Where are you from?

coolalone · Jun 14, 2007

Hi Pavi,

This is coolalone from India, now in Toronto doing 3rd year at Ryerson BscN. Welcome to Canada. Keep in touch.

pavi · Jun 14, 2007

Hi coolalone,

Thanx for the warm welcome.

xbcparamedic · Jun 16, 2007

Vancouver, BC

BsN program at Douglas in Sept/07

15 years as a Paramedic

Hope it helps:uhoh3:

umagangbolera · Jun 22, 2007

BSN- Manila Philippines

Canadian RN in 2003

RN- Md, USA 2007

still in Manila..

NovaScotiabound · Jun 30, 2007

Hi there! What area out east do you want to move to?
I live in NB and work in NS....can I help you with any questions?
Come east.....its great....slower pace and nice ppl.

Hi there,

I am not in Canada yet but I hope that no-one minds me posting here.

I am currently nursing in the UK but my family and I want to move to Nova Scotia. We have applied for permanent residency but don't want to wait the 4-5years. I am hoping therefore to get a job over there next year and come on a work permit and then appliy for the provincial nominee programme.

I am coming to Nova Scotia in October this year to write my CRNE and was hoping to look at possible avenues for employment when I am there. My current job is in intermediate care (elderly rehabilitation) but I also have plenty of experience in practice nursing.

Where would be the best places to look when I am over there, it would be good to make a few contacts even though we will not be moving until next year (after we sell our house).

Also, have you any tips for passing the CRNE?

Many thanks

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Jun 30, 2007

Hi there,
I am not in Canada yet but I hope that no-one minds me posting here.

Welcome to our forum! This is the place to come for answers to your questions about nursing in Canada, to vent about nursing in Canada and to defend nursing in Canada.

There are a lot of good threads about how to succeed at the CRNE within the forum. You could browse, or you could search, but I'm sure you'll find your answers somewhere in short order.

Canada's nursing shortage is pretty much universal. There are lots of opportunities in the Maritimes, the cost of living is very manageable and the scenery is spectacular! Have a look at this list and see if anything makes you sit up and take notice...

http://www.careerbeacon.com/cat/en/25 ... You can pull up a map of Nova Scotia using Mapquest ( http://www.mapquest.com/ ) to see where these jobs are located, and make some choices. You can check out homes for sale at http://www.mls.ca/ by selecting Nova Scotia from the map or the list. You'll be writing your CRNE in Halifax, which really isn't that far from anywhere else in Nova Scotia, so you could make note of the places hiring into jobs like you're looking for and go visit them while you're over. When I moved to Alberta in 2002, I came into a job I'd been hired for 8 months earlier. I had the same issues, gotta sell the house, gotta arrange the move, gotta find a job for the spouse, gotta make arrangements for my handicapped son, and so on. If it worked for me, it can work for you. Good luck!

NovaScotiabound · Jun 30, 2007

Welcome to our forum! This is the place to come for answers to your questions about nursing in Canada, to vent about nursing in Canada and to defend nursing in Canada.
There are a lot of good threads about how to succeed at the CRNE within the forum. You could browse, or you could search, but I'm sure you'll find your answers somewhere in short order.
Canada's nursing shortage is pretty much universal. There are lots of opportunities in the Maritimes, the cost of living is very manageable and the scenery is spectacular! Have a look at this list and see if anything makes you sit up and take notice...
http://www.careerbeacon.com/cat/en/25 ... You can pull up a map of Nova Scotia using Mapquest ( www.mapquest.com/ ) to see where these jobs are located, and make some choices. You can check out homes for sale at www.mls.ca/ by selecting Nova Scotia from the map or the list. You'll be writing your CRNE in Halifax, which really isn't that far from anywhere else in Nova Scotia, so you could make note of the places hiring into jobs like you're looking for and go visit them while you're over. When I moved to Alberta in 2002, I came into a job I'd been hired for 8 months earlier. I had the same issues, gotta sell the house, gotta arrange the move, gotta find a job for the spouse, gotta make arrangements for my handicapped son, and so on. If it worked for me, it can work for you. Good luck!

Thank you so much for your reply. It is great to hear from someone who has actually done it. I have spent some time in Nova Scotia already and so I am familiar with the geography. I am lucky in that I have to just sell my house and get a job.

My husband is going to be a stay at home dad for the first year at least to help our kids settle in.

Did your employers really wait all that time for you to start? - I thought that they would want me to start within weeks really - is that usual in Canada? It makes things so much easier if the time pressure is less. I was not looking forward to the prospect of maybe having to go to start work a few weeks before my family were packed up.

I just wish we were there already - the day can't come soon enough!

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Jun 30, 2007

Let me put things in the correct order for you as to how it worked for me. At the time that I started this process, I wasn't actually planning to make a move. I'd been talking to my husband about how things had changed for women since we were younger people; our daughter had just ditched a long-term boyfriend because he wanted her to abandon her career plans to follow him while he achieved his. (She's now 18 months from a PhD and he dropped out!) I remarked that women no longer were expected to follow their man if they had a good career, that sometimes the shoe was on the other foot. I suggested that with our then-current situation, he would follow me if I had the opportunity for more money, more opportunities to advance my career and more learning. He said that of course he would. Then several minutes later he asked me if there was such a job. When I told him about the hospital I work for now, he immediately said I should look into it.

