CELBAN Preparation in the 🇬🇧 UK, 🇮🇪 Ireland, and internationally

Updated 2021

Dear Kim

My name is Q , my colleague and l would like to take the CELBAN test. Prior to taking or booking for the exam we would like to practise and prepare ourselves.

We are registered nurses currently based in London, UK, we are interested in migrating over to Canada next year.We will be very grateful if you recommend some preparation resource materials ,also wanted to know which states run preparation workshop for the exams .We would like to take the test … but most centres are fully booked.Which state are you based and do you running any preparation classes?

Hope to hear from you soon. Q

CELBAN Preparation in the UK Dear Q,

Welcome! How excellent to hear from you in the UK! (And others from Ireland that are reading this as well.) It is very wise of you to prepare for the exam before you write it, and even more so before you come to Canada.

Basically it can take up to 6 months to prepare for the exam, so now is a good time to start for an exam…. Some people can prepare in less time, depending on their strengths and weaknesses.

We will be very grateful if you recommend some preparation resource materials

The good thing about CELBANPrep is the fact that everything is online: available where you are, when you are. Through CELBANPrep University we provide: CELBAN online courses, CELBAN online classes, and CELBAN material. This means that all of the resources are available to you in the UK, before you come to Canada. The titles that are available on Amazon UK are:

Grammar Essentials Series

CELBANPrep Speaking

CELBANPrep Writing Level One (Task 1 & 2)

CELBANPrep Writing Level Two (Task 2)

NOTE: There are two parts of these courses. The learning and teaching videos are available through CELBANPrep University.

Which states run preparation workshop for the exams

In Canada we have “provinces” not states. Each province has a different process, and different requirements to become a LPN or RN (which continues with the announcement of the National Nursing Assessment Services) but basically they are all the same: high English scores, some kind of equivalency exam, a practicum and the national exam. Here is a link to the required scores. The order of the steps may change, but most provinces have all of these steps. Here are some examples that were posted some time ago:

However, with this said, the testing for the CELBAN is centralized by one organization with many locations and testing sites. A new national administrator for the CELBAN has been administering the exam since September 2014.

But, as a result of COVID, as of January 2021 the CELBAN is available online, and as such is available internationally.

As such you would register for the exam with the main organization at https://www.celbancentre.ca and choose the location where you would like to take the exam, with their online registration.

So starting your CELBAN preparations, from where you live outside of Canada, now is a good idea. One of the best things is that there are many resources to help you to prepare, through Amazon in the UK and in other places!

Is your Medical Training in the UK?

One thing to note about Internationally Educated Nurses educated in the medical system in the UK is that in Canada nurses are trained first as generalists, and then as specialists. That means that our nurses, upon graduation, can enter into all areas of care. But, in the UK, the medical education system has had nurses choose a specialization early in their education process. As such, when it comes to the competency equivilency exam: if you are educated in the UK, you may be required to take university level courses to fill your gaps in knowledge.

That will be determined at a later date:

After you complete your application with NNAS,
After you submit your documentation to NNAS, and
Once you have submitted your English proficiency exam (required of IENs educated outside of the UK.)

If your medical training did not happen in the UK, get the required English score first, then apply for the NNAS.

Which [province] are you based and do you running any preparation classes?

Since 2009 CELBANPrep has been offering online CELBAN courses, online CELBAN classes, and CELBAN Material.

What is the difference?

CELBAN online courses: textbooks, workbooks, lesson plans, and the like.
CELBAN online classes: small groups that get together on a regular basis to practice skills taught during the online courses.
CELBAN intensives: CELBAN online courses, classes and material that helps people to decrease the amount of time it takes to prepare for the CELBAN.
CELBAN material: quizzes, handouts, assigments to practice skills required to pass the CELBAN.
CELBAN reviewers: e-books, websites, blog posts, Facebook updates that expose IENs to the format and structure – expectations – of the CELBAN.

All of this is available online through CELBANPrep University.

Why is there so much CELBAN material? Because CELBANPrep has become the expert in the field having helped hundreds and thousands of Internationally Educated Nurses from around the world and living across Canada to prepare for the CELBAN exam.

Why online? When I first started teaching IENs to prepare fot the exam I realized that their schedules did not allow them to attend all of the classes of a traditional classroom. I knew that the only reason why I was able to complete my Master in Education with a 5 year old at home, was because I was able to do my assignments and to mark assignments (I was a Teaching Assistance for a Communications: oral and written) online.

So, when I started CELBANPrep I started teaching online when no one else was doing it! Cell phones, smart phones and tablets did not exist in 2009. And YouTube was only 4 years old. American Idol started in 2002.

I was a forerunner. I learned about technology and I started creating online CELBAN courses, online CELBAN classes and online CELBAN material before anyone else did. I am still the only creator of CELBAN books and e-books.

Why? Because I knew that there were Internationally Educated Nurses across Canada living in little towns without any access to the resources available in the big cities like Vancouver and Toronto. I knew that because when I worked for an employment agency that provided services to Internationally Educated Nurses, so I spoke with many who lived in rural parts of Alberta.

And, I continue to remember a nurse calling me from the UK. He was on an oli rig in the middle of nowhere, asking me questions about the CELBAN exam. According to the policy, because the organization I was working for was being funded by the government, our territory was limited. I was only permitted to help IENs in a certain region. I was not supposed to help people from outside of our region. But here was this man, on an oil rig, calling me long distance, from the UK, asking me questions about how to prepare for the exam.

That was why CELBANPrep has never been supported or funded by government money. I was unwilling to limit the people who came to me and what I could tell them.

CELBANPrep exists because Internationally Educated Nurses, like you, invested in themselves through CELBANPrep: from 2009 to today!

Creating CELBANPrep online, granted me the freedom to teach anyone and everyone that came to me for guidance and direction: regardless of location and immigration status. That was why I started creating online CELBAN courses, online CELBAN classes, and CELBAN material that was available internationally.

COVID didn’t make me do it. Taking with that one RN in the UK, and many others living in rural Canada, in 2009, made me do it.

Where do I start? Here are some articles that will help you figure that out.

I hope this helps!

Sincerely,
Kim

SEE: CELBAN Preparation Internationally

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