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SickKids
Two women hold a baby seated upright in a hospital bed. They both wear medical masks.

Nursing at SickKids

SickKids nurses strive for excellence in everything they do, and SickKids strives to support nurses to be their best and thrive in a rewarding and inspiring workplace. Our kind of nursing is unlike nursing anywhere else!

With a strengths-based approach to care, SickKids nurses are equipped with the knowledge and tools to discover and develop the strengths within our patients, families, communities, and within themselves.

Join our awesome nursing team!

View current nursing job opportunities


Reasons to work at SickKids

Woman wearing scrubs and a stethoscope stands in a hospital hallway.

Flexible scheduling

We are hiring nurses with full-time and part-time status, with flexibility to change status, divide your role between different areas, and control your scheduling so you can enjoy the right work-life balance and grow your career at SickKids.

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Professional development opportunities

Access career development and educational opportunities, including tuition support, scholarships, educational funding, and in-house career development programs.

Two women wearing business casual clothing smile at the camera.
Woman wearing scrubs stands over an infant in a hospital crib.

Unique and diverse career opportunities

Make the move into hundreds of diverse nursing roles across SickKids – strategic projects, quality improvement initiatives, specialty nursing, research work, virtual care, and international assignments. Flex your time between projects and patient care.

Nurse wearing a medical mask holds a stethoscope to a young girl's chest. The girl sits smiling on a hospital bed.

Practice in a variety of paediatric specialities

From newborns and toddlers to tweens and teens, our patients are as diverse as our nursing areas of care.

Nurse wearing a medical mask holds a stethoscope to a young girl's chest. The girl sits smiling on a hospital bed.
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Neonatal Intensive Care
  • Paediatric Intensive Care
  • Cardiac Critical Care
  • Haematology/Oncology
  • Bone Marrow Transplant
  • General Surgery
  • Neurosurgery
  • Orthopaedics
  • General Paaediatrics
  • Mental Health
  • Pre-Operative, Intra-Operative, and Post-Anaesthesia Care
  • Organ Transplant
  • Vascular Access
  • Wound/Stoma care
  • Enterostomal Therapy... to name a few!
Four nurses wearing medical masks stand in a crowded hospital hallway.

Earn more sooner and for longer

You have the potential to earn more than a nurse with equivalent experience at other hospitals.

Woman demonstrates a medical procedure on a simulation device. Two women observe.

Protected orientation with a preceptor

We are committed to educating the next generation of nurses and experienced staff looking for a new challenge. From the day you start, with our comprehensive orientation and preceptor program, you’ll find yourself in a supportive environment and on a path to a rewarding and fulfilling nursing career at SickKids. 

Woman demonstrates a medical procedure on a simulation device. Two women observe.
Three people dressed in medical gowns, gloves, caps and goggles stand at a surgical bed in an operating room.

Work alongside a team delivering the highest quality of care and shaping scientific discovery

Our staff are the best of the best, and a big reason why SickKids is regarded as one of the world's top hospitals. Our renowned nursing leaders will inspire you along your journey. 

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Shared governance and collaborative structures

Nurses’ voices are heard and are represented at many decision-making tables, through our RN Council, Nursing Practice Council, and the many interprofessional practice oversite committees (EDI, Vascular Access, Medication Safety, etc.). 

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Advanced Practice Nurse Council

The mission of the Advanced Practice Nurse Council is to enhance and promote the optimal professional advancement and contributions of Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) at SickKids, individually and as a group. With over 100 APNs, SickKids is fortunate to have one of the largest APN groups in the local health care community. The council strives to strengthen APN contributions and better facilitate better knowledge transfer.

Registered Nurses' Council

Our vision: one council, many voices – empowering nurses together.

As leaders in the nursing profession, the Registered Nurses' Council strives to develop leadership skills while collaborating to initiate and sustain high quality unit specific and hospital wide initiatives. We advocate to provide and solicit stakeholder input, communicate and share pertinent information to strengthen the nursing profession. We support professional practice, build a healthy workplace as well as recognize and celebrate nurses.

  • 30+ active members from all across SickKids (Including inpatient, ambulatory and research)
  • Meet monthly to discuss issues impacting the Nursing profession.
  • Responsible for hospital-wide floating/relieving guidelines, Urgent Scrub Program, Professional Practice Rounds, Nursing Week, the DAISY Award and more!

Nursing Practice Council

The Nursing Practice Council at SickKids is comprised of local practice leaders representing each of the clinical areas to ensure nursing has a clear and thoughtful voice in policy development, practice changes, and hospital-wide initiatives that guide and affect their practice.

Frequently asked questions

Yes! SickKids has a long-standing tradition of hiring new graduates and over the years we have tailored our orientation to meet the unique needs of recently graduated nurses. We will prepare you to practice competently and confidently in an acute-care paediatric environment.

Yes! A temporary class licence is accepted until you have a chance to take the RN registration exam and register.  You will be classified as a “New Grad Clinician.”

SickKids offers the most robust and comprehensive orientation program in Canada for new nursing graduates. For the first three months, new hires receive paid protected time to be a learner. You will participate in:

  • Instructor-led classroom activities led by subject matter experts
  • Hands-on interactive learning sessions and skills labs
  • Clinical learning activities to consolidate knowledge and skills
  • Online self-paced learning and simulation experiences
  • Highly specialized unit-based orientation for each area of specialty under the ongoing support of an Interprofessional Education Specialist.
  • Preceptor-supervised orientation shifts in direct patient care for the first three months and longer for our critical care areas.
  • Structured evaluation of new graduate nurse competencies

Yes! Other acute-care, hospital-based clinical rotations where you provided direct patient care and developed transferable skills can be applied in paediatrics. Past volunteer or work experience with children and families can also be an asset when working at SickKids.

