How to transfer nursing schools once you are already a nurse (Canadian edition)
First things first, after all this is going to be the most challenging part of
nursing school in its entirety.
Part I: The informative packet
Let’s begin with filling out the forms. Read through the packet of information
that was given to you while you sat through your lunch half-an-hour in-service
on your new school. Recall that there were definitely two ladies in 80’s attire
(LI8A) indicating which forms were to be mailed to whom and by when and which
were to be copied and emailed to whom and by when and so on.
As you begin reading through your forms note the duplicate forms which are not
to be filled out but are simply “FYI” and place those aside for now, after all
they are actually meaningless and will be handy if you need to take a phone
message for your mom.
Divide up the forms which are to be emailed and the forms which are to be
mailed.
It is wisest to begin with the forms that need to be emailed because those will
require your attention and your wits about you.
The Emailed Forms
Within these forms take out the forms which will require you to supply
additional information and do these first.
Perhaps you should start with the forms that require a detailed resume of the
clinical experience that you’ve had over the last 4 years including the
ninety-year old neighbor that you saw in semester one when you took his blood
pressure for practice.
This is all very important, every single patient you’ve worked with over the
last 4 years absolutely must be written down and please list all of the skills
that you have done and what you would like to do and those skills which you feel
you need more practice with and those which you have not done at all. This is
very important, after all how on earth will the faculty place you in your
community facilities!
After you’ve written down all of the people you practiced taking pulses on and
asked about their congestive heart failure, please run through the other email
forms.
Next it would be prudent to go through all of your old nursing school notes and
find every clinical evaluation that you’ve ever had, even the one from your
first clinical experience which asked you to wear a blue scrub set not
pink/yellow/white/green/purple and to wear white shoes please. Photocopy all
forty pages and sum up all of your absences and late days in hours and write
that down too.
So after you’ve finished your resume, let’s move onto choosing which hospital
and community facilities you would like to go to. Write down why and when and
what experience you’ve had that would be valuable to this facility and if its
not too much trouble write down the ward you would like to work on, the contact
person, the hours that you are able to work, the hours that the facility can
take you, and if you can drive and if you have a car. Please do this for all
six facilities that you choose and don’t delay on this, there are 30 other
students and you certainly aren’t going to slow down this soul train missy!
The Mailed Forms
These are easy. We can start with the most straightforward part of this
section: the clinical evaluations from every clinical rotation over the last
four years. Take the forty sheets that you photocopiedafter writing your
resume and attach these to the summary that you included in your resume of all
of the patients you’ve had over the last four years and seal these in a letter
sized envelope and kindly send the envelope to your health sciences faculty
member responsible for admissions and placements.
This section will involve your previous schooling, and you knowing your name.
Where it says NAME, write your name. Enjoy this because it is likely
going to be the best part of this form. In fact, spend some extra time on this
line; add some jazz to your name with hearts and clip art drawings.
Let us now take a moment and deal with transcripts. If you’ve graduated high school within the last five years then you will need to send high school transcripts. Please do so at this time, and also write a cheque for $20 unless you are from another province then you will need to write a cheque for $40 because you will require special treatment(?).
Take a look at the form called UNNAMED. This is form that everyone keeps referring to as “request for advanced standing!”
Jokes on you! Ha! It wasn’t named! It was a trick! Get it?
Alright now take this form and write down every single course you took in high school starting from grade 10 until grade 12 because the registrar will need this form to be complete or else they will not, under any circumstances evaluate your transcripts.
Do the same for your college and previous nursing schools as well please. Write down on the “request for advanced standing” form every single course that you took in your four years of nursing school plus your electives. This is so that the LI8A at the registrar’s office will be able to look at it and only then will they evaluate your grades.
Write another cheque for $120, this is key because it allows you to actually register for your courses when your date comes. It must be sent along with your “request for advanced standing” form or else. OR ELSE!
Next part will be finishing off the form that began with NAME. When you’ve finished off this, please send the “request for advanced standing” forms in a separate envelope. It will not do otherwise, it simply would not be appropriate. Mail the completed forms in a legal size envelope to the office of the registrar.
Part II: Once you’ve sent the emails...