luilui_604

i went through the same walk through process....once you recieve your TN visa, you can easily go to any security office at the state you plan to work in and apply for the SSN (you can also apply for it in a different state). you must show all the appropriate documents that prove you are legally entitled to work in the U.S. This includes your passport, visa screen certificate and your TN visa that you received. once you get your SSN (usually within a week- depending on the city), you can apply for the endorsement at the BON. hope this helps!

Hi, I'm from Vancouver, and nursing in California is great because they have 5:1 patient to nurse ratio, which helps promote safe nursing care. This doesn't apply to L&D because our patient ratio is usually 1:1 care. I think i had more confidence as an RN with the extra work experience in Canada. But since I entered into a specialty grad program in the US, they provided me with 3 months preceptorship experience. In terms of differences in the medical systems, there were a couple things that I needed to get used to...for example, charging patients on the pxis for medical supplies. In Canada, you could just grab and go with the supplies :) These are little things that i found apparent...but otherwise, the hospital i work at has high standards of nursing care and ethics. So to answer your question, I had an easy transition. Which state do you plan to work in?

I've been a labor and delivery nurse for 14 months, and prior to that, i worked in neurosciences for 9 months in canada :) I absolutely love san francisco, but i've been feeling homesick for the past week. I am ready to go back home to my family and fiance next year :) Where in Canada are you from?

My hourly rate includes the shift differential for working night shifts. I work for the reputable California Pacific Medical Center (Sutterhealth Affiliate) in San Francisco.

HI! i'm a Canadian Nurse =) Congrats on your NCLEX! I'm not in Torrance but in San Francisco....sorry, i can't give you any information but i just wanted to say HELLO =)

I am working at the most competitive paying hospital in San Francisco, and I started at $47/hr as a GN last year. Since then, i have had 3 raises and now making $51/ hr. $30/hr is definately not a competitive rate -- keep looking!

i just wanted to mention that my hospital has an epidural rate of 80% for laboring patients! although this is an unusual and heartbreaking case, none of my patients have ever complained or regret the fact of having an epidural! there are definately risks of infection, but many times the benefits outweigh the risks........i feel so bad the family had to go through such an ordeal :crying2:

nurses wife, i just read your post....nurses in the bay area usually make $35+ even as a new grad....what the agency is offering your husband seems incredibly low especially in northern california....just my thoughts

the last i heard from my manager, she told me we are not hiring anymore. i'm not sure how long this hiring freeze may last, but we are definately overstaffed here. we also work 8 hour shifts, not 12's. good luck.

hi there i know for a fact that our L&D manager aren't hiring anytime soon because we are getting overstaffed here....i talked to a few coworkers and they are also wanting to switch to per diem ... candidates are choosen by seniority here...i think the best way to find out is to contact our manager directly. If u would like her name, feel free to PM me.

hey jellie, im curious if you've heard back from CC? i've been reading through your thread because i'm also interested to work as a travelling nurse in NY...when the time comes, i'll be relocating from San Francisco to NY! i wonder if there are many L&D positions available in NY?

i work at the L&D Cal campus at CPMC....i entered their new grad training program in July 2005 and it's simply the BEST because of the great teamwork and work environment among the coworkers....even all the docs are supportive and encouraging!

Suzanne is absolutely right, it will take aprrox. 7 months from start to finish....while i was getting all the legwork done to process my Visascreen certificate, i gained 8 months of invaluable work experience during that time...in reality, it is very unlikely that you will be able to work in the U.S. right after you graduate because of all the paperwork and politics that is required in the processing of your applications during my last months of nursing school, i also contacted a canadian nurse recruiter to find out what kinds of opportunities were out there....in the end, the recruiter couldn't offer me what i had hoped for. i wanted to move to SF by a certain time, and i was tired of waiting for the recruiter to find my "best match"....also, the only hospitals with positions that she offered me were areas outside of SF city, which wasn't want i wanted...i decided to do some research and found my current position :) of course there are pro's and con's to using nursing agencies....the upside is that recruiters will often find you job opportunities with relocation benefits and sign on bonuses....but there's a catch, you have to sign a contract that is usually 1 or 2 years.... in my case, the hospital that i work for didn't provide any benefit packages because it receives enough local applicants that they dont' need to hire foreign nurses, another good thing was that i did NOT sign a contract to work X amount of years...one of my fears was to sign a contract and to later find out that i would dispise my job, the working conditions and staff--yet i would be legally binded to stay if i didn't want to pay back the costs of recruitment (ie. relocation costs to fly you to that city and etc)......these are all the things that i considered, and my ultimate decision was to go on my own, which i could never regret! to answer your other question, i knew from the start that if i were to move to SF, it would be more of a learning experience than to save any money....the cost of living in SF city is extremely high, which is reflected by the salary that i am earning.......if you go out a little less and dont' mind being frugal sometimes, than i'm sure you can save money! i'm just trying to balance my quality of life and to save at the same time! feel free to ask any more questions! PS. im from vancouver, BC

