nursing in the Canadian north

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Specializes in Labor and Delivery & ICU.

Hello!

I'm a happy labor and delivery nurse in Canada, but lately I've been feeling like I might like to try doing some contract nursing in the Canadian north. I'm a fairly novice nurse (about half a year of medical experience and almost a year of labor and delivery), and I'm pretty overwhelmed by the whole idea.

I'd love to have this very interesting experience, and I'm hoping to make some cash to pay off my (huge) student loans and maybe build a down payment for a house.

Has anyone had any experience in this? I've heard some horror stories, and I was wondering what it's really like.

Are they generally pretty welcoming to less experienced (but keen) nurses?

Is it completely terrifying?

How long are the contracts usually for?

What is the pay like for beginning nurses?

Is this safe??

Thanks a lot! I look forward to hearing!

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

Doing this is a crap shoot. You have no idea what you are walking into and hospitals and agencies lie to get you there. The pay is not always that great.

Having said all that, I do it. Make sure that you are very experienced (at least 3 years) before you try this.

Some facilities are welcoming and some are not

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If you go to the Health Canada web site,they provide a lot of information about it,

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fnih-spni/index_e.html.

My understanding is that they provide you with education before you are actually sent to a nursing station. The length of time varies, I've heard anywhere from 1 week to 1 year, depends on what you negotiate. It's certainly worth checking out. I have heard that before the nursing shortage got really bad that's where many new grads started was up north.

Good luck.

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Specializes in Labor and Delivery & ICU.

Thanks for the replies!

This is something that I really want to do, but it's so easy to get caught up in fears since it's very different from what I'm doing now. But I suppose when I switched from a medical unit to labor and delivery, I was just as terrified.

I guess I'll just have to be very clear with the employers that I won't let myself be put in an unsafe practice situation.

Thanks for the link fancee free. That's really helpful!

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No problem. I hope it works out for you. All the nurses I spoke with who do this love it. Don't be discouraged about having little experience, you gotta start somewhere.

Good luck, let us know how things work out for you.

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