Becoming an RN

Registered nursing is a challenging and rewarding profession offering an astonishing range of choices and opportunities. Nurses practice within the domains of research, education, administration and direct care in a host of practice settings in urban and rural locations. Whatever your interest – working with children, scientific procedures and high tech equipment, teaching and promoting healthy practices, developing your management skills – nursing has something for you. Here are just a few examples:

In the community:

• Health clinics
• Schools
• Wellness programs in the workplace
• Doctors’ offices
• Home care
• Family planning clinics
• Poison control centres
• Prenatal and well-baby clinics
• Rehabilitation centres
• Sexually transmitted disease units
• AIDS hospices

In a hospital:

• Emergency
• Intensive care
• Operating room
• Post-surgery
• Maternity
• Cardiovascular (heart)
• Oncology (cancer)
• Psychiatry
• Pediatrics (children)
• Palliative (dying people)
• Geriatrics (seniors)

Making up more than three-quarters of the regulated nursing workforce, registered nurses are the largest single group of health care providers in the country. The title “Registered Nurse” is a professional designation. Occasionally, there is confusion in our society between an academic or educational credential (e.g. BN for bachelor of nursing degree). Individuals who are on the register of practising registered nurses have fulfilled all the requirements for practising registration and are authorized by law to use the professional designation “RN” or “Registered Nurse".

To apply for initial registration with the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba you must graduate from an approved nursing education program. Once you have graduated, you will be eligible to write the Canadian Registered Nurse Examination (CRNE) and apply for initial registration in Manitoba.