GemTwist

There are sooo many areas of nursing for you to explore and find your niche. You may consider community health clinic-browse your county job website for public health nursing opportunities too, clinic nursing (ENT, Dermatology, etc), Surgery, Psychiatric, private duty nursing where you care for someone in their home- there are a lot of those in my area with peds through agencies. Touch bases with local agencies to see what they have- I got to try corrections, psych, private duty and school nursing through our local nurse staffing agency. Don't give up, there are way to may nursing opportunities to find what you like. I personally don't like floor nursing at all.

Some pay higher to include hazard pay due to the population you work with. Also can be harder positions to fill. The jails are more acute in people are coming in off the streets - some unstable and needing to detox in the health clinic. Depending on the jail the nurse works intake, detox, pill/diabetic line, clinic, inpatient area and respond to emergencies. The prisons are less acute as they have already been incarcerated for a while. Lots of health teaching. Lots of manipulation and behaviors. But I really enjoyed it. Can be some rough nurses to work with too. You can check out the corrections nursing forum in the specialties.

This year I completed the process for my RN license in BC. As others mentioned, the real headache is with NNAS. They lost the flash drive with my syllabi on it and other submitted papers. It was a process for sure. My RN education was deemed equivalent with an ASN-BSN bridge through Western Governors University which is an online non-profit. CRNBC was quick and efficient. I did not have to go up to do additional testing. I attributed this to working at a level 1 trauma center but who knows. CRNBC was helpful in answering questions and prompt in replies.

When I graduated nursing a few years ago school I had a 2 y/o and 4 y/o. My husband worked M-F 8-530/or 12-930pm. We wanted to use as little childcare as possible so I tried a few things. 1. Private duty with peds- pay was low, schedule flexible, not stressful- BUT I felt strange leaving my young kids to go care for other young kids- I had NO break from kids. I needed more adult interaction from my work. 2. Corrections nursing- working at the state prison- excellent benefits, good pay, most days not too stressful, it was fun, shifts usually 0600-1430, or work per-diem, swing, nights, weekends, doubles. Quite flexible. Variety of areas to work in. Working at the county jail can be more stress due to fresh off the street/detoxing depending on where you live. 3. School Nurse: pay/benefits not so great where I am. Role of nurse varies by district- 1:1, management, or oversee health room. Most of the summer off. Stressful at the beginning of the year setting up, but not if 1:1 provider. Hours vary by role and district. No holidays/weekends. But you may be doing work off the clock to keep up, like teachers. 4. Hospital- 12 hour nights have been so rough for me with kindergarten/1st grader. Some love it. Night shift just doesn't groove with me. I love 12's with the kids because I can volunteer at their school, more days off with them. I work weekends when my husband is home to watch them and one weekday. I just changed to per-diem to have more time off with them over summer. I am looking to get away from bedside because I don't care for it so now looking to work psych, per-diem procedural and/or back to corrections. I am struggling to find what works for our family again. Would love to do GI full time but 10 hour shifts won't work for us. I think per-diem has been very helpful.

Nursemaple 2, Will your MSN be transferable to Canada? I am considering switching from the RN-BSN track to the RN-MSN track with WGU. We are planning to move back to Canada in another year or two to be closer to my husbands family. I am worried that the MSN from the US will not be accepted there. Nightflower- How is everything going? Did you ever hear from anyone who has been through WGU and transferred to Canada?

Yes, just take the objective assessment and get it out of the way. Getting out of school recently definitely helps. I am a recent grad too.

I am also starting 9/1 :) RN-BSN.

I'm a new grad and have not looked around at other states much to see how it compares. But, this area is completely saturated with nurses due to all the schools here. I don't know if that has something to do with it. I have looked at Portland and they make more there than here in Seattle.

Thanks Tokmom. Wow, they are lucky to have spots held. I would take it in a minute. Nights are hard, but as a new grad that is what I am expecting from any hospital.

I just graduated with my ADN and will be taking the NCLEX in April. Will let you know how my job search goes. At our clinical orientation at Swedish we were told they were not hiring ADN's and were only hiring BSN grads. Unless you have a big foot in the door already working there and know someone. They are working towards Magnet like others in the area. I'm not sure how Prov in Everett is handling their horing of bsn/adn, they own Swedish but not sure if they are following same hiring path. I think it is tough for new grad ADN's to get a residency in this area (seattle). Will let you know how my journey ends :)

Shoreline stil has a great reputation and program. Definitely go with accredidation. That is a hell of a rough commute though.

Thank you Fiona, I know, I have been watching the threads and job outlook. I plan on getting experience in the states while working on bridge program for BSN before we move back there. His sister is a public health nurse on VI so hoping that may help some in getting a foot in for casual. Will be taking NCLEX-RN in April. I know Canada has switched to this from the CRNE. But still need to do bridge RN-BSN before moving up there. And get experience here first. Biggest worry is just the transferring of education!

I live in the states and will be graduating with my RN from a 2 year program down here in March. I know in Canada they require a Bachelors for RN work. So, I will be taking a "bridge" program down here to get my Bachelors online rather than the traditional brick and mortar University. It just fits my schedule much better. My husband is Canadian and would like to move back to Victoria after I finish my schooling. So I have looked through and contacted the National Nursing Assessment Service asking them if they accepted online education. They did reply with "we make no distinction between course work done through a traditional classroom setting versus online coursework. This information is captured during the NNAS application process, and forwarded to the Canadian regulatory body to which you are applying for nurse licensing." BUT I am still nervous about doing an online bridge program to get my BSN through Western Governors University and having it not be accepted. So, has anyone transferred their WGU education from the states to Canada successfully? I have asked already on the WGU forum and no one has replied. So, I am asking in the Canada forum. Thank you!

If you were truly that unhappy I would not go back. But, if you want a job in the same hospital or system then it will be tough. What kind of nursing do yuou want to do?

Have you checked with everett cc? They are based on TEAS test. Need micro for many, but have you added up what your points would be for shoreline with your work experience AND volunteering? Those points may help make up for the C in stats.