here's a recent post that i wrote a few days ago! I just moved to SF city a little over four months ago from Canada as a new grad with 8 months prior experience in med/surg....so far, my experience to live and work in this city has only been the best! As the other poster mentioned, i found www.craigslist.org to be a fantastic website, which i used to find my studio apartment that is just 3 blocks away from the hospital that i work at! my rent is $975 with garage parking, a very reasonable price in the city it literally takes me 3-4 minutes to walk to work :rotfl: as a nursing student 2 years ago, i made a personal visit to SF and fell in love with the city....i knew i wanted to find a job there after i graduated. during my visit, i was proactive in calling different hospitals in order to talk to nurse recruiters. the recruiter from California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC, a Sutter Affiliate) was incredibly nice and helfpul, she even gave me a tour of the hospital and spent 1 hour answering all my questions! to make a long story short, i am now a proud L&D nurse working for CPMC.....the staff is amazing, friendly and very supportive to our learning. I couldn't have made a better choice to move to SF and work for this hospital. my hourly wage as a new grad nurse is $39/hr on days. I entered the L&D training program at this particular hospital, and it offered 12 weeks of preceptorship with classroom studies....like every nurse in a new specialty area, i was nervous and scared to start on my own..but i felt prepared with the training that i received what area of nursing do you intend to work in after you graduate?

hello! that is exactly the route that i followed to get my cali licence! i applied for the nclex in november 2004, got my att and took my nclex by january 2005. received my minnesota licence, then made a trip to sacramento by march 2005 to endorse my licence for a cali licence. finally moved to san francisco by july 2005 (there was a slight problem with my visascreen application that delayed the process by a month or two). here's a list of steps and websites in the order that i went through : 1)[color=#003399]http://www.cgfns.org/sections/faqs/visascreen.shtml -start filling out the application for ur cgfns visascreen, it is the most lengthy application process 2)[color=#003399]http://www.state.mn.us/portal/mn/jsp/home.do?agency=nursingboard -u need approval from mn to take ur nclex -fill out an application downloaded from this website, then have your provincial nurse association verify to mn that you have your canadian rn licence (call them to find out the cost of rn licensure verification...u will also need to do this for ur visascreen application) -when mn verifies ur canadian school education and rn licensure, they will send u an att ("authorization to test" for ur nclex) 2)[color=#003399]http://pearsonvue.com/nclex/ -when u receive ur att, you have to register to take ur nclex on this website for the date, time and location u want -once u pass ur nclex, you will receive ur rn licensure from mn 3)[color=#003399]http://www.rn.ca.gov/ -now u need to apply to cali bon to endorse ur mn licensure....more application and fees involved... 4)[color=#003399]https://www.nursys.com/common.asp?pt=nurserequirement -register ur mn licensure on nursys, which is a third party that cali bon can access online to verify your mn rn licence for endorsement hope this helps, if it's another state other than california that you're trying to get a licence, then just contact that particular state board of nursing! cheers!

hello fellow Canadians! Graduated from University of Victoria in November 2004 through the Langara Collaborative Program! Worked at VGH for 8 months, and now I am living and working in San Francisco in L&D!!! LOVING IT HERE!!!!!!! will most likely move back to vancouver after 2 years work experience here, and find a job at BC Womens!! CHEERS!

