SurroDoula

I got my results today (Edmonton area), and I PASSED! Several of my classmates in the Edmonton area also got their results today too, while others are still waiting.

No mail from CARNA for me today, but I checked online earlier and I also have the link to apply for my permit. I'm taking that as a positive sign!

Well, I got mail from CARNA today, but it wasn't THE ENVELOPE, it was the Alberta RN magazine. Is that a good sign?

Up until this point, it hasn't been too bad waiting, but now that it's coming closer to the time when the results are mailed, I'm starting to get anxious! I'm in the Edmonton, AB area, I'll post when I get my results :)

If you are planning on gaining into nursing, go in with your eyes WIDE open - it's a mess now. Also consider if you want to work at the bedside or not - it's looking more and more like if that's what you want to do, go for LPN. I am in my final year of the BScN program, and I went this route because I want to work in an area that currently only employs RNs. Now we are hearing that they are trying to phase out RNs from some of these areas. Had I known before starting school that this was going to happen, I would have done the LPN program.

I'm lucky that I have the freedom to work anything from casual to full time, and would actually PREFER what so many people seem to dislike, such as night shift. Unfortunately, most of my contacts are in Edmonton, so I'm not sure if they will be helpful or not.

I'm scared for two reasons - one is that my parents are aging, and it scares me that they might not get the nursing care they need when the inevitable health issues pop up. I can see myself spending all of my free time at the hospital to make sure that they are getting appropriate care. Secondly, I'm graduating in April and I'm really worried that I spent the last 6 years working towards this degree for nothing. I'm in the Edmonton area, and I am thinking I will have to go rural to get a job, but the problem is my husband and family can't move with me (my husband has a business here and about 85% of his clients are in the area; it's not the kind of business that you can move elsewhere). I also feel completely unprepared for working in a unit that is restructured in this way.

I wrote a paper this semester about the whole workplace transformation issue. If you can find a copy of the Clinical Workforce Strategic Plan 2011 - 2016, March 16, 2011, Version 8.10, on Insite, it is an interesting read. What I don't understand is that they are saying they will be losing so many baby boomers over the next few years, but they are making it nearly impossible for new grads to get jobs if they keep cutting positions - so who do they think is going to replace these boomers when the new grads end up leaving in order to find work? Also, if they actually succeed in moving medsurg units to the new model, how is this going to affect training new nurses? I can't imagine that one RN, one LPN, and one clinical instructor are enough to supervise and teach 8 nursing students. It can be hard enough to find someone on a unit for a co-sign as it is now!

If you are accepted in the winter intake, don't worry about taking your CPR course until the summer - you don't need it until your second semester and you need to renew it yearly - you probably don't want to renew it in the middle of the school year if you don't have to. It's Your Move will be offered in the school year, but if they open it up for the summer, take it then (it's pretty new and they have only started requiring us to take it as of last year). Immunization history can be gathered any time, but wait until you get the immunization form before getting any new ones/boosters.

UNA released the number of job losses expected AHS plans to reduce RN 'head count' despite ad claiming it's seeking more nurses - UNA

Lol, and look at the job postings - most are for part time or casual lines (for both RN and LPN). UNA has commented on it AHS misleading Albertans on nurses work hours - UNA

I agree. From what I can see, their plan (if it even works) will provide a short term fix until the boomers start retiring in large numbers. In the mean time, nurses will have left the province in search of employment elsewhere. So many in my grad class are talking about moving away. I don't have that option, but I'm hoping that my willingness to work nights, evenings, and weekends will work to my favour (dayshift is the least appealing to me, I'm such a night owl).

I'm currently working on a paper regarding the whole workplace transformation that's going on in AHS. In some of their areas of their documents they are saying that if they are able to increase the FTE average to around 0.8 then they will no longer be short staffed anywhere. Yet in other areas they are still going on about how they will need to train 2000 new nurses a year and will hire 70% of new grads. I'm frustrated. I don't know what to think anymore and am worried about getting that first job after graduation in April.

MacEwan is 3.0 - they will accept anyone with a GPA at or higher than that average, in order of application (basically apply on the first day that applications are open for that intake). I got in with a 3.88 (I think) on 21 credits, plus a high school mark average of around 89.

Congrats! You will get a letter saying what you need to do, but you will need CPR (which you will renew yearly, and you need it before clinicals - maybe plan to do it in the summer so that you don't have to worry about renewing during school) as well as a mask fit test and immunization records checked (they will send a form for this as well as info about when to get the mask fitting done). You could go ahead and track down your immunization records to make that process go smoothly. And yes, you should be fine with 6 credits. Don't take any more though since they will consider that to be applying trough a different route, and will have to re-evaluate the application.