Nursing In Manitoba

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Jul 13, 2008

I tired responding to this post from work, but oh gee... the computer in my patient's room kept freezing on me. Can't wait for the computerized charting glitches that I just know are coming!

Let's see. Winnipeg has six acute care hospitals; I've worked in four. They all have their good points and their bad points. The Health Sciences Centre/Children's Hospital is the largest hospital in the province and shares trauma care with St Boniface, which is the second-largest (and where I trained). St B does more cardiac care than HSC. They both have obstetrics and NICUs, but HSC handles all the high risk deliveries and the surgical neonates. The only PICU in the province is at HSC as are all the pediatric beds in Winnipeg. HSC is centrally located but is in a low-rent, high-crime area. St B is in a more genteel French-flavoured area and is also relatively central. It serves the Francophone population and is a Catholic institution (no, you don't have to be Catholic to work there or receive care there). The Victoria is in the south end, in the university area; lots of higher end homes around there. Some call it the Hotel Vic, because it seems to be more of a Club Med kind of hospital. It's newer than the previously mentioned two, and they have some... interesting... ways of doing things there. They no longer do obstetrics there, which was considered a tragedy, because they were the first to offer LDRP. Seven Oaks is in the far north end near Garden City. It's a smaller, general hospital and a friend of mine is a physio there. It's a nice building, with lots of parking which can't be said for the other three. The surrounding area is the Asian enclave in Winnipeg, with a large Filipino population Then there's the Concordia in the east end. It's another smallish faith-based hospital, Mennonite. I've never set foot in there, but a friend worked there for awhile. She left to work at HSC. And last is the Salvation Army Grace in the west end. It's a nice place in a nice neighbourhood. Their acuity is lower than the two big centres, but they do have an ICU there. Parking isn't bad either.

The better neighbourhoods are the ones away from the centre of town. We lived in River Heights on the south side, where property values have always been on the high side of average. There are lovely areas in all parts of the city, and I could recommend River Heights, Charleswood, Assiniboia, River Park South, Waverly Heights, Garden City, parts of Transcona, Garden Grove and St Charles for affordability, safety, cleanliness and amenities. Winnipeg is a fairly compact city and you can get from one side to the other in under an hour. My commute to St B was about 20 minutes, to HSC about 12, the Vic 5 and Seven Oaks 40. You can get a feel for the housing market at http://www.mls.ca or http://www.comfree.com and clicking on Winnipeg. They both have maps and neighbourhood listings.

I'm sure getting a job won't be a problem. The website http://www.wrha.mb.ca/hospitals/index.php will take you to a list of facilities in Winnipeg and by clicking on the hospital or facility, you can look at the postings that are open. A quick look showed MANY vacancies. Check it out and see what you think.

I'm off to bed. It was a long night!