Calgary Hospitals

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Specializes in ER.

Hello, I am looking to move to Calgary from Ontario and hoping to get some opinions on the different hospitals in Calgary and their Emergency and ICU departments. Which facility is the nicest? Do any of the hospitals have major staffing issues? Which hospital is in the nicest part of the city? Any hospitals to stay away from?

Any insight to make this transition easier would be greatly appreciated :)

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Specializes in ER.

ttt, no replies?

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Specializes in ER.

Nothing???

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Moved to the Canadian forum where hopefully you will get more responses

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You are aware that AHS still is under a hiring freeze? At least 50% of local new grad RN and PNs don't have jobs???

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Specializes in ER.

Really? I was not aware of that. When did AHS announce they were under a hiring freeze? On the AHS website they have over 10 -15 new jobs posted every day for various specialties within all of the Calgary hospitals, so I assumed they were hiring as usual. Good to know, Thanks!

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Specializes in Cardiology.

AHS has been under a hiring freeze since last Spring. If you look closely the majority (if not all) of the postings are for internal candidates only.

ie) http://www.healthjobs.ab.ca/ViewPosting.aspx?a=71534

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

Yes, even now that the minister of health is touting how there have been 2-300 positions filled in the last few weeks, he neglected to mention that those positions just moved the vacancies to other programmes. For the entire province of Alberta there have been many fewer than a hundred postings open to the general public over the last 8 months or more. Virtually all vacancies have the caveat at the end of them stating:

This competition is limited to qualified internal AHS candidates only

I just took a peek at the careers listings on AHS' website and the majority of positions, even though they run to several pages the majority of postings are for either temporary part time or casual, and many of the part time positions are smaller than 60% FTE, which is not enough to live on in this province if you have any dependents.

Permanent Full Time = 22 (10.6%)

Permanent Part Time = 44 (21.3%)

Temporary Full Time = 25 (12%)

Temporary Part Time = 70 (33.8%)

Casual = 46 (22.2%)

You can see that fully 56% of the postings are for what amounts to NON-positions. And as stated previously, the vast majority of them are for internal applicants only. Alberta is no longer the land of milk and money.

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Specializes in ER.

Wow! Very helpful, thank you pete and jan. I guess I'll have to just continue to apply for the internal postings and hope for the best.

Any comments regarding which hospital you would prefer to work at?

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

They aren't even going to look at your application for internal postings if you don't have an AHS employee number. And you might want to read about the contract negotiations we're currently experiencing here as well: http://www.una.ab.ca/negotiations/ As of this morning, UNA has applied for mediation, which is a drastic step this early in the process (our contract expires March 31/10 at midnight) which suggests that there is absolutely NO common ground. Nurses in Alberta do not have the right to strike so the only way to navigate unfriendly negotiations is to seek mediation then arbitration. So things may yet get worse before they get better.

There are issues at most hospitals in Alberta and Calgary's have had some of the most widely publicized. A friend worked in the ICU at the Foothills and seemed happy there; she left when her spouse was transferred.

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Specializes in ER, L&D, RR, Rural nursing.

As mentioned above, there is an unofficial official hiring freeze on right now. There are few positions that don't have the caveat .. " This posting is limited to all qualified internal Alberta Health Services candidates only." 6 as of right now (all casual and not all in Calgary). So Alberta is going through a big change, so now is not a good time to be an RN in Alberta. Our contract is up, no middle ground and things will get worse before they get better. If you are looking for a maybe job, casual may be your foot in the door, but if you are looking for a sure thing, good luck. New grads that didn't get an undergrad job are leaving the province.

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back2bRN

Where are Alberta's new grads moving to? I am curious because some of Ontario's new grads may need to move to find work.

dishes

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