I am new to this forum, although I have checked it out a few times before registering myself. Happy to have some fellow nursing peeps to look to for advice and guidance!
I am currently doing the BN fast track program in a remote area in Canada and I am itching to get out of here. I am so unhappy where I am, and have even contemplated dropping out of school so that I can go after the life I want, but I can't bring myself to do that because nursing is extremely interesting to me and my only regret is that I didn't chose this as my first degree..would have saved a lot of time and money!
Anyways, my question is: how hard is it to obtain a position in a city in Canada with little to no work experience, besides the work experience I obtain in school. I am worried I will have to work at the hospital in my area for a while and I would really rather not. I am looking at moving to Calgary or Toronto and I'm wondering the likelihood of having a job lined up for when I graduate.
I emailed Alberta Health and spoke with a rep there and they said nurses are in demand so it shouldn't be a problem, but I was wondering if people could provide advice/ experience on this matter.
But my advise is that when you first start working, you take everything and anything you are offered. Once you build up a good reputation and people get to know you, then you can be more particular. Be choosy too soon, and your reputation will be bad.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
Some units are great to casuals, others give them the horrible assignments so their staff can get a break from the incontinent, demented, combative patient who keeps pulling their dressings off and have been there for 46 days.
On my unit it's the opposite, usually. Because our casuals often only work once or twice a month, they get the easy, straightforward patients because they just aren't able to maintain the skills they need to take on more complex and sicker patients. Although with the staff mix on our unit now heavily populated with very inexperienced nurses, those junior regulars may be the ones assigned to the "difficult" patients with the complex dressings who have been there forever and have a lot of social issues.
When I graduated 4 years ago there were cutbacks everywhere. Nothing has changed. I moved to a rural area and worked an insane amount of hours the first three years. I didn't care where I went, I just wanted the experience.
Now I have a new position that I will enjoy and during the 7 weeks I searched for work, I had other calls about my qualifications. I feel very fortunate because the search usually takes much longer, which I was anticipating.
Working rural is tough, but I'm glad I did it. However, if you're hoping for a job in any of the major cities right away, be prepared for a much longer search. We all hoped nursing would improve by now but it isn't going to.
The government controls health care funding and staffing is always the first to go unfortunately. For any non-believers out there, start digging deeper. Halifax nurses were picketting this week, Ontario and BC nurses have been fighting the cutbacks, and AB has been in turmoil off and on since 2008. Educate yourself to the trends and then form your own opinion.
Specializes in AC, LTC, Community, Northern Nursing.
Question can you turn down a shift if you're casual? Or is there a limit or ?[/quote']
Depends on the contract where you are. My current job allows casuals to turn down shifts. One of my previous jobs only allowed 3 turn downs in a 3 month period. And they warn you when they call. So the nurses learned to not answer the phone if they didn't want to work. They let the answering machine so then its technically not being turned down.
Also, if you're regularly refusing shifts the unit stops calling. This is especially true when there are a large pool of casuals or when managers know they can depend on certain nurses who are flexible. If you want the hours you have to accept whatever is offered.
I would still try it for myself and apply. You might be stuck with a casual position but there are some units out there where you can pretty much work close to a full time. The hardest part is getting into AHS. Don't be discouraged, just apply and see what happens. Good luck!
I can't post the link because I'm on mobile, but if you google the Toronto Star "Canada's nursing crisis worse than ever...." You will find the article. It's been written within the last week or so and various friends have been sharing it.
You can make casual work, you just have to accept that it might be the only option and get on with it. I know someone who went back to Vancouver to work after being here for a year or two and she got work in the float pool. Overall it seems to have been okay, though she's had some real crap assignments. So yeah it can be a crap shoot, but then so can nursing in general.
On the positive side, you do have some more say over your hours and vacations and things, though it's best if you can get prebooked hours. You can also be given shifts by other RNs (that may be unique to SUN though). Those then are guaranteed hours. We are able to contribute to pensions based on our hours, but it isn't mandatory, so you don't have those deductions. You can also work one more shift than a FT person and make OT in your last four hours of that shift (FT here is 12 shifts in 4 weeks and one 8 hour "Stat off" to make true full time) so you can potentially make more working casual, though you have to watch your taxes. You can also pick up extra hours or even OT when you're maxed and put it in your time in leiu (TIL) bank, and then draw from that when you don't have hours.
Whether there are repercussions for refusing shifts is dependent on your union contract usually. Here, LPNs can refuse every and all shifts and still must be phoned and offered every shift, because CUPE is very strictly seniority based. If they aren't offered it they can grieve and be paid out for the shift--costly mistake there. SUN on the other hand has a "fair and equitable" policy which is highly dependent on having a good scheduler. This system, while ostensibly designed to dole out OT in a more even handed way, in reality allows them to go to the people they know are more likely to take shifts. Like my scheduler virtually never calls me for day shifts and typically only asks me for OT in advance because she knows I won't take them--she offers me only shifts she is sure I'll probably take. So it's really important you don't invoke the wrath of scheduler in that system. Also if you work in too many places some schedulers are known to "freeze" you out--ie they refuse to give you any shifts and can freeze your TIL bank so you can't access hours you saved.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
I think Saskatchewan is the only province where regular staff can give shifts to casuals. Here in Alberta, that would never fly. That's because if you get a casual to work your shift, they might not have a shift to give you back, and people with FTEs MUST work their FTEs. We can make a trade with another regular or temporary employee but it has to be a trade. And some units are very picky about how far into the future trades will be approved. I've heard of people being denied a trade because one of the shifts involved was more than three months away. One manager went so far as to tell someone that s/he couldn't trade that far ahead because the person s/he wanted to trade with "might not even be working here by then".
I think Saskatchewan is the only province where regular staff can give shifts to casuals. Here in Alberta that would never fly. That's because if you get a casual to work your shift, they might not have a shift to give you back, and people with FTEs MUST work their FTEs. We can make a trade with another regular or temporary employee but it has to be a trade. And some units are very picky about how far into the future trades will be approved. I've heard of people being denied a trade because one of the shifts involved was more than three months away. One manager went so far as to tell someone that s/he couldn't trade that far ahead because the person s/he wanted to trade with "might not even be working here by then".[/quote']
I am in Alberta, and allowed to give my shifts to casuals provided we meet a baseline number of staff on the day in question and I have banked time or vacation available. This varies widely based on unit policy.
Not in Alberta but Vancouver which is also "competitive" for new grads (which I am). I got hired right out of school as a casual as did most of my friends. A few people got fulltime lines. As casual it is absolutely possible to get enough hours. Some tips: Being able to float to multiple units helps guarantee hours (I work at an urban hospital and get calls for all the medical units, and there's nine of them!). In the beginning when they call you, say yes to shifts as much as possible (and it's usually for nights and weekends on short notice!). I did this for the first few months and now have enough seniority in which I am prebooked full time a month in advance. Everyone's situation is different obviously, but I really like being casual. Best of luck to you and stay positive!
Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN
1,790 Posts
Of course you can turn down a shift.
But my advise is that when you first start working, you take everything and anything you are offered. Once you build up a good reputation and people get to know you, then you can be more particular. Be choosy too soon, and your reputation will be bad.