Proposed Guidelines for Canadian Federal Skilled Workers

It was a big disappointment for everyone who was waiting for Canada to re-open its immigrant applications last July when they announced that they had postponed it to January 2013. Aside from this change of date, they also announced new changes were forthcoming.

Here's the list of changes in FSW:

1. Language Proficiency -  minimum language proficiency while maximizing the points

2. Age - points will be lowered to accommodate younger immigrants

3. Work Experience - increased points for Canadian work experience and lowered points for Foreign work experience

4. Employment Offers - will be simplified to fill up vacancies

5. Spousal Language Ability - spouses with language proficiency exam results will be given additional points

Nursing Specialties Degree Online

If you are a nurse and you want to go somewhere in your career and earn more, all you have to do is do further studies and earn a certificate or degree on a special area in nursing. Sure, you can say that you don't have the time to do it what with all the jobs you're juggling, but the good news is that you can get your degree online! There are loads of schools and universities offering online studies. Here are some specialty degrees that could be your ticket to earning more and saving more!

1. Forensic Nursing - here, you can work in exciting places like doing a crime scene investigation. Been watching those CSI shows on tv? That can soon be you! Plus, you get to earn $55-$300/hour! Great huh?

2. Home Health Care Nurse - most of the members in the aged society want to be taken cared of in the home where their families are close and not in a lonely nursing home with other elders. It's actually a growing phenomenon and you can definitely find a job anywhere from the hospitals to the nursing homes.

3. Legal Nurse Consultant Programs - combines the nursing expertise in the courtrooms, if your heart lies in between these two. These legal nurses are in demand for their expert advice in dealing with difficult criminal or civil cases. Earn $70-$200/hour!

4. Geriatric Care Manager - assisting families and their elderly with long term health care issues is what you do. Get to earn about $74/hour.

On Immigrating: To Hire A Representative Or Not?

Many nurses who have trouble finding employers in the country they'd like to work in are opting to take the migration route. This way, once they arrive at the country of destination, it would be easier to find employers rather than applying from their home country.

Although migrating is an easier choice, it still involves a lot of paperwork and documentation -- something not everyone is good at. To remedy this, there are a few who choose to hire representatives to do all of this for them. But then, you have to cash out a huge sum of money to pay a person or group of people to do something that you can do for yourself (if you have the patience to do it). And there's also the problem of crooked immigration consultants who are only after your money and then disappear faster than a wink of an eye.

Many countries, especially those who are relying in immigrants to fuel their economy, have made the immigrating process easier for those who are interested. So if you're planning to do such a thing, it's better to do your homework first before deciding to hire a representative.

Most countries have a scoring system to determine whether a candidate is eligible for immigration or not. If you think that you are not going to pass the score, it is not wise to create falsified documents from desperation. Many illegal representatives do this and you should know that you are only wasting your time, money and more importantly, you will be tarnishing your reputation. Immigration officers are not very kind and forgiving for such actions so better think twice or even thrice on the subject.

Nurses For Canada -- Closed Until Further Notice

Every nurse around the world -- the ones who want to migrate to Canada, that is -- all eagerly anticipated the re-opening of applications last July 2011 by the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). And sure enough, the cap was reached in September 20, 2011 -- just shy of three months since July's opening.

Compared to last year, where CIC accepted 1,000 applicants for each NOC category -- including Nurses, they slashed the limit in half for this year. That's a total of 500 applicants for nurses around the world! And with all the nurses sprouting up each year and more wanting to migrate to Canada, it's no wonder that it has reached the cap in a wink of an eye.

Although CIC has stated that it will only accept this amount of applications in 2011, they did also note that if there will be no backlogs in the applications, they could add a couple more before it will again reset in July 2012. For everyone who is hoping that they would change their minds, let's keep our fingers crossed!

A Very Long Absence

I would like to apologize for not keeping this Nursing blog updated regularly. I've been quite busy with work and other hobbies that I've left this one gather dust, figuratively speaking. Good news is that I have plans of writing all the information I've gathered from these couple of years working as a staff nurse. I do hope that you'll be visiting regularly for the updates as well.

See you around!

Get An Online Nursing Degree

These are the days of the internet and that is so true. There are tons of things that you can find and do online. There's online shopping, social networking websites and there are even schools that offer online degrees! It's just amazing what you can do on the internet.

Back in the days, you had to travel to get to school, wake up early, avoid traffic and you had to get dressed, eat and of course, shower. Now, you can simply turn on your computer, log on and go to school. It's becoming so easy to earn a degree and it won't matter if you are a single mom, working full time and or taking care of your entire family. You can still go to school and get that nursing degree that you've been dreaming of.

There are only a couple of things that you would need to start:
1. Computer
2. Internet Access
3. Electricity (of course!)
4. Credit Card

Now for the last part, it really depends on the school that you are attending. There are schools that allows you to pay the fees online while there are others that actually have a school and an accounting department where you have to go to. You have to check with the school for that.

Regarding the internet access, you should get one that's stable, reliable and fast. You wouldn't want your classes to be cut short because your internet service provider is having troubles with the connection.

Getting a Nursing Degree is easier now and you can take advantage of that by enrolling into one now. Who knows, maybe in a couple of months you'd be working as a nurse at a hospital!

Nurse Employment And Staffing Agencies

How hard can it be to find a nursing job these days? Not hard at all! Sure, there's all this talk about the recession and people getting laid off from work. That's not happening in the field of healthcare especially in nursing.

Even in these times, people still seek healthcare. There are still people who get sick and ask for help from the experts on health - the doctors, nurses and other members of the healthcare team. So don't hesitate when you're thinking of taking up Nursing since you'll never find yourself unemployed.

There are plenty of job openings for nurses. Check online and you'll see hundreds of them. There are even websites for staffing agencies that will help you find the ideal work setting that you want. Some even offer signing in bonuses, help with relocation and other benefits.

In nursing, there are a variety of career paths that you can take. You won't only be confined to the hospital as a staff nurse. Though, that's probably where you'll start. From there, you can choose a specialty and become a nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, psychiatric nurse and a number of other specialties. You also have to remember that having a specialty also pays more.

Try these websites for size:
http://www.nursejobshop.com/
http://nursejobs.com/
http://www.staffingmedical.com
http://www.travelingnurseplacement.com/
http://www.professionalnurse.com/