hello! it's been a while since i logged onto this site :) ....I just moved to SF city a little over four months ago from Canada as a new grad with 8 months prior experience in med/surg....so far, my experience to live and work in this city has only been the best! As the other poster mentioned, i found www.craigslist.org to be a fantastic website, which i used to find my studio apartment that is just 3 blocks away from the hospital that i work at! it literally takes me 3-4 minutes to walk to work :rotfl: as a nursing student 2 years ago, i made a personal visit to SF and fell in love with the city....i knew i wanted to find a job there after i graduated. during my visit, i was proactive in calling different hospitals in order to talk to nurse recruiters. the recruiter from California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC, a Sutter Affiliate) was incredibly nice and helfpul, she even gave me a tour of the hospital and spent 1 hour answering all my questions! to make a long story short, i am now a proud L&D nurse working for CPMC.....the staff is amazing, friendly and very supportive to our learning. I couldn't have made a better choice to move to SF and work for this hospital. my hourly wage as a new grad nurse is $39/hr on days. i wish you success in finding the job that you want in SF! :balloons:

hi, i'm a fresh grad (aug 2004) from vancouver, bc.....i can share some insight regarding student nurse transition to RN if that helps!

hi, can you please clarify: you said one of your problems is that you dont' have your diploma, but i am confused because you said that you graduated from your diploma nursing program and now licenced to work? how are you licenced if you do not have a diploma? if nursing is what you want to do, don't give up! you've done the schooling, you have the theory, now all you have to do is just put everything into practice! believe me, even if you're a fresh grad and ready to work (like me), it still takes time to get into the groove and feel comfortable..... take into consideration that hospitals may have certain months of the year that they do massive hiring, then are slow to hire during slower seasons.....whatever the case, if you've applied and are waiting to hear back from the hospital, then you should be PROACTIVE and call them back to check the status of your application! most places keep your file active for 3 months....if you've been waiting longer than that, then i suggest that you apply again! it may also help if you find out the name and fax number to certain managers of the departments that you want to work in, then you can submit your resume to them directly, instead of HR (process takes longer).....then call up the manager and show your interest that you want to work on the unit! sometimes it takes more than persistance before u land your first job.....JUST KEEP CALLING until you annoy them!! this has worked for several of my colleagues! it really just shows your determination and interest for working for them, so it's a good thing that you're persistent! anyway, let us know how your job search goes!

in my opinion, studying for the Canadian Registered Nurses Exam (CRNE) is a joke! most of my classmates studied the last week before our test date and we all passed...most of it are pyschosocial questions, so it's a good idea to remember your "self & others" courses from nursing school.....and just basic nursing care... if you have the red book, just study from that....that's all you can really do....do the practice questions until you have memorized all of the answers! it's not really an effective way to study, but unfortunately there aren't many study guides out there that can prepare you for this exam....and the practice test from the red book is basically what you will see on the CRNE.....thats what all of my classmates and i did to prepare... sorry i don't know much about the new short answer format questions, because i took my exam last august...thank god! good luck to you!

i will be working in the stroke unit, it is a new unit that has been operating for a few months now

hi, i just took and passed my NCLEX (jan 20, 2005), and i sent in my documents for visa screen a couple days ago....i'm just wondering if i need to be approved for my visa screen before i go ahead and get my licence endorsed in california? i guess if i wait for my visa screen to be approved, which can take up to 2-3 months, i can save myself a step if i somehow get denied for it? what do you think?

thanks suzanne, i'll find out from the hospital's nurse recruiter if i can get the bonus paid out in seperate paychecks

If nursing is your passion, and if it is truly what you want to do, you will not let NCLEX get in the way of your dreams....you have worked this hard....why quit now? NCLEX does not determine your ability to provide loving care to patients, it is just a standardized exam that we must all take.....sometimes, it will take one try, two tries, or three tries to pass....but it doesn't matter as long as you get where you want to be! one of my good friends who started the nursing program with me was held behind because she failed A&P and patho and had to retake both courses......she was frustrated and scared that she wouldn't make it to the end of the program, but she was strong willed and determined because nursing was her passion. best of luck to you and please keep us posted.

aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh..........i'm soooooo glad i took my CRNE in August 2004!! at the time, it was optional for us to complete the short answer questions in a seperate booklet.....i don't think anyone from my graduating class bothered to complete it, since it was on our own time and it didn't count towards our exam results.......we were just dying to get out of the examination room.... sorry, i can't give you any tips for your question....