URGENT POST TO ALL ONTARIO RN's!!!

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This is an urgent post going out to all of the Ontario RN's (especially those of us who have been registered recently and were directly affected by the registration guidelines in place) who agree with me that the college of nurses' sudden change of heart to reverse the registration guidelines (must write and pass exam by jan 1st 2005 or else require a bsn) IS ABSOLUTELY UNFAIR AND UNJUST. You can submit your feedback to the college by phone, fax, email, or mail and they will be collecting comments until aug 2004 before they convene regarding this matter in september.

I will be posting my personal story shortly, but in the meantime i think i can speak for many of us who were severely affected by the guidelines and had to make considerable sacrifices to complete their diploma studies and write their RN exam under the wire, before having to go back a complete a bachelor's degree. For many of us this meant relocating (even as far as the states) and spending tens of thousands more in expenses...for others the guidelines meant giving up on the idea of becoming an RN altogether. I know many, many, many people who unfortunately fell in to that category. Up to late 2003 I was still contacting the college to see if there might be anyway at all that the guidelines may be adjusted so that i may seek an alternate way to complete my studies. I was flatly told "NO WAY!" and from now on the college only wants bachelor-prepared RN's.

I feel that many of us have been OUTRIGHT LIED TO for many years and this must NOT go unchallenged.

We all knew for many years that uping the anti to have only bachelor-prepared nurses by 2005 was unfair, but those were the rules that were in place and we were all aware of it for many years. To suddenly change their opinion now and call the guideline "unfair" is a horrible insult to those of us who did "summersaults" to abide by the guideline in place. In addition, the guideline is unfair to canadian would-be nurses, because while our diploma programs basically are now shut down, foreign-trained nurses will are still be trained in their diploma-type programs and will still be able to come and write the exam in ontario well into the future. Now how fair is that to us who pay taxes in this system to train and prepare and register canadian people (of all races).

I urge you to please let your opinion be known. As for myself I will also be contacting my local MPP office the ministry of education as well as talking to legal counsel regarding the thousands of dollars i would have saved had i known about the possibility of the guideline being relaxed in the future.

take care,

pissed off rn in ontario

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This is an urgent post going out to all of the Ontario RN's (especially those of us who have been registered recently and were directly affected by the registration guidelines in place) who agree with me that the college of nurses' sudden change of heart to reverse the registration guidelines (must write and pass exam by jan 1st 2005 or else require a bsn) IS ABSOLUTELY UNFAIR AND UNJUST. You can submit your feedback to the college by phone, fax, email, or mail and they will be collecting comments until aug 2004 before they convene regarding this matter in september.

I will be posting my personal story shortly, but in the meantime i think i can speak for many of us who were severely affected by the guidelines and had to make considerable sacrifices to complete their diploma studies and write their RN exam under the wire, before having to go back a complete a bachelor's degree. For many of us this meant relocating (even as far as the states) and spending tens of thousands more in expenses...for others the guidelines meant giving up on the idea of becoming an RN altogether. I know many, many, many people who unfortunately fell in to that category. Up to late 2003 I was still contacting the college to see if there might be anyway at all that the guidelines may be adjusted so that i may seek an alternate way to complete my studies. I was flatly told "NO WAY!" and from now on the college only wants bachelor-prepared RN's.

I feel that many of us have been OUTRIGHT LIED TO for many years and this must NOT go unchallenged.

We all knew for many years that uping the anti to have only bachelor-prepared nurses by 2005 was unfair, but those were the rules that were in place and we were all aware of it for many years. To suddenly change their opinion now and call the guideline "unfair" is a horrible insult to those of us who did "summersaults" to abide by the guideline in place. In addition, the guideline is unfair to canadian would-be nurses, because while our diploma programs basically are now shut down, foreign-trained nurses will are still be trained in their diploma-type programs and will still be able to come and write the exam in ontario well into the future. Now how fair is that to us who pay taxes in this system to train and prepare and register canadian people (of all races).

I urge you to please let your opinion be known. As for myself I will also be contacting my local MPP office the ministry of education as well as talking to legal counsel regarding the thousands of dollars i would have saved had i known about the possibility of the guideline being relaxed in the future.

take care,

pissed off rn in ontario

Hi there.

we can quite understand your frustration, I want to correct with respect to foreign nurses working in Ontaraio, I am a foreign nurse. We all have to pass BSc Nursing to even apply to CNO, and also passed the CRN, to be approved as RN by CNO. They do not accept any diploma nurse programme, from abroad.

Canadian immigratio too, never accepted diploma holders to work in Canada.

wish u all the best.

bye for now PD

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you know what? i understand your frustration, but if you've completed your course and written the exam, what's the big deal? you're a RN... you've got your license and nothing's going to change that, regardless of the CNO's decision...

i'm a diploma RN who graduated from an Ontario college last year... all the diploma programs in my area stopped their intake in 2001 in order to give their student ample time to pass their registration exam... i wrote in January and really felt like the Dec. 2004 deadline really didn't place any added stress on my writing...

the bottom line is that 1) life isn't fair, and 2) striving for a BScN/BN qualification for nurses will only further the profession of nursing...

beth :p

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i've just gone to the cno's site and read up on the proposed changes... and having done that, i think the proposed changes are actually very reasonable and really has very little bearing on those of us who "jumped through hoops" to complete our diploma programs and write our rns by dec. 2004...

