USA psych nurses doing it in canada

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Hello,

Iam new to the forum so sorry if this has been asked before but I have been psych nursing in USA for 5yrs and am interested in doing it in BC. My credentials is just BSN, RN. Are you able to get into psych nursing in canada with that.

Thanks for your advice.

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Yes, you could work in psychiatric nursing in BC with US psych experience and a RN/BSN -- provided you get the appropriate Canadian work visa and a license from the College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia (CRNBC).

If you haven't been in touch with them already, contact the CRNBC about getting a license. I'm in Alberta and I know it's a long process here for US nurses to get a license involving paper and practical tests, and often having to take a practicum.

There are Registered Psychiatric Nurses in Western Canada, and while they are specialized in psych, it's a not a degree program. RNs with psych experience and Registered Psych Nurses do the same jobs in Western Canada.

And of course it is difficult to get nursing jobs in BC, much as it is in every province. Good luck!

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Specializes in Child and Adolescent Psych.

I am an RPN in Alberta and I have the Bachelors of Science in Psychiatric nursing, it is a 4 year degree program that I took out of Brandon University in MB. From what we were told during school is that all the psych nursing programs will be switching to a 4 year BScPN program in the next few years. On our psych units at my hospital I would say 95% of the nurses are Psych nurses, rarely are there RN's. Now all we need is to be able to work in Eastern Canada and life would be peachy keen. :yawn:

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