workload

[sailornurse1]

I am a second year nursing student in British Columbia. At the present I do not consider leaving the province when I graduate: I enjoy living on the West Coast.

From research I learned that in Canada RNs workloads have increased to the point where the nurse's day is a contineous rush, client care is left unmet, and nurses are always trying to catch up. During my clinical days I hear remarks from RNs such as " I've been behind 15 minutes the entire day" which agree with the research findings.

My nursing program prepares nursing students to provide safe, competent and ethical care, but for my future I forsee finding a quality practice environment may well prove to be a challenging task, specially since I would prefer staying in the province.

Are there B.C. (or Canadian) hospitals which make an effort to provide a quality practice environment for nurses? What are your experiences with heavy workloads and management support

Your comments and experiences are welcomed.

I found information on workload at:

http://www.rnabc.bc.ca/search/search.asp

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/for_you/nursing/cnac_report/problem.htm#3

http://www.bcnu.org/

[epg_pei]

Originally posted by sailornurse1

Are there B.C. (or Canadian) hospitals which make an effort to provide a quality practice environment for nurses? What are your experiences with heavy workloads and management support

I don't know of any. If you find one, please let me know!!

Seriously, I'm second year too, and my experience with practicals so far is that nurses have do the bare minimum they can to meet the requirement of care. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying any patient suffers for it, but there's care, and then there's quality care. You know. They have little choice, with workloads the way they are, some care is better than no care at all I guess. "Management support" is a bit of a contradiction of terms from what I've been told.

[sailornurse1]

Nurses in general are devoted to their profession, but also frustrated by their work environment. There are problems with nurses' shortages and the provincial government has implemented some strategies to deal with this. There are more nursing seats at colleges, and they will forgive us the B.C. portion of our student loans if we work for 5 years in a remote area. For many of us this B.C. loan portion is not very significant. Are they providing funds for better staffing levels, or more permanent positions?

Locally it is only possible to find casual work as a new graduate: not the most stable environment to gain experience.

The advice I have been given by some RNs has been to specialize, it requires more knowledge and skills, but the nurse-patient ratios are smaller, and there is more time/opportunity to provide quality care.