from the cno's website...

in light of these concerns, in june 2004, cno council approved in principle that the registration regulation be amended:

  1. to allow applicants who have met the registration requirements by december 31, 20041, and who have evidence of "safe nursing practice" to write the examination for registration until november 1, 2005, and if successful, to register with cno.
  2. to provide a limited registration for applicants who will have graduated after december 31, 2004 and who are registered in another canadian province or territory and will not meet the new ontario education requirements for registration:

    these provisions include:
    • establishing a transitional class of registration to allow these applicants to be registered and work in ontario while enrolled in a program that will enable them to meet the new educational requirement.
    • a time limit for holding membership in the transitional class: rn members will have four years to meet the new education requirement; rpn members will have two years to meet the new education requirement.
    • a requirement that members provide evidence they are enrolled in an education program that will result in them meeting the new education requirements; membership could be revoked if they do not provide such proof on at least an annual basis.
    • a "sunset" for the transitional class: applicants must apply for this class of registration before january 1, 2007. this class will cease to exist on december 31, 2010 for rns and on december 31, 2008 for rpns.

[*]to provide fairness by allowing all qualified applicants who were registered in good standing in other canadian jurisdiction before january 1, 2005 to be allowed to register in ontario, regardless of whether they completed their basic nursing education in or outside of canada

as licensed rns, we're entitled to portability within canada... so amending the requirements to respect that seems valid... for example, newfoundland requires all nurses trained in newfoundland to have a degree... but they will license rns from out-of-province who graduated with a diploma... it makes so much more sense to have a system that works that way...

i moved to alberta after registering in ontario... i was told by the cno that it would be best to keep my ontario license because so many things are still up in the air with regards to whether or not i would qualify if i let my on license go and then reapplied in a few years... this would certainly make things a lot easier for people like me who wish to move in the future...

beth :p

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They all still have to get their BSN don't they? If so, I don't see the big deal

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hey everyone,

for all nurses who were negatively affected (and for those who weren't able to even initiate their studies because of the guidelines CURRENTLY in place) we are trying to seek legal counsel as a group. Our position is that we DO NOT want the regulations to be ammended in any way at all as it put many of us at an unfair disadvantage compared to this "priveledged" group that may now receive an extended grace period. this potential change negatively impacted 100's of us, never mind the many who were not able to pursue their nursing education at all, or had to post pone it and give up the idea of becoming a nurse. i for one, was almost in that unfortunate category. it is unfair after years of advocating for the bsn by a very strict timeline, to change this timeline literally at the eleventh hour (the meeting to convene this issue will be taking place this september)

please private mail me...or look out in hospital news for advertisement seeking input from people in order to make a case for ourselves with a legal representative. basically our position is that we will be suing the con for damages if the changes are passed through in september.

thanks.

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Specializes in Psych, Informatics, Biostatistics.

I am an Albertan graduate working in the US. I wrote the Canadian exam in 1987. My question is how will this affect me if I ever want to practise in Ontario ? All my family still live there.

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This is an urgent post going out to all of the Ontario RN's (especially those of us who have been registered recently and were directly affected by the registration guidelines in place) who agree with me that the college of nurses' sudden change of heart to reverse the registration guidelines (must write and pass exam by jan 1st 2005 or else require a bsn) IS ABSOLUTELY UNFAIR AND UNJUST. You can submit your feedback to the college by phone, fax, email, or mail and they will be collecting comments until aug 2004 before they convene regarding this matter in september.

I will be posting my personal story shortly, but in the meantime i think i can speak for many of us who were severely affected by the guidelines and had to make considerable sacrifices to complete their diploma studies and write their RN exam under the wire, before having to go back a complete a bachelor's degree. For many of us this meant relocating (even as far as the states) and spending tens of thousands more in expenses...for others the guidelines meant giving up on the idea of becoming an RN altogether. I know many, many, many people who unfortunately fell in to that category. Up to late 2003 I was still contacting the college to see if there might be anyway at all that the guidelines may be adjusted so that i may seek an alternate way to complete my studies. I was flatly told "NO WAY!" and from now on the college only wants bachelor-prepared RN's.

I feel that many of us have been OUTRIGHT LIED TO for many years and this must NOT go unchallenged.

We all knew for many years that uping the anti to have only bachelor-prepared nurses by 2005 was unfair, but those were the rules that were in place and we were all aware of it for many years. To suddenly change their opinion now and call the guideline "unfair" is a horrible insult to those of us who did "summersaults" to abide by the guideline in place. In addition, the guideline is unfair to canadian would-be nurses, because while our diploma programs basically are now shut down, foreign-trained nurses will are still be trained in their diploma-type programs and will still be able to come and write the exam in ontario well into the future. Now how fair is that to us who pay taxes in this system to train and prepare and register canadian people (of all races).

I urge you to please let your opinion be known. As for myself I will also be contacting my local MPP office the ministry of education as well as talking to legal counsel regarding the thousands of dollars i would have saved had i known about the possibility of the guideline being relaxed in the future.

take care,

pissed off rn in ontario

I wish to bridge from RPN to RN and didn't have the opportunity 2 years ago to apply. I am 50 years old and the thought of 4+ years to achieve RN status is far too much.

It will be a total shame and how will the CNO and the wage scale be offered when only BSCN is the only way to go.....Good for you I respect your opinion and totally agree.

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