Do you want to become a nurse in Canada? Did you graduate and work as a registered nurse in another country? The Canadian immigration doors are open to professionals particularly nurses who want to work in Canada.
Why would you want to become a nurse in Canada?
You can expect to earn an hourly wage between $25 and $35 depending on your level of experience and the province you work in. The Canadian health care system is publicly funded which means that all hospitals are publicly administered. You will receive the same salary no matter what hospital you work in because nurses are represented by provincial labor unions. There may be some variation in pay between provinces but there is a great deal of parity across the country in registered nurse salaries because of the labor unions.
Besides the reasonable wages there are also employer paid benefits that have been negotiated by the labor unions including vacation time, sick time, education leave, health insurance, and pension plans.
Canadian immigration has a program for skilled workers that includes nurses. If you have one year of experience as a registered nurse in your own country you can enter through this program. If you do not have any experience in nursing you may have to enter Canada through the regular immigration process or through the provincial nominee program.
You will never be short of work. There are over 250,000 registered nurses in Canada and yet there is still an ongoing nursing shortage. Presently that shortage is estimated at 78,000 registered nurses and is predicted to rise to over 110,000 by the year 2010.
Providing that the Canadian immigration rules, policies, and working visa requirements are met you must follow the correct procedure to become a nurse in Canada. With the exception of providing proof of language proficiency this procedure is the same for all applicants even those educated in Canada.
Apply for your registration.
contact the provincial licensing body for registered nurses ( or licensed practical nurses ). Be prepared to pay a fee for your application.
submit all the documentation that supports your education, experience, and immigrant status.
provide proof of English language fluency. This includes both reading, writing, and speaking. Many provincial licensing bodies are now using the Canadian English Language Benchmark Assessment for Nurses. Some provinces will require this condition to be met before they accept your application for registration.
submit proof of a clear criminal records check. You can expect to pay another fee for this. The police run a background check through a database to make sure that you do not have a criminal record.
Write and Pass the Canadian Registered Nurse Exam
Once all your documentation is reviewed and accepted as "equivalent" you will be given permission to write the Canadian Registered Nurse Exam or the Canadian Registered Practical Nurse Exam. Which exam you write will depend on what type of nursing license you are seeking and what you qualify for. All provinces have separate nursing regulatory bodies for registered nursing and licensed practical nursing except in Ontario where all nurses are under the same regulatory association.
Substantially Equivalent Competency Assessment
The number of internationally educated nurses who want to become a nurse in Canada is increasing every year and there have been some instances where nurses were entering the system unprepared for the real job of a registered nurse in Canada. Because of the variations in Education for nurses around the globe reviewing educational preparation and documentation turned out to not be a good predictor of success in the workplace in all cases. As a result a new evaluation has emerged called the Substantially Equivalent Competency assessment or SEC. This is an evaluation that uses both a written test and an observation of your applied clinical skills using simulated nursing situations for the Canadian health care system.
The SEC evaluations are being done mostly in the western provinces. You may be required to undergo an SEC if your paperwork is not sufficient to support an equivalent education or experience as would be required of a registered nurse in Canada. This often happens when a nurse graduated in another country some time ago and has many years of experience but cannot produce the complete educational documentation to support the application.
When your application to write the Canadian Registered Nurse Exam is complete there may be a waiting period because the exam is only offered every four months. However, you may be allowed to work during that time under a temporary nursing license provided all other requirements have been met. You must however, have an employer willing to hire you under a temporary permit and if you do not pass the Canadian Registered Nurse Exam your temporary permit will be revoked.
Many internationally educated nurses are successful in obtaining their nursing license in Canada and the number of internationally educated nurses working in the Canadian health care system has gone up dramatically since the 1990's. Between 2000 and 2007 approximately 20% of the candidates who wrote the Canadian Registered Nurse Exam were not educated in Canada.
Your journey to become a nurse in Canada might be lengthy so don't give up! Being a registered nurse in the Canada health care system means having a secure well paid job that can provide you with challenge and meaning in your life, so it might just be worth it!
Beverly Hansen OMalley is nurse educator with over 6 years experience working with Internationally Educated Nurses who are seeking to become a nurse in Canada. She is the the owner of http://www.registered-nurse-canada.com where she explores the uniqueness of the nursing profession in Canada including comparison of the nursing entrance tests for the US and Canada, comparison of registered nurse salaries across the country and what it means to have a nursing license.
