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If you want to work now, I'd say your best bet is to find work with a pharmaceutical company or a private company where you are not technically working as a registered nurse. As far as I know, the only way to work as a registered nurse in canada is to sit for the CRNE and register with the province, obtain a medical from an approved physician and wait for immigration to enter you into their system, and procure a job offer. The entire process has taken me about 10 months. You can get a temp work permit pending the CRNE but the medical and a job offer are requirements regardless and the wheels of immigration are slow. If time is of the essence I suggest you start now. Good luck, I hope your dream comes true! Canada is a wonderful country!

Ghost I moved from Tennessee to Calgary because I love it here, the people are friendly and intelligent and I love the canadian rockies. :chuckle Don't mess around with the medical, it's required before you can start working, permit or not, and it could take up to 3 months!

Ghost, you are right, if you can get a work permit with a temp liscense you can work. I'm just too cheap to pay for both. The medical has been the most time consuming thing for me. The exam was different from the NCLEX, the questions were more along the lines of therapuetic communication and not so much about procedure and pharmacy. Of course safety is a major area for both tests. I suggest you get the CRNE prep guide. I have been out of school a long time but I did fine. Hope it goes well for you, good luck!

I absolutely agree Schroeder, hospital standards in the US vary from facility to facility, just like the pay. I have worked at some excellent hospitals like Vanderbilt and one particulary poor facility at a US Army post.

Ghostcat, perhaps things are different in Alberta. I am a registered nurse moving to Canada and the process has gone like this for me. First I had to register with the Alberta Association of Registered Nurses. This entailed coming to canada to write the CRNE (comprable to the US NCLEX) once they reviewed my application and approved me. Then I had to wait 3 months for the results and a permit to work as an RN in the province. In order to get a work permit I must have the registration, pass a medical and have a job offer. Currently I am waiting on the medical to be entered into the system in Ottawa, that could take 10-12 weeks. In the meantime I came to Calgary, had several job interviews and obtained the job offer. Thus far it has taken me 10 months. It's a long process but it is possible. Oh yea, I forgot, you have to pay the fees for the CRNE, the Registration as an RN and the work permit as well as cash for the medical as it can only be done by apporved physicians. About $1000 in all.

I'm from the USA, registered in Alberta and have multiple job offers, the problem is the medical required of all foreign nurses working in the Canadian health system It takes up to 3 months for processing. spots

PJ .. Ana gave you excellent advise. Don't sweat the exam, it's not has difficult as you might imagine. Good Luck .... and remember .. once you're done you're an RN ... :)

I took mine June 8 in Calgary and JUST got the pass result yesterday September 9 (OK the postal system in rural USA stinks). I liked the short answer questions ... :imbar

I took the CRNE in June. I have been an RN in the states for years but my experience has been neonates most of that time. I was distressed that I had to take the exam after being out of school low these many years. I signed up with the certinurse.ca for their on line tutoring program and of course the Canadian Nurse Prep Guide 2005. I have to admit I over studied. I was fixated on the 12 cranial nerves and there wasn't even ONE question related to that (hee hee). If you are in nursing school and you study the prep guide you should not have any problems passing. It was quite different than the NCLEX. More therapuetic communication and problem solving. The short answers were not that bad either, there was more than one correct answer, usually. Anyways good luck and go for it! (I passed by the way )

Thanks Mark and Kim :) appreciate your replies. It's great to hear "any" scrubs! I sure didn't want to go back to white (gasp). Kim, I will be working in the NICU at FMC if all goes well. It's not easy being an American and coming to Canada but I think it will be worth it, you guys are the best :) Thanks for the scrub store locations, that will come in handy :)

I'm moving to Alberta this fall and will be working in Calgary. I have a closet full of scrubs in various colors and prints, and my best pair of shoes are black. I am limiting what I take with me and don't want to pack them if they are inappropriate wear for the hospitals in the Calgary Health Region. Any suggestions? Thanks :)

I work in the NICU @ vandy and love it. I came from a small hospital and was anxious at first about the size of the new children's hospital, but I have found many positives to working with 200+ nurses in my unit. I have also received excellent mentorship and the opportunity to learn new and exciting things here. Can't say enough good things about Vandy.

Last year we had a baby in the NICU with multiple congenital anomolies, heart defects and a huge omophacele. He was trached and on a vent for 6 months. The Docs encouraged the parents to turn off the life support because the baby had zero chance of survival outside the hospital. In this hospital each baby has its own room in a pod of six rooms. This mother lived in the pod from 7 am until 10 PM. Not only did she interefere with the care of the infant (she once cut the bandage off the omaphacele because she thought it was too tight) she gossiped about the other patients and once berated another mother for using drugs during pregnancy, essentially blaming her for the babies condition, a fact that she learned from overhearing report. She would often call other parents and tell them we were doing "procedures" on the baby and they better come quick! The parent support group, the social workers and the docs and nurses had numerous meetings with this woman, yet nothing was ever done to stop her. Eventually no one wanted the assignement, she made it too stressfull. The day she decided to turn off the life support she demanded that we take the baby, who is all but brain dead, up to the roof so he could see the sun rise. A doctor, a respiratory therapist and two nurses accomodated that request. While I have great sympathy for the woman, why is it that hospitals bend over backwards to accomadate these squeky wheels when they cause so much dissention amoung staff? Even the Docs (surgeons vs neonatologists) were at each other over this case. When is enough, enough?

Annabelle, I am a US nurse with a BSN and tons of experience in NICU. I am moving to Calgary this fall. I started the process a year ago and it's rather tough and expensive. First you have to make application to the AARN where they review your college transcripts and decide if you are qualified to take the CRNE. Then you have to take the CRNE. They will issue you a 6 month temp permit interim. Also, you have to have a work permit which requires a job offer and a physical. They seem reluctant to hire if you aren't registered with the AARN. I have tried to get more info but alas, no luck. I have to agree, Calgary is awesome. :)

Gee I took mine on June 8 as well but we were told not to expect the results until the first to middle of september. According to the CRNE web site, the results will be mailed in 8 weeks to the provincial boards and it is up to them to deliver the results to us. They told us at the start of the exam to expect a wait of about 12 weeks. That is a long time. I actually thought the short answers were easier. The waiting is the hardest part :Melody: