Caroline0074

Control, It can become very discouraging at times, especially when you miss your family and friends, and your job. But you HAVE to BELIEVE that things WILL get better. And once its over you will feel pretty empowered because this is not something people do everyday. I think if you can move to and settle in a new country, there's not a lot that you will say that you CAN'T do from that point on. On top of that your relationship will be stronger because of all you have been through to get together. Trust me! My husband and I were long distance for 6 years before we got married. It was no fun but I can honestly say we are closer now because of the things we have gone through. So keep that chin up sweetie and if have questions or just wanna vent I am just an email away. PM me for my email address. Caroline

Hi there, Let me first of all tell you alittle about me. I am RN BSN schooled and trained in the U.S. I recently married a French Canadian and moved to Quebec, specifically the Outaouais region (Ottawa/Quebec). I am not going to lie, I would have much rather stayed in the U.S. (Texas) to practice because I liked my job and my field (neonatal) is much more in demand there. However, due to circumstances with my husband's job I felt it would be better for me to move to Canada (I can be a nurse anywhere right?) Back then I did not know that I would have to do EVERYTHING (taking the nursing boards specifically) all over so I emailed the recruiter at CHEO (Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario) and sent my resume which only consisted of my nursing school training and my 2 years experience in the NICU at Texas Children's Hospital (nowhere near as extensive as yours might be after 7 or 8 years). I got a call within a few weeks by the recruiter herself saying she was interested in meeting me if I could fly in from Texas for an interview. They seemed pretty eager. Unfortunately at the time I was not yet prepared. I had not taken the CRNE, not even applied for registration yet, not to mention I had only begun to apply for permanent residency (a requirement to be licensed in Ontario), which, by the way, takes some time. Considering that I was not prepared at all, I was obviously not able to work for them at the time. But I can say pretty confidently that had I been licensed by Ontario and been a permanent residency at the time (even if I had JUST BEEN licensed for 1 -2 weeks) I would be working at CHEO now. Once I moved to Canada with my husband I got another call from CHEO within a month of arriving. It was the manager calling this time to see where I was in the process of applying for licensure. The manager told me that I would have been the first foreign trained nurse she would have hired so she does not know exactly how it works. But if I was not licensed yet, understandably, by law, I could not work. So whats my point? It's ALL RELATIVE. DON'T LET OTHERS DISCOURAGE YOU!!! I have only applied or contacted one hospital so far, CHEO, and I got an almost immediate answer from them. I plan on reapplying there once I receive my permanent residency and I AM CONFIDENT I will have a job. That being said, the system here in Canada is NOT that efficient which makes it a bit of a challenge. It is not that they don't want to hire foreign nurses, its that they are not yet well versed in the matter because the government seems to think its still not a big enough problem (all governments are blind) and therefore not facilitating the recruitment process. The best advice I can give you on the matter is to keep your job in the U.K., if you can, while applying from OUTSIDE Canada under the skilled worker class. You can also register with the college of nurses of Ontario from outside Canada and once your credentials have been recognized you can fly to Ontario to take your exam and if you pass (I am sure you will), all you have to do is wait alittle longer for your permanent residency card and start applying to the place of your choosing (yes I said the place fo your choosing). This way, you would not have lost a bunch of money to come here and sit on your butt doing nothing and stress out. It takes a lot of pressure off you. Trust me, if I had it to do over I would have taken the advice I just gave you. Nursing career aside, I am sure you know that moving to another city or state (province) is already hard work, so I am sure you have imagined the hard work it would take to move to a different country. BUT it is NOT impossible. There are success stories out there, probably more that failures, its just not as easily broadcasted. Take care and good luck. If you have any specific questions please don't hesitate to PM me. Sorry that was so long... God Bless, Caroline

I was not aware of any preparatorys course for the CRNE in my region (Ottawa) so I never thought about it. The question format on the exam is very close to that of the CRNE prep guide. If you study the format of the CRNE questions on the prep guide, and make sure you know your nursing theory and of course community health...you won't need a preparatry course in my opinion. Although if you still feel like you need more resources you can go to this website http://www.care4nurses.org/ Depending on your location, they MIGHT have prep courses or at least be a resource for you to find out more about the availability of prep courses. Hope that helped. Take Care and Good Luck.

Hi there, Use the CRNE to familiarize yourself with the types of questions that will be asked. But also try to either have your textbooks or another resource (such as Saunders Comprehensive Review for NCLEX_RN) to supplement with in case you need to look up things you may not be familiar with or need a bit more review on. As far as websites I would start with this one that explains the determinants of health according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ph-sp/phdd/determinants/index.html#determinants Be able to recognize examples of different determinants of health.

