Outpost nursing in Moose Factory - New Grad?

Outpost nursing is a great deal of responsibility for a new nurse. When you're "it" and you're faced with multiple situations all going sideways, you will wish for back up. You need to be very sure of your skills and your assessments, be highly organized and extremely assertive if you're going to tackle something like that. You will want to be able to do things without thinking about them and that usually only comes with experience. You might want to think about this type of position for a while before committing to it...

In this sort of situation, the RN is "it"... you're in charge, you are responsible for supervising and delegating to the RPNs and aides and ultimately responsible for all of those patients. Having a doctor on the premises doesn't mean that the wheels won't fall off, and when they do, their presence might save the patient but only with you doing most of the work. It won't be the doc calling for xray, it won't be the doc arranging transfer of a critical patient, it won't be the doc doing compressions and pushing drugs. It'll be you and your RPNs.

Ultimately it's your decision. Make sure you give it as much thought as you can, maybe do a couple of shadow shifts on nights so you can see exactly what it will be like, and make a fully informed choice.

You'll probably find that to be the most sensible thing to do. You will learn a lot, hone your skills and be far more comfortable when you're there on your own. Don't give up on the idea, just make sure you're ready.

Wow, daunting job for a new grad! Kinda depends on what you were doing before you became a nurse...maybe a champion phlebotomist, a MASH medic or ER doc?? There's a real future here and special training available at Dalhousie University, possibly (still?) Red River Community College in Winnipeg...I know I've read of others. For anyone interested, do a web search. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Here's more insight into this challenging job from:

http://www.medhunters.com/articles/knowThyselfOptionsWorkEnvironments$outpost.html



"Outpost nurses are registered nurses who work in Canada's territories and in the northern regions of the provinces. An outpost may be an ambulatory center or a small facility (usually referred to as a health center, but we are using the term outpost interchangeably) with ambulatory services and a few inpatient beds. Some outposts are located in fly-in communities without road access, others are along roads, which require nurses to have valid drivers' licenses in order to travel between outposts. Outposts generally serve villages of 300 to 2,000 inhabitants, with all or the vast majority of the population being Inuit or Native Canadian (e.g., Cree).
Outposts are generally staffed by one to four nurses, who function with high levels of responsibility because doctors, if they even visit, come only once every one to six weeks. (Doctors can be consulted via telephone.)
An outpost nurse functions in a combined/expanded role of clinic nurse, community/public health nurse, ER nurse, and flight nurse.
Due to the high level of responsibility, a minimum of two years of clinical experience is almost always required. Having additional training/certification from a northern clinical program, outpost nursing program, or equivalent is sometimes required and is always an asset.

I am hopefully soon going to be trying this branch of nursing out for size...I have been an ER nurse for 2 years and I was an RPN for many years prior to that - I am nervous but excited at the same time - If all goes well I should be going within the next month or so!

How exciting for you. Out of the frying pan... Just kidding. If you've worked an urban ER then you should be okay.

LOL - yes I was thinking to myself what am I in for - but I have a colleague who does it on a regular basis and she loves it - so I thought why not? - hopefully I will be disciplined enough to write about my experiences - we shall see