michellemck

i am in the gta and having the same issues. my experience is similar to yours and am pretty open to where i look for work. i too want to stay in the acute sector and although i know i could get something within a long term care setting/home visiting, this is not a route i want to go down. i feel the longer you are out of a hospital setting, the harder it would be to get back in, due to lack of recent experience. i have also not worked as an RN for 2 years due to immigration/registration process. i really enjoyed where i worked previously on medical units in busy hospitals, in the uk and australia. i am also only looking at part time posts, which i have heard are easier to get? wouldn't seem so. feel like i'm stuck - no canadian experience (which seems highly valued), no recent experience, not a new grad who would benefit from a new grad work programme and no contacts . i am willing to look at agencies as a way in and have thought about doing a graduate cert in critical care (as alot of jobs i note i cannot apply for as i do not have this or exp in such an area). it will give me recent studying exp and also recent canadian exp, even if it would be as a student. every little helps! hope you find something soon! just keep plugging away. i hope HR departments get so sick of seeing my resume, they will give me a job just to get some peace and quiet!

just to let people know, got my results today, in ontario, they are out! letter was dated yesterday so you should receive it today or tomorrow i assume. normal post. oh, and I passed! whoop!

i feel the same. wrote it in toronto yesterday. studied very hard. in hindsight, have no idea how i would of studied differently. give me another few months and it wouldn't of mattered. of course, i didn't remember everything and know i got some knowledge based questions wrong, and probably didn't read some other questions correctly. i have no idea how many i got correct and am trying not to over analyse. just feel as above, always at least 2 right answers, questions vague and ambiguous. due to the new rule changes in ontario, i was only afforded 1 effort to pass the exam as the new rule change affects my 'recent practice' (changes from 5 to 3 years). am an ien and have been living here, not working as a rn for nearly 3 years (the cno have taken a very long time of that 'assessing' my application - leaving me with little time to sit exams). so should i fail, i have to meet other criteria again before i can re-sit (though it has not been decided how this will be done from what i have been told). so, i would be feeling very hard done by if results don't go my way. the fact that i was only given this information about the rule change a few weeks before the exam does not help. my initial study plan was try by myself for the 1st exam, see how i do. was fairly confident in my experience, knowledge and ability to test well. if i fail, i would apply to re-sit but take some kind of prep course too. if i would of known that i would only have 1 chance (before i have to meet new requirements) i would of done the prep course too. oh well, nothing to be done about it now. good luck to you all!

Yeah I have been in Canada for 2 years now though only recently got my PR. Initially applied under FSW visa, it's still sitting gathering dust somewhere in the UK office. Ended up applying for spouse visa, my fiance is canadian and got that within a few months. In hindsight, we should of just done that initally be hey ho! Would still be sitting here jobless and visaless otherwise! I must be lucky where I live, there are always RN jobs advertised (from hosptials to homecare) and I've already been offered work as an RN when I finally get registered. It may not be my dream job intially but it'll be a start, getting some Canadian experience. First hurdle - registration!

also, being from the UK and working most shifts short handed, I can tell you, I certainly was concerned with staff shortages. One nurse doing the job of 2 nurses is putting the the lives of patients at risk therefore a danger to the public so I think all governments and regulation boards should be concerned about these issues. I know from speaking to some friends here who are canadian trained nurses that they too face staff shortages and take on more responsibility than they really should. Again, this is my personal experience, I understand this may not be the case for every situation. I'm sure this happens just about everywhere and if Canada did no have a shortage of skilled RN's then RN's wouldn't be on the federal skilled workers list, encouraging foreigners to apply to help ease the shortfall.

Well to be fair, it must be a lady and her dog! I take it she's my case manager and she always returns my emails. Don't think the dog cant type! They are on the May 2011 queue, I am in the Aug 2011 caseload. I take it I am in the Aug queue as that is when they received everything they needed. Though they didn't ask me to give them said info until May 2011 but had my application since Jan 2011. When i emailed in Nov they were on the April caseload, now they are on May, so its slow going. What is WES? I assumed they would assess education and work experience together, when they get to my file.

Yeah, I have read the cno's annual reports and although they give an estimate for time taken to register for canadian RN's, they do not state a timeline for IEN's only that it can, and is likely to take longer. Their staffing levels are also stated though I still feel like it's one man and his dog I can only speak of my own experience with Australian registration. It was only 2 years ago and most of the hospitals could not function without IEN's there. My ward per example, was 80% foreign workers from UK, Phillipines, India, China etc. Possibly why their registration system functions more efficiently for such nurses. Thanks for the input though!

thanks for the reply. i understand that the system is the system and i chose to move here so i should shut up and put up. i have no problem undertaking more training to meet requirements. i am more annoyed at the length of time it has taken the CNO to assess my qualifications, only to tell me that i need more training! i could of done this in the meantime but there is no point in doing this until they tell me a) if i need more training (which i suspect i do) and b) what i need to study and how i go about doing this. Hoped someone could shed some light on the case, if they had the same experience and had t re-train and how long that took. I will wait it out until they make a decision. Just didn't want blind sided when they reject my application. Having taken so long to assess (I think the have one guy at a desk doing this), I would of been pretty upset and disillusioned. At least now, I can brace myself! Thanks for the heads up though!

Hi, am an RN educated in the UK. Have been trying to register with CNO for a year now. They have still to assess my stuff and am so annoyed at how long it takes. I moved to australia and the WA board there assessed my stuff in less than 2 months so why it takes so long here, i have no idea! Recently got my PR and waiting for them to assess, hopefully before end of march so i can do my exam in june but its not looking likely. Am working as a PSW in the meantime. Happy to have a job but obvioulsy very frustrated to have to do this. My question is, I am trained as an RN an adult nurse, nothing else and don;t plan on nursing in any other field, like kids, mental health. I am getting a little worried that I have waited all this time to get assessed and registered for them to turn round and tell me I am not qualified enough (due to our training system, though personally I think being trained in one specific area makes me more qualified in that area than a general trained nurse). Has this happened to anyone? Would they ask that I go back and do a bridging course of some sort or would they just make it a condition that I can only work in an adult environment? Any feedback would be appreciated as can't get a straight answer from the CNO. Thanks in advance, Michelle