Staffing ratios vary depending on the unit, patient acuity, and staff experience levels. Nurses who transfer from adult acute-care hospitals will find that staffing ratios in paediatrics are lower due to the different care needs of children and their families.

SickKids is committed to supporting continuing learning and professional development. From the day you start, you will find yourself in a supportive environment and on a path to a rewarding and fulfilling nursing career. SickKids nurses have access to many career development and educational opportunities, tuition support for graduate studies, scholarships, educational funding for workshops, conferences and courses, and countless in-house career development programs and events.

SickKids nurses use self-scheduling which allows them to request shifts that best meet their personal needs and preferences. In accordance with scheduling guidelines, you will select the shifts that match your preferences. A unit manager then approves the schedule and ensures all shifts are accurately covered.

Yes! We are recruiting nurses at all stages of their careers and with various past work experience. SickKids offers opportunities for learning and professional growth in areas that may be new or different for you. This is your opportunity to join the SickKids family and launch your career in paediatrics.

We tailor your orientation based on your previous experience and will ensure you have a smooth transition into paediatric practice. Consider your adult experience as the foundation for transitioning into working with a different patient population. For example, adult perioperative nursing experience offers a good springboard for transition to perioperative nursing in paediatrics, similarly with other nursing subspecialties such as critical care, oncology, or emergency care. Our educators, clinical orientation support nurses and preceptors will guide you through this transition.

SickKids provides a structured orientation for experienced RNs who are new to the hospital. Your department education specialist will guide you through the orientation process, ensuring it is tailored to your specific needs. Your orientation will include various learning modalities and clinical aspects. You will participate in:

  • Instructor-led classroom activities led by subject matter experts
  • Hands-on interactive learning sessions and skills labs
  • Clinical learning activities to consolidate knowledge and skills
  • Online self-paced learning and simulation experiences
  • Highly specialized unit-based orientation for each area of specialty under the ongoing support of an Interprofessional Education Specialist.
  • Preceptor-supervised orientation shifts in direct patient care for the first months
  • Structured evaluation of paediatric nurse competencies

You will have paid protected time to be a learner and to become well-familiarized to your new clinical area.

Due to the specialized nature of care at SickKids and our firm belief that nurses are best supported in their growth and career development within the context of a home team, SickKids does not hire new staff into a centralized float pool. Instead, units have the opportunity to recruit staff into Nursing Resource Group (NRG) positions once they have completed orientation and demonstrated the requisite competencies. NRG staff hold a guaranteed permanent 0.8 FTE with additional available FTE of up to 0.2 on a home unit. The additional flexibility created through the NRG model enables us to better meet fluctuating patient care demands while also supporting RNs to develop specialized expertise in their chosen area of practice. NRG contracts are time-limited after which time RNs have the option of choosing to remain in the NRG or transition into the FTE that works best for them.

Yes, SickKids offers dedicated rental housing accommodations for all new SickKids professional staff. Learn more about the Alan Brown Building and fill out the application form to apply.

Have additional questions about nursing at SickKids? Email cfn.practice@sickkids.ca 

Meet our nurses

Meet Chantel, Connected Care

As a Connected Care nurse at SickKids, Chantel educates parents, caregivers and homecare providers on how to care for children at home once they’ve been discharged from the hospital. Learn more about her role and what it’s like to be a nurse at SickKids.

Meet Kevin, Cardiac Critical Care

Kevin has been nursing at SickKids for 15 years. He is an RN in the Cardiac Critical Care Unit, a member of the Critical Care Response (CCRT) team as well as the Ventricular Assist Device team. Learn more about their role, and approach to nursing, and what they like about working at SickKids.

Nurse Anjelica Guytingco stands in front of a red sign that reads "emergency" in white font, wearing a mask and a SickKids lanyard.

Meet Anjelica, Emergency Department

In this fast-paced environment where every day is completely different, Anjelica says the team’s ability to collaborate despite the many moving parts is what makes her job so rewarding. Learn more about her role.

Latest news

Indigenous and Black Nursing Student Awards

February 27, 2024

Student awards aim to support greater equity, diversity and inclusion in nursing; meet the 2023/24 recipients

Through the 2023/24 Award for Indigenous Nursing Students and the Award for Black Nursing Students, SickKids welcomed four award recipients to the hospital for clinical placement.

Four advanced practice nurses at SickKids stand together on a staircase landing in front of a blue banner that reads, “SickKids VS”.

October 23, 2023

The Advanced Practice Nurse Council unites SickKids nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists

The Advanced Practice Nurse Council is made up of more than 150 nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists across the organization.

Registered Nurses' Council Co-chairs Katherine Andrews and Gina Driedger stand together leaning on a banister in front of a window.

August 18, 2023

The Registered Nurses' Council empowers SickKids nurses to be changemakers

The Registered Nurses’ Council is a collective of more than 30 registered nurses elected to represent most areas throughout the hospital and act as stakeholders for decisions related to nursing.

Nine people stand together smiling, pointing at the camera.

Ready to join us?

If you're looking for a meaningful nursing career where you can make a difference, apply now to join our SickKids team.

Apply now

Registered Nurses Association of Ontario - Best Practice Spotlight Organization

SickKids is the first paediatric Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) in Canada, and has been a BPSO since 2009. We continue to integrate Best Practice Guidelines using collaborative and inter-professional approaches. Over 20 Best Practice Guidelines have been implemented at SickKids.

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