Weird Situation

I'm moving this thread to the International forum since it relates to immigration-type issues.

One thing I can tell you is that by the time your immigration status is sorted out, every province in Canada will require a BScN for entry to practice. The grandfather clause would not apply to you because you won't have time to complete your education, register and obtain any sort of experience before the change takes place. You should take that into consideration.

Theoretically it's possible to do that, but in practice it's about as full of potholes as an Edmonton city street. Transferring credits from one Canadian university to another is difficult, doing so from another country extremely so. The only way to know for sure if credits earned where you currently are would be to first find out what universities there are in the area you wish to move to and then contact them with all the particulars of the courses you're thinking of taking for their assessment. My daughter has degrees from three different universities in three different provinces and even with a completed degree she found the application process to be a three-ring circus. But by all means, if you have that kind of energy, look into it.

Not creepy. I KNOW creepy.

You're right, it would be a huge effort. I didn't tell you all that to discourage you, only to give a heads-up. Things are always made to be unnecessarily complicated, I find. As to the question of health care experience, that's hard to answer. Some schools will see that as a huge advantage, and others are more interested in what grade you got in ninth grade algebra... and how many years ago you took it. And if there were a way to know which schools are which I've yet to figure it out. From a personal perspective, health care experience is golden in my books. Too many people go into nursing school without any idea of what they're getting into. (Read some of the First Year threads and you'll see what I mean.) "I want to help people." Well, you'll be doing that in ways you never dreamed: hot, dirty, smelly, back-breaking, undignified, demeaning and heart-rending - but not usually all at the same time - ways. And you won't be given as much credit as you deserve for what you do. But those of us who went into it with our eyes open did it anyway, and are still doing it. Working as a nurse's aide you'd definitely have an unvarnished view of our world, and the things you learn in the course of that job will help you greatly in school. IF... you're the kind of person who looks for opportunities to learn in whatever you do. Some of the nurse's aides I work with are inquisitive and know so much more about what we do, how and why we do it than they're ever recognized for. Others just do what they're paid to do and no more (sometimes actually much less!). I think you'd be in the former group.

What would I do? What I did... I came to this career as a pharmacy technician who was also the mother of a medically-complex youngster who spent many months in hospital. I saw the gritty reality of nursing work but still felt called to it. I knew that nurses are the unsung heroes of the medical world. Patients usually come to see that for themselves and their recognition is the best reward. (Now if they'd only go out and tell the world!) So in your shoes I would find work as a nurse's aide and start building a knowledge base. No learning is ever wasted.

You're welcome! I'm sure you'll do very well on the test. Look at it as a dry run for your Canadian Registered Nurse Exam.