Are You an Internationally Educated Registered Nurse?

When you apply to the provincial regulatory nursing authority you will be required to submit your transcripts from the school you graduated from. The nursing courses will be scrutinized for content and hours.

Content

Your basic nursing education must include a sufficient number of hours of nursing theory and practice. This includes:

• biological sciences
• social sciences
• physical assessment
• health assessment
• problem solving
• research
• legal and ethical issues in nursing
• social and political trends affecting health care
• health promotion and illness prevention
• leadership theory
• nursing across the lifespan
• communication, specifically therapeutic communication within the professional helping relationship

Hours

Your transcript must show sufficient hours in both nursing theory and clinical courses with clients across the lifespan and include maternal/child, pediatrics, and mental health nursing.

Substantially Equivalent Competency Assessment (SEC)

If your paper documentation is not sufficient evidence to show equivalency to that expected in Canada you may be required to take a substantially equivalent competency assessment (SEC). The recommendation for an SEC is made by the provincial regulatory body.

Re-entry nurse education programs

All nurses in Canada must maintain their competency to practice. The best way to maintain your competency is to practice nursing. There are, of course, a variety of reasons why your nursing practice may be interrupted.

If you have not practiced a minimum number of hours (usually between 1100 and 1700) in the last five years you will not be allowed to practice until you have completed a re-entry or "refresher course" to update knowledge and skills for contemporary nursing practice.

Re-entry nurse education programs must also be approved by the nursing regulatory body.

http://www.registered-nurse-canada.com/nurse_education.html#recognized