lalaxton

If a doctor writes an order to give a medication that you know is clearly going to harm your patient, are you going to give it? You are responsible for your own practice, regardless of what a physician orders. Contrary to popular belief, physicians can learn from nurses. Let's help those who are still using these outdated practices to learn better wound care technique. There is a wealth of information out there about not using wet to dry dressings. Simply Google the term.

I think people suffer from the 'grass is greener syndrome'. They think that the US system is better, higher paid etc. Having worked in both the Canadian and US systems I know that there are pros and cons to both systems and I could not really recommend one over the other. For the life of me though, in our present climate of high security and so many hurdles to get over for a foreign nurse to cross, I don't understand why someone would want to go through it twice!

Unfortunately kevin, the CNO does require this. One way I've explained it to my employer is to say that you are thinking of doing some work in Ontario on your vacation time (let's say at a summer camp for a few weeks). That is of course if you have enough vacation time accumulated to justify this! You can explain that it takes a long time in Ontario and you are applying now so that you can have the license before you apply to the camp. You can also try to ask a sympathetic supervisor to fill ou the form as well. Be careful though, the CNO will call the person who fills out the form. Hope this helps!

Depending on what nursing experience you have I would bone up on those areas you lack. For example, if you have adult ICU experience I'd review my peds assessment and common peds conditions. If you have med/surg experience I'd look over things like ACLS protocols and emergency/trauma etc. Health Canada does have guidelines for you to follow but these don't always have all the information you need. Also realize that food is expensive up there and there is not alot of choice. Bring food that you don't think you'll be able to find, such as ethnic or specialty items that you love. I like nice dark roast coffee and I know I won't find it there so bring it with me. If you'll be in Sioux Lookout for awhile for orientation you'll probably have the chance to hit the grocery store there before heading up to a northern community. Glad to hear you are finally going up! Maybe we'll run into each other one day!

My supervisor is the Director of Professional Practice (a nurse). I am employed by the hospital so my physician collegues are not my direct supervisors.

There is no university in Canada that I have heard of that is considering the DNP or who even recognize it, as far as I know it is only recognized in the US, however there are several who offer a Phd in Nursing.

Yup! I don't think you'll find a program without it. It's one of the core compentencies of an NP.

How about a doc that has his own chelation clinic in an area where there is a large number of seniors? Talk about a lack of evidence! You can't even get through the door without showing your credit card.....

I am also in a hospital setting and did not sign a contract as an employee, however I did negotiate my own salary and benefits to my advantage. Since then the union here grieved my position and won. The top of the union salary scale is lower than my present salary, and I would lose benefits if I were a member of the union. Thankfully the hospital lawyer was able to negotiate that I would have the choice to join or not. Of course, I chose not to. Then the union rep was surprised that I chose to stay out! Seems obvious to me.....

Just a note on CNO (licensing body) and RNAO (professional association) and other provinces. In other provinces the Nurses Associations are both the licensing body and the professional association. In Ontario it is separate. There are many benefits to joining your professional association as ajnfrn mentioned above.

Actually, I don't know of any NP schools in Ontario that don't have an all NP faculty. Some other provinces may be having difficulty finding enough NP's to teach, due to the relatively small numbers of NP's in their provinces. There are now over 1000 NP's in Ontario, so maybe we have a critical mass?

Having worked both in Canada and the US I am pretty certain that a US RN would be equivalent to a Canadian RN wether or not you have your ADN or your BSN, the difference may be wether or not you can practice in Canada as an RN with an associates degree as many provinces now require a BSN to practice.

I the university is fully accredited then it probably would, however before starting the program check with the college of Nurses in BC to make sure they do!

I graduated from an FNP program but have always worked in an inpatient setting. Previously with hospitalists and now in cardiology.

No regrets here. And where did you ever get the idea that docs are 'top dogs' in a hospital?? If you want that then go into hospital administration!

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Hi there, You can find more info at the Canadian Nurses Association website. They did a great deal of research a few years ago and the result was the Canadian Nurse Practitioner Initiative. The CNPI does have a website that has lots of info. Also depending on what province you are in you can try to find the provincial NP association. In Ontario go to http://www.npao.org for more info on NP's in Ontario.

I have never heard that holding a license in more than one provinces was a problem. I am licensed in Ontario and NWT and have never had any problems. Registration is expensive in many provinces as the licensing body is also your professional association so you are essentially paying for your license and your professional association dues. In Ontario your registration costs $125 a year but the professional association is seperate here so the cost is lower. I you are going to work for an travel nurse agency negotiate for them to reimburse you for your license fees.

Take a look at the RNAO website, they do have many jobs posted around the province http://www.rnao.org

You should investigate other programs as well to compare what their entrance requirements would be. Doing a full 'pre-health' year after only being out of school for two years seems excessive to me.

Hi Betaq, I have worked in several northern communities. Health Canada does offer an orientation program if you go to one of their nursing stations. Most other regions offer extensive orientations as well. Have no fear no will 'throw you to the wolves' on your own. If you do go up with an agency however be aware that some of them offer no orientation whatsoever and you are expected to hit the ground running if you work through an agency doing relief work in a northern nursing station. So my best advice is decide on what part of the north you want to go to and contact that area directly. They are so short of Community Health RN's just about everywhere they will be happy to help you. Feel free to PM me for more info.

I chose to become an NP as I still wanted to have contact with patients and I was not interested in going into management. From here I can still go into management if I wanted to or go into education, so from my point of view my MSN/FNP gave me the best of all worlds.

Actually in Ontario there have been NP's since the 70's, the program died out in the early 80's only to be revived again in the early 90's. I know that most faculty in Ontario are in fact NP's and some have been NP's for many years. Other provinces have less history with NP's so may have less faculty that are NP's.

Don't forget that with the phenomenal growth in the larger cities in Alberta, wait times can be just as bad or worse than in Ontario. My nephew in Edmonton had to wait 3 months for an Endoscopy, despite recent unexplained weight loss of 30 lbs! Yes the grass is always greener, choose what you are willing to put up with the least, there's problems wherever you go!

I would recommend that you buy a prep book now. You can find them at any boostore. I found the Princeton review helpfull. If you find the prep book a breeze then go ahead and write it now, if you find that the review book is hard then take more time to prepare.