Nursing in BC?

Fiona59 · Nov 11, 2011

Three hard job markets to crack.

nurse4hearts · Nov 15, 2011

Anyone else have any advice for me? Please and thank you!

Fiona59 · Nov 15, 2011

You'll have to check with the provincial college about your status. BC had degree entry for years. They may be willing to "grandfather" you.

VI is a terrible job market to crack. Too few jobs, too many nurses who move there either due to spouses retirements or for the lifestyle.

Kelowana/Kamloops used to be an easier job market but is harder now.

The lower mainland would have more jobs because of the number of hospitals but again the economy is lousy.

BC new grads have been posting about how difficult it is to find work as have IENs who have moved there.

BC is also highly unionized, so you'd be at the bottom of the seniority list.

I moved to VI because of the husband's job five years ago. It took nearly a year to get hired on as a casual. At the same time I met an RN who had moved there from the UK, she had 20 years experience in a specialty service. She was in the same boat job wise and wound up working casual on a general services floor.

OgopogoLPN, LPN, RN · Nov 15, 2011

I live in Kelowna, and there are certainly diploma RNs at KGH. I would assume that since you have been working as one for many years, they wouldn't require a BSN at this point, but of course that is up to CRNBC.

As for the job market, some new grads are getting hired, but all casual of course at first. It would be almost all nights and weekends on the heaviest med surg floors.

It may be worth your while though to contact IHA's external recruiter (I can't recall her name, but I've heard great things about her!). I've heard of other RNs negotiating transferring seniority hours from other provinces before. It may be an avenue you should look into. Kelowna General is rapdily expanding and opening a cardiac care wing and will be doing advanced cardiac surgeries when the expansion opens. This may be a perfect opportunity to contact IHA with your experience and see if the external recruiter can put you in touch with the future manager of cardiac services. There were about 20 postings for cardiac RNs that came down a number of weeks ago, but the positions don't even start until next September. I think that there are so few formally trained cardiac RNs that they were seeing who was interested and perhaps offering eduction in anticipation of the new cardiac centre opening.

The website is http://www.interiorhealth.ca/roomtogrow/default.aspx

Don't forget though, Kelowna is EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE to live in!!! I believe it's the 3rd or 4th most expensive in Canada after Vancouver, Toronto and Victoria. Very beautiful though. I love it here. Love the water sports, parks and beaches in the summer. The ski hills and hockey in the winter. Great neighborhoods, great schools.

ETA: I just looked at the external postings for Kelowna and there are TONS of postings for cardiac related RN jobs!!!

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Nov 15, 2011

I've heard of other RNs negotiating transferring seniority hours from other provinces before.

It wouldn't be "seniority" per se as seniority would be defined in a collective agreement, but rather a recognition of experience (portability) that would allow for placement higher on the pay scale. Seniority implies a position in the food chain that would be a factor in vacation planning, in-scope promotion, scheduling and hiring practices. No province allows portability of seniority in that sense. Portability requires documentation, usually in the form of a letter from the HR department of previous employer(s) stating total hours worked (not years) which is then divided by the contractual number of hours that constitutes a year of full time work (usually somewhere around 1900-2000 hours per year) to determine placement on the scale. When I moved to Alberta from Manitoba I had worked a total of 7 years at 0.7 FTE so I was a few hours short of being at the 5 year point on the scale here. But I was at the bottom of the heap for vacation planning the next year.

nurse4hearts · Nov 15, 2011

Thanks for the reply Fiona59. Where on VI do you work? Are you still just doing casual? If not how long did it take you to get a position. Any advice about the cost of living on VI?

Thanks

Laura

Fiona59 · Nov 16, 2011

We lived on the northern end of the Island. We left after a year.

It used to be that north of Nanaimo was cheaper than down Victoria way. But those days are gone. The retirees started to move north. We had our house for a year and made a $75K profit on it. That's how bizarre the market was. Not good for people moving in and great for those leaving the area. The people in the Comox Valley were very cliquey. The islanders stuck together. The military families were on their own, the newcomers have to try and fit in. We thought it wouldn't be too bad because we had kids in school. Wrong. The Mum Mafia was impossible to crack and the volunteering opportunities were few and far apart. My husband had been involved in Scouting for years with our sons but was told there was "no need for new volunteers". In fact the only people we are still in contact with is the nurse from the UK. It took her nearly three years of casual work before she got a line, and it involved an hours drive each way from their home. Her husband had just as hard a time finding work.

In some ways the cost of living was lower than on the prairies. Most groceries were cheaper as were utilities and car insurance. But you have a lot of other things to factor in as well, provincial taxes were higher, gas for the car, and getting of the island is costly. Public transportation was very limited in the smaller cities.

I'm glad we had the year there, but we'd only go back as visitors.