Hi there, Sorry about that. I guess I wasn't specific at all was I? The complete name is Saunders Comprehensive Review for NCLEX-RN. You can buy it on Amazon for about $50. I know it's expensive but it's not only a good resource for the exam, it's can also serve as a quick reference on the job as well, just in case you need to look up a certain disease quickly.

hey there, I guess everyone is different when it comes to studying but for me, I feel the need to understand everything. I can't just settle for memorizing. I did a lot of supplemental reading on subjects I didn't feel I had a good understanding of. So to answer your question, I was alittle excessive, studying about 8 hours everyday for 2 months before the exam.

Hi again. Well my approach was a little different. I personally thought the CRNE was gonna be more technical. It turned out to be A Lot more community health questions than technical nurse based questions (NCLEX (U.S.) was more technical: disease process, S/S, labs, etc). I ended up using Saunders to help me review nursing knowledge (because its been 3 years since I have touched anything outside of neonatology). Saunders helped me review critical nursing knowledge. After doing so I went with the only prep guide Canada offers, CRNE prep guide. I did it once all the way through to see where my weak points still lay. I found I was most weak when it came to community health as well as health promotion. Some Hints: KNOW: Community health: group dynamics, effective communication in group. Health and wellness: determinants of health. also know equivalents of American Heart association in Canada (AKA important canadian health websites). All in all I would say that my "nursing" knowledge is what saved my butt. I must have gotten all those questions right because in the end I had to leave some of the short answer (community health) questions blank because I had no idea what to give them as an answer. I am an ICU nurse and I don't have a lot of patience for community health BUT seeing as how they test a lot on that I would make sure you know it well. What I would do is if you have any doubt about a community health question on the CRNE prep guide, research it further (go back to your community health books)Study CRNE prep guide, do the questions, make sure you have a solid understanding of diseases (SAUNDERS is excellent for review of disease process), their symptoms and what priority interventions you would administer AS WELL AS Community health. After that, PRAY, stay positive, and you WILL Pass. Take Care, God Bless, and if you have any other questions please don't hesitate to ask me or anyone else. Everyone on this board has been GREAT! Caroline:1luvu:

No problem. Good Luck! Let me know what you think of the course. Caroline

hi there, there are a lot more opportunities, i find, in the u.s. i am one of the few nurses that went the opposite way. oh well, my husband loves it here and i figure i can be a nurse anywhere....anyway, first of all the nclex is purely textbook, so i find the less actual clinical (on the job) experience you remember the better. the hardest thing about the nclex to me was the wording of the questions. it seems, at a glance, anyway that the questions are more management type questions, such as, where to put which patients once they are admitted based in their disease process and the nurses you have at your disposal. this is where your knowledge of the different disease processes come in. make sure you know nursing theory such as signs and symptoms, and interventions. now, this is where a lot of nurses get messed up especially if they have been working in the clinical setting for a while....they answer the questions according to what they would do in the clinical setting. you have to bear in mind that they want text book answers. that being said...i took the kaplan review and i thought it was very helpful. the questions are similar to the types of questions you will see in the nclex. the percentage of people that take their exam and pass are 90%, which is pretty good in my opinion. they give you alot of rescources to prepare you. i am not sure where in canada you are now but if you click here it will tell you the locations in ontario (ottawa and toronto). http://www.kaplannursing.com/course_options_state.jhtml?pi=3600058&stateorprovince=on&needeng=false&prodid=null&delivery_type=null&_requestid=30434 i believe there are other locations in canada as well. it does cost money, but i think its worth it to pass the exam the first time around. i also used saunders nclex review to help me with reviewing diseases processes and pathophysiology. to help you with answering nclex type questions, however, i would try kaplan. hope that helped. if you have any other questions let me know, i will try to help if i can. good luck & god bless!

I am asumming you mean the NCLEX. No it does not mean that you failed. My sister's shut off at 75 she felt the same way and she passed. I on the other hand got ALL 265 questions, was sure I would have to take it again, but I also passed. It varied for people in my class. Some shut off at 75, some at 100, some at 200. I think there was oly one person that did not pass in my class and that was because he worked the night before the exam and did not get a wink of sleep. If you truly are talking about the NCLEX, at least you will get your results in 3 days to a week. You can also go online pay a fee and get it sooner, I think, if it still works that way. Good luck and take a deep breath. I find that, in general, you know more that you think you do. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. By the way, thank you for all your replies...

I PASSED!!!! :roll Wow! That was quick, I expected the results would have taken much longer. Good luck to you all! Feb 2007'ers you will be getting yours soon I am sure. Just saw a post that someone got theirs yesterday. Congrats!

