bubblesthenurse

Hi there! i am currently doing a round-oz trip with agencies. for each state there are hundreds of agencies. but there is a gourp of agencies that service all states. they all fall under the same big roof, and anyone of them can get you a job... the best thing to do is look up australian nursing agencies in a search engine. all the best Nikki

I LOVE IT OUT HERE!!!! this has got to be what nursing is about!! primary care, emergency nursing, EVERYTHING!! I'm primarily doing the chronic disease type stuff, so the health board can get more funding, and i've been flown between 3 different communities already. i absolutely love it. i got into this position by applying to an agency, here in australia. we have a few american and african nurses, and everyone loves learning about eachother! i will try to keep you posted. so far so good!!!

i actually tell my patients ( if they are being narky): "if you thought you needed to come in, and truly think you are ill enough to come to ED, why would you then refuse treatment we reccommend, or want to go home? there are plenty of after hours GP's around." my favourite patient was the one who demanded an ambulance to travel to the next suburb (where the ED is) because she has had 6 weeks of lady partsl thrush. she hangs around for 3 hours and says " im just wasting your time, and my time, i'm going to go home and try the cream the doctor gave me a week ago." oh really?... ya think it might work?

just a few points: 1: we are a proffessional body. they traditional white uniform, while looking smart, conjures up the nurses role of yesteryear, while as fabulous as they were, were not the clinicians we are today. people remember this. the subservience, "yes doctor, what ever you say doctor" 2: as many other people have said on this thread, the way scrubs are being worn, we look scrappy. scrubs are only just starting to be introduced in our hospital. but these are hospital issue uniforms, they have the hospital logo on it, and then the department eg "critical care" where it has started to be introduced. it looks fabulous. but so many people say that they are uncomfortable, the elastic in the pants are too tight. and you cant wear your own pants. in my honest opinion, if we could have it our way, i think i would prefer to wear smart clothing. not a uniform. why should we wear a uniform? we are professionals! the doctors dont wear a uniform. physiotherapists don't. social work doesnt. we have earned the right to wear what ever the heck we like. we have studied just as hard as the people i have mentioned. if we want to stop being seen as "para-professional" (something that a surveyor called me..... what the *** would he know?!) we should start dressing like we want to be seen. bare in mind, that i have no idea what the american allied health workers wear. this is from observation in australia.

im there for 2 months. theres a fair bit out here for resources... mostly uni websites.... i think i must be nuts, because i sure dont feel couragous at the moment.

thanks for the comments... i feela bit over whelmed about it, and im not there yet. i leave in 2 weeks. Just a bit more on my assignment. The aboriginal community population is of about 800 people, with around 50 non-aboriginal people. The nearest town, and hospital is around 600Km's away. (6 hours drive). in an emergency, or if a patient is critically ill, wehave the Royal Flying Doctors, who fly down and pick them up. English is a second language at this place, as it is so remote. Tribal law still plays amajor part in day to day life, and it not not uncommon to have to treat a spearing wound (into the thigh), inflicted as a punishment. The community is a dry community, meaning drinking alchol is prohibited within a 10 mile radius of the town. alcohol is a major health issue within the majority of aboriginal communities, as it was only introduced to them 200 years ago. other chronic health issues are: renal disease, heart disease, diabetes (mostly type 2), obesity, glaucoma, and STI's. Basically, the nurses run a clinic 7 days a week, (mon- fri, then 1/2 days over weekend). there we monitor the health of who-ever needs to be seen. it can vary from a chronic wound ulcer, to a child having a asthma attack or car accident. its pretty much like an emergency department, but theres only 1 doctor, who is there for 4 days a week, then flies out again. so we unofficially diagnose and treat (we can phone a doctor for orders) when opn the Drs days off.

hey guys!!! well i am no longer emplyed at the moment!!! its fabulous!!! my last day was last sunday. i leave for the northern territory in 2 weeks!!!! i'm so excited!!! i will definately be using allnurses more while i'm in remote areas. see you all back here soon!!!

hi, i'm about to head out into the australian bush for 2 months on a remote indigenous community, in the middle of the tanami desert. i have never done this before! the basic set up is this: 4 nurses, running clinics 7 days a week, then oncall over night. there are no hospital beds, if they need a hospital, the royal flying doctors come and get them. there is a GP present for 4 days a week, but then flies out into the town (6 hours drive away) this concept both excites, and terrifies me. i come from working in a well organised capital city tertiary hospital. has anyone worked in such a place? what advice can you give me? i have learned suturing, will learn plastering.

