So long home, hello Canada

Nursing BC, Apr 2001 by Griffiths, Helen

FOREIGN-EDUCATED NURSES

In 2000, foreign-educated nurses made up almost 15% of the nurses registering in B.C. But the nurses who survive the process of establishing themselves in B.C. and join the nursing ranks have much to offer beyond better staff-patient ratios.

BY HELEN GRIFFITHS, RN

Imagine working in a health care system with seemingly endless resources. Where staffing levels are sufficient, expensive equipment is no problem, and nurses need focus only on nursing. Pure fantasy?

Not so according to some nurses. In fact, believe it or not, these nurses say this is exactly the kind of health care system many of us in Canada are working in right now. Relatively speaking that is.

To many nurses first educated in other countries, Canada is the land of abundance. Compared to conditions back home, these nurses says nurses and their patients here often have it pretty good.

This is the story of a few of these nurses and the challenges they have faced as they battle with bureaucracy, contend with a new culture, and perhaps learn a new language while striving for what they see as the privilege of practising nursing in British Columbia.

The Pizza Miracle

Mariana Cristea remembers the moment she knew she wanted to be a nurse. She says, "In Romania when I was little, I saw a movie with nurses wearing beautiful white uniforms. I liked to be clean and I liked to help and understand people."

At that time in Romania, age 14 was the deadline for making career decisions. The only way to become a nurse was to pass an entrance exam for a nursing high school.

Cristea remembers, "The elementary school director said, `Look. This is a very difficult test. If you don't pass it you won't have the opportunity to go to other schools such as economics.' I said, `No. I'll keep my choice.' So I did and I was in the top 15."

So barely in her teens, Cristea moved from home to attend the only nursing school in her province where she and her fellow students lived 15 to a room. Admittedly, little time was spent in the room as classes went until 1400 hours and then after a hasty lunch they continued until 2000 hours. After that, study was optional.

At age 16, Cristea and her successful classmates had their diplomas. At 18, they had baccalaureate degrees. After one more clinical year and completion of a practical exam, they were fully qualified as what we would call RNs.

Jobs were awarded according to marks, hospital need and graduate preference. Cristea requested to work in ENT. The only position available in that area was as charge nurse of a new unit. That was her assignment.

"I was barely ready to work as a nurse. I had no experience," she recalls. "I had to make up the beds, the equipment, the inventory and open the ward. After a year, I was fed up. I said, I'm here as a nurse. I want to take care of patients, not instruments!"

Cristea's second job was in emergency nursing. While it was well over a year before her stress level settled, she thrived on the excitement and challenge of caring for critically ill patients. It's only now as she looks back that she sees how strenuous it was. She says, "There, I was also lab tech, receptionist and security officer for the drunks."

After four years of nursing for very low pay in Romania, Cristea became anxious to boost her income. For two years she and her husband worked in an Italian restaurant in Germany. There, waiting on tables, her wages were many times higher than what they had been while nursing in Romania.

"On return, I really felt the difference," she says. "I said to myself, I'm not going to stay here any more. It's not that I don't want to help out, but I have only one life."

Colleagues told her that Canada was a good bet for obtaining landed immigrant status. First she would have to learn English. After being tutored for six months by a friend who had studied English at university, Cristea, her husband and brotherin-law had their interviews at the Canadian Embassy in Romania. Fortunately, they were able to meet the financial requirements thanks to their savings from working in Germany. The restaurant work paid off in other ways too.

Immigrants to Canada fall in one of four categories. They are selected either as workers offering skills needed by the Canadian labour market, as successful business investors, as immigrants sponsored by a family member resident in Canada, or as refugees. The Cristeas were applying for landed immigrant status on the basis of their work skills. A document called the General Occupations List identifies occupations that are considered to be in demand in Canada. A certain number of points are awarded to each of more than 300 entries on the list. The list begins with accountants and goes through barbers, furriers, gunsmiths, image consultants, physiotherapists, and record producers, before ending with yard locomotive engineers. The points range from one to 18. Unbelievably, nursing was not even on the list.

Cristea's husband is a machinist and her brother-in-law is an electrician. They did slightly better in terms of points, but not enough to gain landed immigrant status. In the end, it was the experience in the restaurant business, a purchased diploma in cooking and a practical test where they politely served pizza that got the trio into Canada.