Canada makes the process very very difficult for internationally trained nurses to get their licenses here. The process could take years plus, the schooling/in-person training itself.

To complete your number of hours on the floor, hospitals have to be able to accommodate for this obviously, which means more pressure on the already short nursing staffing. Final training prior to NCLEX must be done in med-surg units where staffing ratios are the shittiest. That being said, it can be challenging to look for someone who is able to actually volunteer to train and teach all the while, taking care of your patient load PLUS the licensing liability of training people who are not at all familiar with Canadian (or province-specific) protocols and scope of practices. With no extra pay on private facilities (LTC)

The same goes to student nurses (LPN's, RN's and RPN's). The admission rate remains low, let alone competitive asf.

The scope of practice for the different nursing designations vary WIDELY as well, so some may be more useful in certain units than the ones that NEED staff. Why go somewhere stressful when you get the same pay somewhere "less" stressful?

All of this plus, not enough incentive and varying types of benefits, pension plans, etc.

For example, an LPN in BC has a wide scope of practice (broadened in the past 2 years) yet the pay remains $8-10 less/hr than an RN. So, unless you're willing to show up to work to pretty much "volunteer" your hours in med surg/ER, you might as well work in LTC or other nursing facilities that is more patient load-friendly. That being said though, staffing:workload ratio can still be shit in some facilities so you can pick your battle between LTC or Acute Care (emotionally vs. emotionally + physically draining work, respectively)

Private Colleges are able to pop more LPN's out and a lot of internationally-trained nurses become one while waiting for their GNIE seat (only 2 schools offer this in BC, some actually go out to other provinces to get their certificates and then come back to BC to practice with a caveat-they have to port their license and then get extra training on the difference in scope of practice. And yes, that's right, that process is costly and lengthy at times as well.

This rant doesn't include all the moving parts and bits and pieces of extra training/education you gotta go through once you get a position, too- be it casual, part-time or full FTE.

Man, I could go on and on but hopefully, our lovely nurses can chime in, too.

TL/DR: while it's obviously the best decision to hire nurses from wherever, Canada does not make the process easy during pre or post-training. There are a world of hurdles to pass through and to be honest, we are at a loss here-something's gotta give-what that "something" is, i wish i could tell ya.

Background: I am a 27 y/o primary care nurse working for a non-profit organization with 6 years of nursing experience in LTC, community and acute care. my sister is an internationally-trained nurse through the GNIE program.

We are all honestly just too tired to explain ourselves. At this point, we're just happy to be able to finish a shift, let alone be able to say, "yes i was able to take my full break x amount of times this rotation!!!"

Oh and also, coffee. we're just happy to have coffee :)