What I Have Found Out So Far (inclusive of a little rant)...

I always hear that nurses are in demand in Canada. Even Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) have predicted a shortage of almost 60,000 nurses by 2022. Which leads me to the question, WHY DO THEY MAKE THE PROCESS FOR AN ALREADY TRAINED NURSE SO LONG AND DIFFICULT TO PRACTICE HERE?!

My research into this has seemed to find that the process can take years. YEARS! I really think Canada needs to rethink this since they're in a nursing crisis.

So the process seems to be;

1. Apply to NNAS (Nursing National Assessment Service) and await your report. Which will be either; comparable, some-what comparable or not comparable.
2. Apply to the relevant provincial regulatory body. The regulatory body will assess you, taking your NNAS result into consideration.
3. Sit an English or French exam - only if your nursing education was not taught in English or French.
4. You then may be referred from the regulatory body to an assessment such as NCAS.
5. Dependent on your NCAS result, you will; Complete 'bridging courses' to bring your qualification up to Canadian standards, and potentially be advised to work some hours as a care aide in Canada.
6. Once this is all complete, you gain eligibility to sit the NCLEX exam.

We're all Nurses - Why are they doing this?

The NNAS report is to check to see how your nursing school training compares to the nursing training in Canada. From what I can tell they just basically run a word check to see if your syllabus at University has the same things on the syllabus to what they learn in nursing school in Canada.

Note : They do not take your working experience into account at all.

If there are any gaps in your education, the regulatory body will ask for additional documents from your employer.

FEES 

NNAS - $650 USD (which works out to be approx $840 CAD + tax. Please take into consideration that you will have to pay to get;

• x2 pieces of identification notarized
• Any fees regarding postage to get the documents sent to your university.
• Extra if you want to apply to more than one province.

BCCNP - $575 for International registered nurse applicant assessment.

College Course - This can range, depending on what your report says. It will tell you what courses they require you to do. From what I've found, a single course can cost around $500. Again, all depends on that report you get.. you may have to do lots of courses which, as you can imagine adds up. I saw a post where someone had paid over $10,000 in course fees!

NCLEX - $360 (which apparently a lot of people fail as it's quite difficult)

My Application:

The process seems like it may be a bit easier for me as I went to nursing school in England therefore my syllabus was in English. If you're applying from a country where you studied nursing and it was not taught in either English or French then you'll have to pay for translation fees for your documents too.

I hope that I am in pretty good standing with this as I studied at a university which ranks of joint #3 in the world for nursing. Watch this space....

Since I live in Vancouver, British Colombia I will be applying for  the BCCNP. The BCCNP is the new reform of the — CLPNBC, CRNBC and CRPNBC as of September 2018.

So that is all everything I have found so far. I have made some headway on this. Detailed updates are coming soon!