Oh, Canada!

[ljgeoff]

Okay, I've been talking to a bunch of folk about my intention to become a community nurse in the NWT. For someone to become a community nurse in the NWT, one must be a member of RNANT/NU (Registered Nurses Association of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut). And to be a member of RNANT/NU, one must have 5 years work experience as an RN, and be of good character and sound mind and all that.

So, I've also been thinking about going for my Family Nurse Practitioner degree. What I'm thinking is that I could go for the NP (it takes two to three years) at a Canadian University. Well, that's if I can get the money. Otherwise, I just need to get a nursing job, preferably in Canada.

Programs that I'm looking at:

University of Windsor
University of Western Ontario
York University
University of Toronto
University of Manitoba

Anybody got a favorite?

Comments

[lovecraftienne.livejournal.com]

Check out my alma mater, McMaster University - one of Canada's top teaching hospitals. Superb Bachelor Nursing programme, and innovative approaches to medicine suggests they may well have something appropriate for NP?

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does. McMaster requires a Cum Laude BSN degree, 2 years of nursing post BSN, and residency.

It is not too far away (my kid are still youngish). Don't know if I can make the Cum Laude, though. I've got a 3.12 now; I'd have to average around 3.5 for my remaining 60-70 credits to pull it off.

But I shall put McMaster on my list.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I don't know a lot about what various schools' medicine departments are like, to be honest.

University of Toronto and York University both put you local to me, which has an appeal in that I'd get to see a cool friend a lot. However, they're in Toronto, which is a metropolis of 4.5 million people, and somehow I have to think that that might not be your speed. Also, cost of living is quite high here. Queen's University has a medicine programme and Kingston is a lovely smaller town with reasonable cost of living. hobbitbabe might know more about their school of medicine. Windsor is where I grew up and where my family are, and I have no idea what they programme is like, but the city is not a place I'd like to spend a lot of time. It's basically a Canadian suburb of Detroit, but the economy is sort of falling apart because the auto factories are shutting down there. Western and Manitoba I don't know a lot about -- London is not far from here but I haven't spent much time there. chezmax didn't go to school there but lived there for a while and might have ideas about it.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had the same self-cautious thought about Toronto as you. Cities are ok to visit...

Right now, my boys are looking at going to collage in the U.P. Windsor is tempting because it's only 8 hours from the boys, and close to Mike's mom and his other partners. Winnipeg is closer to where I want to end up, but is about 11 hours from the boys. I've heard that Kingston is lovely.

Mike is dismayed that I want to emigrate to Canada. He's pushing for Alaska and I told him I'd consider it. He wants me to do the NP programme in Lansing or Madison. I dunno, I have to think about it some more. My gut(1) tells me Canada, and really, the job is exactly what I want.

(1) I have no rational way of explaining this. When I think of Alaska, my body feels avoidance, and when I think of Canada, my body feels happy. It's frustrating, because there's no real thoughts that go along with the feelings, so when Mike asks plaintively why I must go to Canada, I can only shake my head helplessly.

[lovecraftienne.livejournal.com]

I understand that impulse - in all honesty, I'm seeing it all over my flist the last year or so. The growing neo-fascist thing is just...scary, on a down-deep level. I've honestly been wondering whether I want to live this *close* to it, and eyeing my UK passport...