Hi there. I am nurse from the U.S. I have recently moved to Canada because I married my Canadian husband (marriage takes somes sacrificing, I guess). I recently took the CRNE in February 2007, like you (I'll spare you the negative comments I have about it, BUT you may have already read my comments a few posts back). Unlike the CRNE there alot of prep courses out there for the NCLEX. The NCLEX is different than the CRNE in that it actually tests nursing knowledge. However, like the CRNE, it can seem very ambiguous if you don't know test taking strategies. Some have the opinion that the NCLEX asked alot of "management" questions, that is, questions only management should have to know. I disagree with this opinion. I find that though the NCLEX may come off this way, it wants to tests your ability to apply the knowledge you learned in nursing school. They don't want to you to spit back what you have memorized but more of what you UNDERSTAND!. That being said, an example might be. If you were a pediatric nurse floating to a medical floor, what patient would you most likely be assigned to. Asthma patient. Postop total mastectomy patient. Total hip replacement patient. or ESRD patient. You would choose asthma patients because as a pediatric nurse you would be most familiar with this disease process. There are also questions regarding a patient with a certain disease that needs to be placed in a room. Who would he/she be placed in a room with. Of course you would choose the patient with a disease either similar to the patient in question or with a patient that would not be vulnerable to the patient in question in any way. Prep books I recommend: Saunders. because it really does a great job reviewing material learned in nursing school in case you need to refresh your memory on some points. Use this book as well as CD ROM to help you with specific disease processes as well as medications (important to know medications!) I took a Kaplan course and I found that the questions on Kaplan were similar to the types of questions you will see on the test. Use this book as well as the CD ROM to help you get familiar with the types of questions you will be asked. Most importantly. Remember that you know more than you think you do. Trust your instincts. The great the thing about the NCLEX is its computerized, once you choose an answer and hit ENTER "YOU CANNOT GO BACK." It tends to scew you up anyway if you do so I think it works to most people's advantage. If you want more in depth and up to date NCLEX discussions. There is a message board here on allnurses that discusses just that, all about NCLEX. It may answer other questions you may have. Go to NURSING STUDENT FORUM and then to NCLEX DISCUSSION FORUM. I hope that helped. If you have any other questions let me know. good luck!!!

So I felt exactly like I felt after walking out from taking the NCLEX three years ago. I FAILED. But I passed the NCLEX the first time and if God wills it I will pass this one as well. If I don't well the worst that will happen is that I will have to take it again. And if I still don't pass it then, I will probably work in the U.S. Canada would have lost yet another potential nurse to the U.S. cause their alittle confused about what material to test nurses on. I think I got all the technical nursing questions correct cause in my opinion the NCLEX was MUCH harder when it came to those types of questions but the questions related to community health nursing, and there was A LOT of those, I felt first, what does this have to do with anything, and then I thought, what exactly are you asking for? I guess I was at a disadvantage when it came to this cause I would guess (correct me if I am wrong) that nursing school in Canada probably teach you, to some degree anyway, towards the CRNE and probably do focus more on community health. I'll be the first to tell you that Nursing school in the U.S. do teach you towards the NCLEX. Nursing school was very much theory based nursing knowledge as it relates to making quick and accurate decisions as to NOT kill a patient. Don't get me wrong, I would not have minded studying more on community health had there been more or less of a comprehensive study guide or preparatory guide that would elude to the types of community health knowledge that would be important to review such as Mosby's or Saunders, or Kaplan among other guides available to ANYONE taking the NCLEX in the U.S. that actually give you a specific rational for the importance of outcomes related to the question. I know I probably have no right to say any of this cause I am not even from here and if I don't like the way Canada does things I should just bug off but I think I have to speak for nurses everywhere, and that includes Canada, that the CRNE DOES NOT test nursing knowledge. The only reason why the test was difficult was because you did not have much to prepare you for what would be tested, the length of the test (9 hours, I thought my head would explode by the time I got out of there), and the content tested was an insult to anyone that was not a community health nurse or had a major interest in becoming a community health nurse. Seriously, does knowing the characteristics of a focus group have anything to do with saving a life? If it does and I am totally off the mark here please someone explain it to me. Oh by the way, I didn't only vent about this here I also wrote a very nasty evaluation after the test as well. So this is my contribution to all you would be nurses that have to take this exam. Hopefully it will wake someone up, although I have to say I don't have much faith in government, the U.S. and Canada alike. Any governement for that matter. But I can saythis at least: I DID MY PART. OK I AM OFF MY SOAPBOX NOW. Thanks for letting me vent...

Just curious, how do you view your relationship between nurses and doctors in your unit? Do they value nurse input?

I think all nursing exams are like that. But if I have to take it again, I will take it again. By the way, where do you practice? I am a NICU nurse too!!! I worked at Texas Children's Hospital before moving to Canada. If I have my way, I would like to work at CHEO In Ottawa.