Travel Nursing in Canada

[BellionRN]

Hello all:

Looking for insight and wisdom from Canadian travel nurses. I've done some research on agencies and plan to peruse the site for tidbits of info, but I'm also interested in getting a Canadian's point of view.

I have 4 years experience in critical care areas (ICU, Emerge, PACU). My life lately is in a bit of a limbo and I am considering doing some travel nursing. I've always had an interest but never really got the courage to do it, or the opportunity. ...not that I've magically found courage yet but I'm trying to arm myself with some knowledge so I can make an informed decision.

So. Did you enjoy it? What was the biggest challenge? What was included for you by the company? Did they assist you in getting registered in other provinces? Was the company easy to work with? Did you get offered a variety of placements? What sort of reception did you get on the hospital unit? What was the schedule like? What are some advantages you find to being a travel nurse vs having a home hospital?

I know it's easier to respond to questions sometimes so I've included a couple of my burning ones, but please feel free to add anything else you think is relevant or useful to someone considering travel nursing.

Really appreciate your time, thank you!

[kp1987]

I'm looking for info as well, mostly who are the good agencies to work for if anyone was any experience!

[aywl]

Mark, I am interested too

[Mohammad39]

me too

[Fiona59]

The only time I've heard of travel nurses being used is for rural hospitals that quite frankly are so bad that staff already employed by the health service won't go to.

The unions aren't happy when they are used.

All temporary lines are posted and are usually filled by internal staff.

Registration fees are expensive, so very few nurses hold multiple licences. Also, for non Canadian nurses, your education must be assessed by each province to see if matches local requirements.

Every province has plenty of nurses, it's the work that is in short supply.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

@mohammad you can contact select medical connection travel nursing agency and find out if you qualify to work as a travel nurse. I think (but may be wrong) that they only hire nurses who have Canadian experience.

If you apply to be registered in another province, you will not need to have your education re-assessed. The provincial regulatory bodies (except Quebec) require IENs to have their education assessed by NNAS and there is no reason that an IEN who is already licensed in one province would need to be reassessed by another provincial regulatory body.

[Mohammad39]

thx for the informative reply. so if i applied to NNAS and they agreed, i might be able to practice in other provinces as well?, my brother lives in Vancouver, it would be great if i can apply for one registration body for the other provinces

[dishes, BSN, RN]

You cannot apply to NNAS as you are already licensed in Ontario. Did you have your education assessed by NNAS before you became licensed with CNO?

[dishes, BSN, RN]

Did CNO require you to do the IENCAP? If you want to move to BC and become registered there, you have to apply to the College of Registered Nurses of BC (crnbc.ca). Look under the registration for Canadian nurses, RNs from other provinces, labour mobility. If you were not educated in Canada, you need either 5 months experience working in the province you are currently registered (Ontario) or you need to have undergone a competency assessment.

[Mohammad39]

No. I was just assessed by CNO

[Mohammad39]

I did the OSCE then NCLEX. I thought it would be cheaper to apply for one regulatory body for all the other provinces.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

The OSCE is part of the IENCAP which is Ontario's IEN competency assessment and you should not need to undergo further assessments if you apply to CRNBC. It is expensive to apply to be licensed in other provinces, most nurses would not apply to be licensed in another province unless they either moved peranently from one province to another or moved temporarily for work or school.

If your education was assessed by CNO not NNAS, when did you start your application?