international contact required

fergus51 · Mar 9, 2004

Well, I am a nurse in Canada if you are interested. Our nursing education is a Bachelor's level (4 years of university) and must include rotations in medical, surgical, pediatric, psychiatric and obstetrics. What it's like working here depends a lot on where you are in the country. I live in an urban center so we do have the benefits of technology and staff. I work in a neonatal intensive care unit and we look after babies born prematurely or with physical anomolies and diseases. There is a definite shortage of nurses in the city (made worse by SARS last year) and we are constantly recruiting from Canada and overseas....

purplemania, BSN, RN · Mar 9, 2004

welcome to the forum. In the USA each of the 50 states establishes guidelines on what the minimal education is required for nursing, but generally a nurse can get a Diploma from a school connected to a hospital, or get an Associates (2 yr) degree, or get a Bachelor's (4 yr) degree for entry level. It is possible to get additional degrees which usually lead to research or teaching or administration or working as a Nurse Practitioner (someone who can see patients and write prescriptions, but on a limited basis). Once the education is done, everyone in the country takes the same type exam that qualifies them as a nurse. Then the REAL education begins, when the new nurse learns the duties and responsibilities of a new job. Education AFTER you are licensed depends on state requirements, but in Texas we must have 20 hours of approved education every two years (when we renew our license). As for shortage, that depends on locale. Our vacancy rate is low (about 5-6%) but other hospitals in bigger cities have twice that rate. It makes a difference what type of nursing is needed too. Critical care nurses are in great demand just about everywhere. Hope this helps.

dorine · Mar 17, 2004

Thank you so much for your reply, this is a big help in my schoolassigment. I have another question for you but I´m not sure how to explain it, oh well, I´ll just start. In our educationsystem the emphasis is on the different roles a nurse can fullfill in her/his profession, these roles are: Caregiver (the most obvious one), director, designer (as in inventing new policies in the field of caring), coach and professional. Do any of these roles ring a bell. We have to know these roles (in-depth) and be able to link them to different care-settings. There are many theories which explain these roles. But I think it´s a Dutch thing/system. If this system exists outside our own borders I would like to make a comparison. Perhaps you have an idea? Thanx

Katnip, RN · Mar 17, 2004

I think I can help with some of the equivalents in the U.S.

Caregiver would be a staff nurse at the bedside. Can also work in doctor's offices, free standing urgent care facilities, long term care, etc.

Director: These titles and positions vary from facility to facility. I'll tell you about our structure.

Charge nurse takes care of that unit for the shift, basically a team leader, troubleshooting, finding beds, overseeing all the patients in a general way. Some charge nurses must take on their own patients, others do not. They take care of the immediate administrative problems and help out when things get rough on the staff nurses.

Nurse managers oversee the entire unit including budget for that unit and staffing. Some (should) spend a lot of time on the floor and help out when things are hectic.

Director takes several units: all critical care units, all gyn, labor and delivery, all OR. They work to implement budgets and policies and procedures for each discipline.

Nursing supervisors usually work during off hours and oversee the entire house usually and are there for expiditing transfers and covering crises in either staffing or patient care.

There is a vice president of nursing who rarely, if ever works at the bedside. He or she works with upper management to implement hospital wide policies and procedures for the entire nursing staff, and to supposedly advocate for all nurses as far as pay and benefits. Part of her job would be as a designer.

Coach: We have several positions that could fall under that. I'll use critical care as our example since that's where I work. Nurse educators teach new nurses and nurses who are new to critical care the unique aspects of this discipline: monitors, special drug drips, etc. We also have a formal orientation in classrooms for three months for the basics like blood draws, transferring safely, pain managment...basic skills and how our hospital handles them.

We also have preceptors. These are floor nurses who take a new nurse and mentor and supervise that nurse during the last part of an orienation. The new nurse will get her own patients, but the preceptor supervises everything until she or he is satisfied that the new nurse can perform independently.

I know this is a bit long, but that's at least part of nursing structure in the U.S. at one hospital. Other places will have different structures depending on their needs, though most of those positions are found in one form or another just about everywhere. I never worked in long term care, so I don't know about them.