Thanks Gwenith, a friend from work gave me a book on remote nursing. it's a study carried out over a year in a remote community in WA, and talks about all the hardships the nurses under go, and the lifestyle of being a remote nurse. absolutely fascinating stuff, and very useful. it particular, it addresses the issue of recruitment, with the agencies telling people that they are skilled enough to work in such a place, but by the time they get out there and start working, the nurses feel mislead. i feel that this has been done to me. how can a nurse of 2 years be aptly qulaified to make medical decisions? the beauty of going through an agency of course, is that i can always back out of my contract if needed, such as i feel unsafe. 5 1/2 weeks before i go.

Thanks Gweneth, i know that i'm partnered with another nurse, and we take it in turns to be on call during out-of-hours, and then we run clinics 7 days a week. i made sure the agency knew that i dont have suturing or canulation skills, but i have a vast number of other skills. ive halready had 3 months experience, and i was hoping to get more experience at a major hospital's A&E before going, but they said the job is here now, and i would be ok. it still seems a bit astonishing that i am being posted so remote, with only 2 years of nursing experience.

Hi everyone, as part of my trip around australia, ive acquired a 2 month contract in a remote town in the middle of no-where in NT. has anyone worked in this kind of environment before? this is a big step for me, and while im not too concerned about the type of work, i am concerned about the lonliness and isolation i may feel, as i am a city girl through and through. does anyone have any tips? how close can i get to my clients? this is a aboriginal community, and i am aware of some of the social and medical issues faced by such remote aboriginal communities. and i also know i need to distance myself from these issues so i can try to help, but these are also the people i will be living with for 2 months. any ideas?

on my first ever prac as a nursing student, i was placed on the medical ward in one of the major hospitals for 6 weeks. on this medical ward there was an elderly italian lady with dementia who didnt speak english. we , for some reason, called her 'mama' she was ambulant and just wondered around the unit calling "seeeester, seeeeester' we would guide her back to her room. this lady was admitted with something ( i cant remember, somethin infective? cellulitis?) but she also had black, worn down stumps for teeth, which would have caused her pain. one day that my preceptor and i were looking after her, she decided she would change her calling out to " seeeeester, mordo, mordo!" neither my preceptor or i could speak italian, so we assumed it meant pain. so while handing her paracetamol said "si, mama, mordo tableti'. this went on for a few days where these cries out increased in frequency and volume, until 'mama's' daughter came to visit . her daughter pulled us aside and stated that she felt that her mother had deteriorated, we comforted her, and let her go back to her mother's side. about an hour in, mama repeated the same phrase " mordo!!!", where her daughter lept up and said "NO MAMA!!!" After realising that mordo didnt mean "pain" i went over to the daughter and asked what mordo actually means, to which she said "death".... we had spent the last 3 days telling her that "yes mama, have these death tablets....." since then i have always made sure i get at least a sheet of translations of basic languages....

i have to confess, i thought i would lose out on that bonding, having gone through the uni system.... but theses girls are my world. from what i can tell, its not as solid is it would have been if it was all done in nurses colleges, but its there. we've been through eachothers breakups, engagements, breakup of engagments, pregnancies, miscarriages, hitting the single scene together. ive never felt so close to anyone. boyfriends dont 'get' me as well as these girls. plus its only been 2 years post graduation, so there still many more years to come to build on our friendship.

it was my birthday today. and i couldnt think of anyone better to spend my time with that those i studied nursing with. nursing bonds people together. i love these people so much, the are my closest friends. they love me for who i am, and accept my quirkyness despite only knowing them only for 5 years. i have known people longer, but they never KNEW me. nursing through uni still gives you that closesness and affinity you get with those you went through hospital based training. i love these people so much. infact i remember an 80year old nurse coming in in a lecture while at uni, talking about how, at her age, her nursing friends still come and bring her chicken soup when she's ill. 70 years after studying together. and they have been there for all the ups and down of life. i think that is the most beautiful thing in the world. nursing friends:nurse: :nurse: :nurse: by the way. i got dumpes by my boyfriend on my b'day. not impressed:nono: !!! i would like to hear about your frineds you met through nursing. its such a glorious thing. love to all!!! Nikki

that was only my experience of it. if your at the state childrends hospital, you'll be fine, because they have nurses who are speciasised to paeds care/ adult care transition. they dont expect you to be able to cope. not that they are underminding you, it just this way, you have all the support you want or need. the SDN on my unit started at the same same time as me... so my support wasnt that brilliant. congrats on getting paeds!! i should also add here that i didnt mean that all ecu and curtin student are doing nursing so they cant go on to something else.... theres just more chance of there being one or two students who do. but also, we had a guy who did nursing, because when he went back to he country ( an African one... i cant remeber which) he could open up a pharmacy. so, in other words ive been hypercritical. luv all Nikki