I didn't apply for a specific position, I just contacted the regional recruiter and emailed a copy of my resume. That was in early September, 2001. I got a call within a short time, perhaps a couple of weeks, from the recruiter, who asked me a few questions then asked permission to pass my resume on to the patient care manager. A short time later I got a call from the PCM, who set up a conference call panel interview; I interviewed over the phone on October 1, 2001 and was offered a position at that time. She would have been happy if I could have started the next day, but she said that she'd let me get my ducks in a row and I could call her when I was ready to move on things. I finally was able to do that in early April of 2002. We came out here, bought a house and I had a face-to-face meeting with her, got a tour of the unit and met some of the staff. The only position she had vacant at the time wasn't what I wanted but it would do, so I took it. We went back to our previous home and sold our house, arranged for the movers and all the rest. A couple of weeks before the house changed hands I got an email from her telling me that the position I really wanted was available but I'd have to formally apply for it, so I did and got it. I started work in the unit here on September 9, 2002.

If you follow a similar path, I can't see why it wouldn't work for you in the same way. Hospital nurses in Canada are unionized, so there are "rules" about hiring, but with the shortage of qualified applicants, you shouldn't have much trouble at all. You're lucky that you have fewer encumbrances in your way. Let me know how it all turns out!

NovaScotiabound · Jul 1, 2007

Let me put things in the correct order for you as to how it worked for me. At the time that I started this process, I wasn't actually planning to make a move. I'd been talking to my husband about how things had changed for women since we were younger people; our daughter had just ditched a long-term boyfriend because he wanted her to abandon her career plans to follow him while he achieved his. (She's now 18 months from a PhD and he dropped out!) I remarked that women no longer were expected to follow their man if they had a good career, that sometimes the shoe was on the other foot. I suggested that with our then-current situation, he would follow me if I had the opportunity for more money, more opportunities to advance my career and more learning. He said that of course he would. Then several minutes later he asked me if there was such a job. When I told him about the hospital I work for now, he immediately said I should look into it.
I didn't apply for a specific position, I just contacted the regional recruiter and emailed a copy of my resume. That was in early September, 2001. I got a call within a short time, perhaps a couple of weeks, from the recruiter, who asked me a few questions then asked permission to pass my resume on to the patient care manager. A short time later I got a call from the PCM, who set up a conference call panel interview; I interviewed over the phone on October 1, 2001 and was offered a position at that time. She would have been happy if I could have started the next day, but she said that she'd let me get my ducks in a row and I could call her when I was ready to move on things. I finally was able to do that in early April of 2002. We came out here, bought a house and I had a face-to-face meeting with her, got a tour of the unit and met some of the staff. The only position she had vacant at the time wasn't what I wanted but it would do, so I took it. We went back to our previous home and sold our house, arranged for the movers and all the rest. A couple of weeks before the house changed hands I got an email from her telling me that the position I really wanted was available but I'd have to formally apply for it, so I did and got it. I started work in the unit here on September 9, 2002.
If you follow a similar path, I can't see why it wouldn't work for you in the same way. Hospital nurses in Canada are unionized, so there are "rules" about hiring, but with the shortage of qualified applicants, you shouldn't have much trouble at all. You're lucky that you have fewer encumbrances in your way. Let me know how it all turns out!

You really are a mine of information. Thanks very much, I feel more confident already.

madeleine · Jul 5, 2007

NovaScotiabound - hope you don't mind me asking but is your training acceptable for N.S.? I was under the impression that our Diploma did not meet all the criteria they need for Canadian registration. Someone at work wanted to go to Canada and apparently her Diploma training didn't have the right number of hours in Psych, Obgyn and Peds. I would be interested to have your reply so I could pass on the info. Thanks.

seaforth · Jul 5, 2007

working for 35 yrs from seaforth ontario

NovaScotiabound · Jul 5, 2007

NovaScotiabound - hope you don't mind me asking but is your training acceptable for N.S.? I was under the impression that our Diploma did not meet all the criteria they need for Canadian registration. Someone at work wanted to go to Canada and apparently her Diploma training didn't have the right number of hours in Psych, Obgyn and Peds. I would be interested to have your reply so I could pass on the info. Thanks.

I was a bit concerned when I applied as my old nursing school doesn't exist anymore. However, the local University had records from when they took over and they provided my transcript for a small fee. I was lucky in that I trained as an RGN when the training was more generic (project 2000 changed all this) and in my course we did 2 month allocations on psych,paeds and obs + the theoretical hours to support this.

I actually phoned the person at the Nova Scotia Nurses Association after my transcript arrived to see if it was acceptable. It hadn't been reviewed by the panel at that stage but she said that there shouldn't be a problem and there wasn't.

She also said that many problems arise from the format of the transcript rather than the actual experience. Even though the paperwork asks for everything in hours, she said that they get many which break it down into units or CAT points. This means nothing to them and they cannot approve it.

If you think that you have done enough of each speciality it is worth a conversation with the person who produces the transcripts, just to make sure that they fully understand what is required.