our part-timers who never work on a DDO ever. In 10 years I have NEVER picked up an extra shift... straight time or OT... I work a 0.7 FTE for a reason. If LPNs had the DDO clause, how much OT would you work?

Jan, It might be a generalization at your site but it's a reality at mine. I work with full time RNs who work all the OT they can get. Part timers have said it to the staffing clerk's face that they will only come in if it's on their day's off and have been cancelling pre booked shifts on their straight time days.

I don't work OT, even when the AUPE contract had double time for part timers, it was very selective as to who it was offered to. I think in nine years, I picked up three shifts.

Under our latest contract, we can't bank more than five 7.75 hour shifts of OT, and from what we've heard our new contract requires that out of the double OT one shift be paid in cash and only the other can be banked. So our full timers are miffed and are saying they won't work OT under this new contract because they don't want to be paid they'd rather have paid time off (as in multiple weeks).

With the current budget mess going on, my UM is filling LPN lines that would require us to be paid OT with new grad or casual RNs because they are cheaper, a direct contract violation.