RN_Canada

Fiona59..things are NOT the same across Canada. So once again we are seeing that things change in each province in Canada My inquiry to CRNBC: ] This response from the College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia. Which simply leaves us with the caveat that we have all referred to many times in these forums. For internationally educated nurses ...PLEASE go to the website for the provincial nursing organization and if the information is not there for you then, contact the college or association for that province and see what they say.

It is much easier to get registered and much easier to immigrate if you have work experience as a nurse. Paid employment is not the requirement it is nursing experience. As long as you can prove that the experience you have was nurses' work then it should count. Check with the college or association in the province you want to work in.

Thanks Fiona, I did realize that but just wanted to offer information about other provinces to point out that it is handled slightly differently in every province. Some provinces in Canada will accept nurses with no degrees but others will not. The caveat for all provinces really is apply and see what they say.

A degree is an entry to practice requirement in all of Canada but each province applies this requirement differently for internationally educated nurses. If you apply for registration without a degree you will likely be put through a Substantially Equivalent competency assessment which is being used in many of the western provinces. This will determine if you meet the requirements or not. In is unlikely that Ontario would accept your application for an RN license and would probably recommended to write for RPN (registered Practical Nurse) license. So you simply have to apply and see what they say.

if you already have a degree in psychology my advice would be to become a registered nurse and specialize in mental health as you will have more career opportunities. Psychiatric nursing is not recognized in all provinces in Canada. if you are interested in education in BC check out the new BSN2 program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. It is an online degree program for students to transition to the field of nursing if you have another degree. It might be just what you are looking for.

to my knowledge all provincial regulatory nursing organizations require that you be a registered nurse in your country of origin in order to apply for registration here in canada. if you are not already registered in the philippines then you are not eligible to apply for a registered nursing license here in canada. some provinces allow you to apply for a license as a practical nurse with "equivalent" education so this might be something to explore with the regulatory body for practical nurses in nova scotia (i think they might be called rna's there - not sure). they assess your education and make a determination if you meed the required standards and competencies and then give permission to write the cpnre you need to go the website for employment in the health region. they will often have a section for international applicants. other than that you follow the same process for employment as anyone else. if the employer wants to hire you they make an offer of employment and they can sponsor you if that is necessary for the temporary work permit. their human resources department will have the information they need to expedite that.

i know the intention of the post was to indicate that rn's have a broad scope of practice in er's in canada. certainly the job of triage and other emergency nursing roles carries great responsibility for decision-making intervention and collaboration... but i thought i should point out that technically there is no registered nurse in canada who practices to a full scope of practice because the legislated scope is much to broad to be contained in a single job description. nursing practice in canada includes acute hospital care, long term care, outpatient care, home care, and community assessors, research, community health and community care. the number of jobs however, that occur in all those setting are minute. by far the majority of nursing jobs occur in one or maybe two of those settings so it would be hard to generalize that a nurse in an emergency setting works to "full scope".

You can have a dual license...however, you can never give up your obligation to work according to professional standards. So with dual license if you work as an LPN, you get paid as a LPN and you do LPN work within their legislated scope of practice, but you would be expected to work under your RN professional standards. If you have a RN license you cannot abrogate those standards.

an rn is not held to a higher standard...they are held to the standards that are established for their profession. in my jurisdiction (which is british columbia canada) the standards are very similiar.... but it is the scope of practice that is different. each nurse must practice within their own legislated scope of practice and that scope of practice must be conducted within the professional standards that are set by the college (of nurses) true... an lpn works under their own license. they are responsible and accountable for their own actions. an rn is also responsible and accountable for their own actions. therefore an rn must assign or delegate responsibly and make sure that the process of assignment or delegation is done properly as that is within their scope of practice. if they did not attend to this process properly then, yes they can be held responsible for the outcome as surely as if they did not carry out the process of medication administration correctly. and since the lpn scope of practice is completely within the rn scope of practice i fail to see how an lpn could legally supervise an a nursing professional who has a much wider and broader scope of practice. either the rn failed to supervise properly or there is a systemic issue and there are not enough rns on duty to provide the supervision that is necessary, or the employer hired someone who was not competent enough to do the job or... situations such as the one described here are rarely due to individual shortcomings and are much more likely due to systemic shortcomings. a proper investigation should provide the necessary information to correct the systemic problems that led to such a disaster.

that is my point...well not quite. they can be compared, but of course they are different because canada and the usa are different countries, with different cultures, and vastly different value systems that underpin the regulatory framework of nursing. you and i might know this but internationally educated nurses do not. and of course i am seeking to understand what drives the american system as my only experience and understanding is canadian. what are the values and what is the regulatory framework? i was especially interested in the link provided by ccrn_marie that the california board of nurses has competency standards whereas in canada we have professional standards. hmmmm.... i think they are different? honestly... i get it that we are not helping the original poster by taking the discussion in this direction but it is an important discussion don't you think?

well if the regulations that exist under legislation required public protection then they cannot do this. they can only determine if a person who applies for a license has met the standard to qualify for that license. once this is determined then they can grant permission to write the exam and license the applicant. if the mandate of public protection is entrenched in regulation (that exists under legislation) labour market forces should have no influence whatsoever. and isn't this my original point that profits should not enter into the equation of public protection? an organization that is charged with the protection of the public (under legislation) should not allow profit to influence their decisions. that is not only a conflict of interest it is immoral and not in accordance with the code of ethics for nurses, especially in canada where nurses are required to work in the interest of the public, no matter who the employer is.

you and i know this but apparently nurses from other countries don't. i will reiterate my original comment that this is not in the mandate of professional regulation for public protection so i guess the real question is who is monitoring this? and why are they allowed to get away with this? to me this seems to be the larger issue in this whole matter.

Thanks for the response... I am simply going by my own lived experience here in Canada. The regulatory bodies do not exist to make money, they exist under legislation to ensure that nurses who provide care for the Canadian public meet the requirements that have been set for public protection. The fact that there may or may not be jobs is not a factor in regulation...that is a labour market issue. Increasing the number of applicants they process in order to make money is a conflict of interest and outside of the legislated mandate of public protection

what does the economy have to do with it? there should be no influence on the licensing of nurses other than making sure they meet requirements that are in place for public protection. labour forces should not be an influence on obtaining a nursing license. getting a license is one thing...getting a job is completely different.

I am outraged at what you have described. If you have passed the CRNE and obtained a nursing license in BC this should be recognized in Alberta. If your husband is working there and has relocated I would contact his MLA for some help with this. It is not acceptable - CARNA cannot just take who they want to take, they have to accept your application just as they would have to accept mine.