Potential nursing student needing advice

Lucydog14 · May 2, 2018

It's hard to quantify how hard the NCLEX is but any nursing program should adequately prepare you. You can retake it if you don't pass. It's not really hard to transfer your licensure to another province, just costly and time consuming. The job outlook depends on what province/city you are in. I know Toronto is a tough market. Being male will neither be an advantage or a disadvantage. It is possible to move from one kind of nursing to another provided you meet the requirements. Best of luck

NurseMaybe? · May 3, 2018

It's hard to quantify how hard the NCLEX is but any nursing program should adequately prepare you. You can retake it if you don't pass. It's not really hard to transfer your licensure to another province, just costly and time consuming. The job outlook depends on what province/city you are in. I know Toronto is a tough market. Being male will neither be an advantage or a disadvantage. It is possible to move from one kind of nursing to another provided you meet the requirements. Best of luck

Ok thanks, how costly are we talking? Are you sure being male provides no advantage? I've read sometimes of rules that hospitals like to have one male on the floor to help with picking up/moving patients or if confrontations arise.

What do you mean by meet the requirements? What kind of requirements?

I am from Ottawa, and would like to move to BC eventually (Kamloops or Kelowna).

How is the pay as a nurse? Is it worth the money?

Lucydog14 · May 3, 2018

No there is no mandate for male staffing and they are not expected to pick up patients. We have lifts that we use if it comes to that. We are discouraged from just physically lifting because it's a good way to get hurt. Security handles confrontations not male staff. The cost of obtaining licensure will vary from province to province.

Certain areas of nursing will have requirements such as previous experience or certain certifications.

Pay will vary according to where you are working.

Rahvin1 · May 3, 2018

Ok thanks, how costly are we talking? Are you sure being male provides no advantage? I've read sometimes of rules that hospitals like to have one male on the floor to help with picking up/moving patients or if confrontations arise.
What do you mean by meet the requirements? What kind of requirements?
I am from Ottawa, and would like to move to BC eventually (Kamloops or Kelowna).
How is the pay as a nurse? Is it worth the money?

Hey, I'm a guy soon to be graduating from a 2nd degree BScN program and my wife is also an RN. I'll try to answer as many questions as possible from my experience. Firstly I cannot agree with the above poster who says being a male is neither a disadvantage or advantage. I can confirm through my own experiences, talking with male nurses, professors including one who has done specific research into males in nursing, my wife, and several nurse managers that being a guy will help you get hired into ER, ICU and Mental Health, and often will get you fast tracked into management positions. It can hurt you in other areas such as Maternal-Child if that's something that interests you.

A nursing degree from any province in Canada except possibly Quebec will let you easily get hired in any province. The job market is tough in most big cities but that's the same for any profession. If you want to work more rural you will get a job no problem.

In my province the pay as a RNstarts full time at ~65k a year and goes up to 80k within 5 years. That doesn't count overtime though and lots of nurses make 100k+ a year with overtime.

You can change specialties fairly easily. Most high acuity areas like ER ICU OR and PACU want you to have some med/surg or step down experience first. This is especially true in cities but less experience is needed the more rural you go and a lot of rural/community hospitals hire for these spots directly out of school.

@Lucydog14 I have seen nurses using team restraint and applying sedation and mechanical restraints to violent patients many times especially in the ER so maybe that depends on your institution idk. Also yeah ideally you use a lift but I don't know how many times even as a student I've heard "oh good here comes the muscle" and any male nurse will tell you the same thing.

Lucydog14 · May 3, 2018

Sure nurses work together to restrain violent patients but we don't jump back and " let the men do it". We don't employ the men just to " be the man on the floor". We don't restrict dealing with violent patients to just the male nurses. I worked with one that was probably much weaker physically than most of the women. Plus if the patient was violent you called security, which included females.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 3, 2018

To expand on that a little...

Before you can even transfer your registration you have to pay a fee to your current College for them to verify your registration to your new College. You have to pay a fee to the College in your new province for them to assess your application. Depending on where you're going, you might also need other documents, and both a criminal records check and a vulnerable persons' record check - that aren't free. You'll have to document your safe practice hours, the number of which will vary depending on the province and the time frame since you graduated, as well as your continuing competence activities. You wait, often for a month or more, to hear if you're approved. And THEN you'll pay your registration fees.

Each province sets their own registration fees and renewal dates. They also have no requirement to prorate those fees, although some have a reduction if you register more than halfway through their registration year. If you fall somewhere in the middle when you're transferring your registration, you'll end up paying a full year's worth of fees in both provinces. With registration fees heading north of $600 a year, it's not a pittance... When I transferred my registration from Manitoba to Alberta I paid for the full year in Manitoba, the full year in Alberta and then AGAIN for a full year in Alberta all within a short period of time because my first day of work in Alberta was just 3 weeks before the new practice year started.

Pay for nurses in BC is slightly higher than in Ontario, but only slightly. BC's wage scale for general duty RNs starts at $$32.94 an hour plus shift differentials and tops out at $43.24. Their contract expires March 31, 2019. Ontario starts at $32.21 and tops out at $45.31; they are in negotiations. Both scales have 9 steps. Cost of living in Kamloops is lower than in Kelowna, which would compare to Ottawa. Services provided by the hospital in Kelowna are more varied than in Kamloops - a lot of regional programs are based in Kelowna. The climate is similar, perhaps a little drier than Ottawa - definitely less humid!

Being a male nurse does have some perks, based on my own observations. Men are more likely than women to work overtime, especially if they have children. Men tend to advance more quickly up the career ladder, for the same reason - they're not taking maternity leaves so their experience hours rack up faster. They are also less likely to leave their job to take care of small children so don't lose valuable time on the job through which to advance. Men are more often chosen for specialty teams (transport, code, ECMO), which may increase their opportunities for additional income. Where I work (a critical care area) there is a disproportionate number of men - the provincial proportion of male nurses is 6.7% whereas ours is about 18%. Two of our four assistant head nurses are men.

I hope that helps a bit in your decision.

Fiona59 · May 3, 2018

How do you feel about touching people? Cleaning incontinent people? Dealing with bat **** crazy families?

There are days that no amount of $$ makes it worth it and you seem to be all about the money. What gives you job satisfaction? In my province, we aren't getting raises for the next three years. How will this affect your decision? How will being at the bottom of the vacation list for years affect your social life.

Khow89 · May 6, 2018

You said you wanted to be a physician for the longest time so it might nag you at the back of your mind for going into a different profession. The things that nurses and physicians do are quite different so if the profession of a physician attracts you the most then you might not like being a nurse after 5 years. However, you can still give it a shot, try nursing for a year, you'll probably know after the first two clinical placements.

I don't think being a male would give you any advantages. Unless you have read multiple strong evidence based research on it. If you really want advantages, continue to do self improvements. Being friendly, polite, respectful and out going can also give you an advantage.

jennylee321 · May 9, 2018

Glad to see that men are getting more opportunities then women even though we are a female dominated profession. Let's keep that gender pay gap strong ! *eye roll*