Nursing in Canada

GBC_Student, BSN, RN · Nov 9, 2019

The thing with health care in Canada is it's not uniform a cross the country. The workload of a medicine nurse in Toronto may be very different from the workload in Halifax. I work in Toronto in mental health, typically I have 3-4 patients and very rarely 5. We're supposed to have a certain patient load, but stuff happens. People call in sick and we can't find a replacement, sometimes we're over census and can't discharge a patient because of their housing situation.

Work place violence is an all too common occurrence in my experience and typically managements attitude is if you didn't want to be abused you wouldn't have become a nurse. And often there's no consequences for the patient. However I know one nurse who is currently persuing legal action against a patient.
Pay is all over the place depending on where you work. An RN in a doctor's office can make $20 Canadian an hour whereas an RN working at the cap with shift premiums can make over $50 Canadian an hour.

Offred · Nov 10, 2019

Thanks. It sounds just like the US. I thought patient ratio would be different. Our numbers can be very good: 3-4 in observation, 3-4 in ED, 1-2 in ICU. They can also be very bad: 9 in ED I have heard a few times, 7-10 on general care. My brother worked somewhere years ago that gave him 10 patients, some who were very sick.

Our pay usually starts at $24.00 hr. Nurses top at $53.00 hr at large hospitals. Most of us make something in the middle.

Violence in ED is really out of control. Nothing happens to patients. Management doesn't support any solution.

Do you think have good mental health services?

GBC_Student, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2019

Usually on a medicine floor you'll see 4-5 patients during the days and 7-8 on nights. But you might find better or worse ratios in different hospitals in different provinces or cities. In Ontario an rn who is in the biggest union in the province starts at $33 Canadian which is about $25 American. It goes up to $46. But if you're charge nurse or have shift premiums an RN can make $50 an hour at the cap.

Like anything in Canada, the quality of treatment can depend on where you live. If you're in a rural setting it can be difficult to access mental health or addictions treatment. If you're in a large city like Toronto you have a lot of resources but also a lot of sick people that need access to those resources. I work at the largest mental health facility in Toronto and I believe the county. It's not perfect but I believe the patient's are treated very well and receive a high level of care. But like any large city we have a large homeless population who use the systems emergency rooms like a family doctor. Unfortunately they often don't have other options and until we can figure out a better way, that's where we're at.

I'd have to imagine that an ED like you work in sees a lot of shootings and stabbings. You see that in Canada as well, but the volume is lower. On a weekend in Toronto you might have five or ten shootings. Stacked up against a city like Chicago we're pretty safe. Any time I've been to one of our emergency rooms there is usually a security presence and often police. Violence against doctors and nurses happens and at my hospital it happens a fair bit. Usually it's a nurse getting punched or kicked but not seriously injured. But we've had people who've been beaten so badly they're unable to return to work or they've suffered permanent disfigurement.

hellohobbit · Nov 12, 2019

I used to work at downtown ED in Toronto and it's a norm to get 5-6 pt. 4 will be tele, and a few hallways. Don't remember the last time I had 4 pt. I had a friend from NYC ED and she's saying they have a tech doing blood work, ecg, VS etc for them. We don't have anything here, it's all primary care so you have to do the basic care for all your assigned pt

dayandnight · Nov 15, 2019

In Canada you have less “help.” No cnas or techs helping with blood sugar, vitals, ins and outs etc.. in the ER at my hospital in BC (600 beds) there are 2 care aids in the whole er. At least we have ekg and lab techs who help with blood draws and getting 12 lead ekgs... but you will probably do more work when you are in Canada. At our med surg units we have no cna or caregivers at all (even if there are bariatric patients they can’t get extra care staff for help- nurses do everything) and the ratio is 4-5 for both days and nights.

Also, in Canada we work both days and nights rotating on all inpatient, specialty units and long term care, and there is no way to get around it unless you become casual/per-diem

Lucydog14 · Nov 17, 2019

The hospital I worked in had PSWs

tardisnurse · Dec 24, 2019

Hospitals have definitely started paying more attention to workplace violence over the past few years, for a few reasons.

For one, nursing unions have been advocating very strongly for their members to be protected and have been using the media as a way to draw attention to the issue. Two - Accreditation Canada has included having a strong workplace violence prevention program as one of its required organizational practices. Three, in Ontario at least, workplace violence statistics are now a quality indicator for hospitals. So they have a lot of incentive to do better.

Compensation depends on where you land in Canada and where you work, and whether you're unionized. And I've never met a nurse that didn't have a heavy workload.

All that said, I wouldn't work anywhere else ?

ag11415 · Feb 29, 2020

On 11/9/2019 at 7:56 PM, Offred said:
Thanks. It sounds just like the US. I thought patient ratio would be different. Our numbers can be very good: 3-4 in observation, 3-4 in ED, 1-2 in ICU. They can also be very bad: 9 in ED I have heard a few times, 7-10 on general care. My brother worked somewhere years ago that gave him 10 patients, some who were very sick.
Our pay usually starts at $24.00 hr. Nurses top at $53.00 hr at large hospitals. Most of us make something in the middle.
Violence in ED is really out of control. Nothing happens to patients. Management doesn't support any solution.
Do you think have good mental health services?

Just a quick question, when you say nurses can top at $53 and hour, are you talking about in canada or US? Thankyou!!

dayandnight · Mar 3, 2020

On 2/28/2020 at 9:45 PM, ag11415 said:
Just a quick question, when you say nurses can top at $53 and hour, are you talking about in canada or US? Thankyou!!

It's Canadian probably. For current currency rates, just subtract around 10 dollars or more to convert it to USD (or use Google)