mamaonamission

"You're extremely lucky that your boss's boss is willing to find you a new job. We don't know the details of your situation, but the tone of your post is extremely angry and confrontational and I'm wondering about what started this whole business." - It really twists my knickers when someone vents about an upsetting situation on this board and a poster infers that they come across as "arrogant, confrontational, etc", thus deserving of the situation they found themselves in. Geeze, leave the poor poster alone - of COURSE they are upset or they wouldn't have started the thread. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt that they were given a bum deal - I've spent over twenty years working with nurses and know that a lot of ugly and unprofessional conduct goes on behind the nursing station....but maybe that's a dirty little secret we should not bring out into the open.

I'm trying to wrap my head around what constitutes a nursing shortage. I know that Provincial Nursing Associations state there is, or soon will be a nursing shortage, but if you look at the statistics, Canada is in the top ten for nurses per people ratio: Nurses (most recent) by country I've heard Health pundits state that Canada is in a very good position with the amount of nurses we have and will continue to have. What does this mean? Is the nursing shortage real, or a politically generated position to strengthen barganing positions? Just curious...

Hey! Are you going to Humber College? I had my orientation day yesterday at Humber's North Campus - is this your college as well?

I can relate - I am 41 and have five young children, age eight and under, and am going to be restarting my RPN studies this September. As much as I would have liked to do a two year BScN degree, it is a financial and logistical luxury that we can't afford with so many little ones needing care and attention. So my plan is to do the RPN and, if it is feasible and feels worth it, bridge to the BScN over the course of three or four years. And if I can do that, then I would love to become a pediatric NP by the time I'm 50 :). I wish you luck with your venture into nursing and think you are doing the right thing to balance school and family.

Hi StudentNurse75! I am a fellow RPN student at Humber College and am glad to find you on this board. I am doing the program part-time at the North Campus. Yes I've seen the lab and it is very cool and high tech - you will enjoy it! Just to let you know there is a Canadian forum on this board where you can post questions related to Canadian nursing. Cheers!

Wow, that post just made my week! :nmbrn:

The discussion thread on this student site has a lot of high school students telling what their averages were to get into nursing school for Sept 2009: http://forums.studentawards.com/yaf_topics22_Health--Medical-Sciences.aspx Good luck!

For the past two years I've monitored hospital Job Postings in the Greater Toronto Area, to see which hospitals hire RPNs on a regular basis. I've noticed over the past month or so that Practical Nurse positions are dwindling at a rapid rate, which RN positions remain steady/or even increased. Does this make sense? At the hospital I work at in Toronto (as a ward clerk) I was told by a nurse that RPN positions are the first to go during hospital cutbacks. I would have thought it makes more economical sense to hire RPNs over RNs since they are paid less. If you have any opinions on this, please feel free to share.

As someone who lives in the High Park area of Toronto with four kids and a dog, I have to throw my hat into the ring and say that Toronto is a very nice city to live in if you enjoy cultural activities, people who don't all look alike, ethnic foods, amazing teaching hospitals with cutting edge technology, world class performances, beautiful hiking and jogging trails and over-all a racially tolerant city. If these kind of things don't appeal to you then by all means pass Toronto over.

Yes, I do. I work as a US on a spinal/neurology floor, working alternate weekends. Before becoming a nursing student I worked part time as a US during university. I did my job but at point in my life had no interest in nursing. Now that I will be a nurse, my job is a wonderful tool for getting a front row view as to what floor nurses do and deal with each shift.

This post strikes a chord in me as I just came off an exhausting shift at the hospital where I work as a ward clerk on a med-surg floor. It is an extremely heavy floor (neurosurg and spinal) and today we were short one nurse and you really feel it when you have 30 patients on the floor. A 32 year old woman was there to be discharged and taken home by her mother - both rude and snottty in attitude. They wanted to leave but we explained they had to wait until the doctors' did rounds that morning and wrote the D/C order. After the order was written, the nurse did not even know it was there as she was extremely busy with her six patients. When the women was told she was free to go home, she and her mother came to the front desk and demanded from me to see the nurse. I was in a flying frenzy - three phone lines were ringing for me to answer, four patients were buzzing on the patient call centre, nurses were asking me to do this and that and the relatives of two patients were waiting to speak to me - no word of a lie, it was INSANE. So, as I am trying to field and cue all the demands and requests that were being fired at me I tried to explain to them that the nurse would come over to see them as soon as she finished with the patient she was attending to. These women were oblivious to everything but their own wants. They glared at me and stood aside, checking their watches and huffing. When the nurse (within 10 minutes) came over to go through their follow up info with them they were rude to her as well. But..... (This final part of my story is petty but I could not help myself.) A 1/2 hour after the mother and daughter left I got a call from a pharmacy stating that the two women were there with a prescription that did not have the hospital stamp on it (they left before I could stamp it) and the pharmacist wanted me to verify that the daughter had indeed been a patient at the hospital. I could have said yes, but I found myself asking the pharmacist to call me back in 15 minutes so I could check the chart. I heard the mother and daughter freaking out in the background when there were told they would have to wait 15 minutes for verification of their story...I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a big grin on my face when I hung up that phone.

You can certainly apply as a mature student - there is an entrance exam you must pass to be accepted, but you do not need to have any other prerequisites. The exam is on Biology, Math and Chemistry as well as an English essay. You can also apply part-time - check out the Humber College website for the information as to how to complete a part-time application. If you do decide to go this route, feel free to email me for any questions you may have. Best of Luck!

Humber College offers the RPN diploma part-time, two evenings a week until clinicals, for a length of three years. I'm enrolled in the program myself and it works wonderfully as I have four young children and work as a ward clerk part-time alternate weekends. Sheridan College also offers a part-time evening program I believe. The BScN is not offered part-time evenings here in Ontario unless you are already an RN looking to bridge from Diploma. if it was offered to non-nursing students I would have gladly taken it. The closest program I could find for a part-time BScN was through McMaster U - but the course are offered during the days at various times, rather than the evenings.

I'm a practical nursing student here in Toronto and check the job postings at all the GTA hospitals on a daily basis, just to keep my finger on the pulse of the RPN job market. In my opinion, the best money ($22 + hourly starting) is not within downtown Toronto. Mississauga, Brampton, Burlington and Hamilton hospitals hire practical nurses at that starting salary, and are letting them work to their full scope of work. If you looking to work right downtown Toronto in a hospital, the RPN jobs are few and far between - I saw an ad for an RPN starting at $19/hr, while ward clerks make the same hourly wage. Hope this helps!

Hi All; I'm a week away from starting a part-time practical nursing program that I would graduate from in three years, four months. My end goal is to be a nurse practitioner. I am 39 years old, and currently a stay-at-home mom with four young children and I work part time as a ward clerk. Here in Ontario, I would have to work for a year before applying to a RPN - to RN bridge program. I would then have to go to university for close to three years full time or five years part time to earn my BScN. After that, I would work for a year as an RN and then apply to undertake my Primary Care Nurse Practioner degree. I would be roughly 49 when done, and would have had to juggle school and raising little ones for ten years. My other option would be to continue working part-time as a ward clerk (every other weekend) for the next three years, and take distance university courses so I could apply for a two year fast-track RN program in 4 years (my youngest would be in grade one and my oldest would be in grade 5). My hubby and I would have to scrimp and save to come up with the money for me to go to school full-time AND hire a nanny to look after the kids, and household work. Money is very tight, but basically in six years I would have my BScN and be able to bring in decent money. I'm not certain as to what to expect with my kids and going to school full-time - is it realistic to think I could still be a good, attentive mom, run a household and study full-time? Which path would you choose to reach your destination?