Nursing in Canada

Written from an airplane on route to Baltimore, returning from British Columbia.


While visiting my dad in British Columbia over the long weekend, I ran into (quite blatantly) a possible topic of interest. We were driving through downtown Vancouver when we heard an ambulance in the distance, quickly approaching. While pulling to the side of the road to allow it to pass, we realized we were stopped directly across from a hospital. St. Paul's, a hospital that is housed in an old stone building built in 1894 (the hospital has since expanded). It made me curious to research what life is like for Canadian nurses. Since Canada has a completely different healthcare system, nurses hold a government position, and all citizens are given public insurance rather than privatized individual plans. So, here is a brief summary of statistics I discovered after further research (all done on British Columbia, in particular, since each province holds separate rules and regulations):

• The salary is generally higher than most average nursing wages in the United States. For British Columbia, the set salary for New Grad Nurses is Canadian $30.79/ hour with a $0.70/hourly evening differential, $3.50/hourly night differential, and $2.00/hourly weekend differential. For every 1879.2 hours worked, you increase a step until the final ninth step which leads to Canadian $40.42/hourly.
• You are required to have a bachelors degree for nursing entry-to-practice (usually 4 years in Canada as well, although they do offer 2 year condensed programs in some places), although it is different in Quebec, where diplomas are still offered in some locations.
• You are given the option of 19 specialty areas and must take a focused/ individualized test for that focused area of study.
• Nurses are given more independence than in many other countries. Nurses are expected to fulfill the role of educator, manager (of disease processes), appropriateness of research implementation on patients, and much more. In fact, in Northern Canada, Community Centers are led by RN's.
• There is currently a nursing shortage in Canada and is prospected to remain that way for the next few years (especially in focused areas like the ER, OR, or Critical Care).
• Licensing for nursing is not done nationally in Canada, but rather in the a certain province or territory.
• To become a registered nurse, you must pass the Canadian Registered Nurse Examination (except in Quebec which has it's own exam)
• In order to work in Canada with a Bachelor's degree in America, one must first get a working Canadian Visa, whose application usually requires an offer of employment prior to submission.
• It is highly valued for a nurse applying for a job in Canada (especially Quebec) to speak both French and English, at the conversational levels. 
• Hours are similar to the hours of nurses in the US, although, working for a union allows less flexibility with certain hours worked and does not allow the nurse to create her own schedule necessarily.
• The ration of practicing RN's to the Canadian population is 1 nurse for ever 136 Canadians.

Wages
CNA
Canadian Nurse Complaints (however keep in mind this article was written in 2002).