healthyone

hi everyone! i am a relatively new nurse, got my RN in ontario in oct '03 and have sort of been bumping around trying to find a spot for myself since then. sars really slowed down my progress because of the hiring freeze, but am now in a position where i can really look seriously...i have put a bit of a resume together between casual work and agency. so my question is, where do people think is a good place to go as a new RN? i'm a hard worker, but i don't do very well with politics in the workplace. i've discovered about myself that i cope well with moderate caseloads (even heavy when needed) and can organize myself well to get the job done, but so far i've struggled when i'm placed in the charge nurse position. i'm more of a team player, than a team leader and really prefer it that way. so in a nutshell, i'm looking for the type of hospital where i do floor nursing on a med/surg type unit, preferably where i don't have to direct or co-work with RPN's...no offense (i originally just wanted to be an rpn) but at my current job that i work better with rn's than rpns and the RPN's have done more competing with me than actual helping me out. i've noticed that RN's are sometimes pushed into rotating into charge nurse position or pt care managing while the rpn's do more bedside care. i actually really like working at the bedside and would like to just do that for now: meds, am/hs care, treatments, orders, etc for a caseload. i would really appreciate any help at all if you know of hospitals that you've had good experience with or even specific floors/departments. i have a car and am willing to travel anywhere from whitby to oakville/brampton area and even as far north as york central; although for convenience would prefer something more central. open and private emails welcome. thanx so much! healthyone.

globalRN, you're the whiner and complainer. i speak my mind with full conviction as to my arguements. i don't just backlash when something affects me personally. i am socially conscious and involved and get involved in many issues...not just the ones that affect my people or me personally--that's your area. i care about my patients...if i only wanted to care for other nurses' welfare i would have gone into law or administration, not nursing. in my training, caring for co-workers is part of the total picture of caring. not the forefront. i have no idea what you received (or interpreted) from your training. i'm very involved in the well being of people in general. from your responses i doubt you can say the same. you seem selfish and unconcerned about the bigger picture and indifferent to the fact that americans really would benefit more from their own people caring for them primarily and that foreigned trained nurses should not get more of a silver spoon that a native. i'm so embarrased for you that you find that hard to comprehend. i am part Native myself, and can definitely speak about the ethnic perspective. you mentioned that america really belongs to the natives and immigrants. how ignorant of you to delete the huge contributions of africans to this country, brought here unwillingly several hundred years ago. your perspective is so limited, globalRN. it would probably help you a little to research more intelligently on subjects that you debate so hotly! nurses like you scare me...rather, people like you scare me. you just argue on and on and don't stop because someone has offended you. you don't really care about the issue at all, just that your bee is in a bonnet because other people may not be impressed with the care your people give in a GENERAL SENSE. if you don't like it why don't you start workshops on how to change the perception? there...that's a good pat answer for you. as for your harping on an on about how to help myself...God! i have already explained to you in a simple way, i am not interested in your patronizing career recommendations. including my pending nursing degree, i have 3 health professions under my belt. i hardly think i need your help in the area of self-sufficiency. i only used myself as an example to make a point that my experience is like many others'. you must of missed that point with your ranting and raving. Is that similar to the 'wonderful' care you were referring to when working with your patients--hammer them down and patronize them until they feel like they couldn't survive with your self-reported 'great nursing care'. God, i hope no one i know ends up on your tours anytime soon, global. in a way, i'm glad you interacted with me on this bb...it will give you a chance to see yourself through someone else's eyes. it doesn't really seem to me that you give yourself a chance to do that in your everyday practise. if you had, i don't think you would have missed the boat so completely on this issue.

To global RN, I refuse to get 'ugly' with you...you're doing that fine all on your own, but i will say this: I am NOT interested in you being oriental (and you DON'T need to quote that next time, the description is perfectly logical to me), and I am not interested in how well you speak english. That is no bonus that you do; you OUGHT to if you are working in an english speaking country. I'm quite certain your people would not accept a caregiver's inability to communicate in the native tongue of your country for one minute. i'm not interested in whether your eyes slant or not. maybe that's your preoccupation, but i don't know you, and i don't care. you deal with that. I am NOT interested in your pat answers on how to 'deal' with my situation. you have no idea! i have already payed my $40K debt for my first university degree, $20K debt for my car, and much more debt than this to help out my wonderful family and i don't wish to quantify that amount with you. so i'm sure i have supported myself in a more commendable way than you or 'your family' would ever know. in fact you seem to have quite a few pat answers in your reply: uhh, globalRN, since you're the smart one with the ideas, why don't you? or do you just pipe up when it's to the benefit of yourself and your people? do you really care whether american women get trained in nursing in an economical way, or was the backlash just against someone else speaking their mind and reflecting on what they believe. i believe that the people in a country should get greater benefits than immigrants, or refugees or foreign students with regards to retraining. there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with my opinion on that issue, and everything commendable with that. i'm sure there are hundreds of thousands of american women that would love to retrain in nursing, would love to have all expenses paid, and a portion of whom would be glad to work in rural or underserviced areas for a period, to better their life experience and their futures. I know this for a fact based on people i've spoke with and people i move with. where are your facts,globalRN? who have you spoke with or dialogued with about this? do you really care to dialogue with anyone about this? or do you just try and stamp out other people's arguments with anger and cry-baby responses whenever you see or hear something that remotely blemishes your obviously high perception of yourself--"you're perfect, you're oriental, you're a good wonderful nurse and everyone else is bad, wrong, and stupid for not knowing how to support themself like you." please! thank god i don't subscribe to your way of thinking...i may have ended up with the samed warped sense of reality you have. no, "globalRN", in actuality my patients are the perfect ones...i'm just their well-trained caregiver who just helps them reach their most perfect potential possible. they're not in my shadow while i'm busy taking front stage telling the world how wonderful i am. my patients are worth a lot more to me than that. i'm in the background and they're in the foreground reaching their goals. they probably taught that to us in nsg school at some stage. maybe you missed class that day, maybe that year...getting ready for interviews abroad, i guess. for a "globalRN", your tolerance for others' ideas in 'their' countries appears to be pretty much as narrow as it comes. God help your patients that ever decide they may not like you because you 'look different'! Are you going to blunder them with the same vehemence as you displayed in your response to me? How in the heck have you made in nursing up to now? Your response confirms for me why the North Americas MUST encourage the recruitment and retention of their own people...because they give a damn about their own people. ----------------------------- "Government does not belong in the bedrooms of the public" --Pierre Trudeau

I totally agree with ALL the sentiments against training oriental nurses to come here...they are unfriendly and unkind and inflexible when working with patients!!! Their nsg skills and manner does not impress me at all. It's awful! In ICU at my hospital, there were so many of them working different shifts that the patients began freaking out, literally! They were so mean and task-oriented that the patients didn't even know where they were anymore! I don't know how the hospital plans to explain this unacceptable care level to their cleints...will they excuse it away because their eyes are slanted and they are from foreign lands? Would they explain away poor care given from a North American nurse? NO WAY. I feel that American women should be trained FOR FREE from all of the different cultural backgrounds to support the needs of it's people. White, Black, Hispanic women (and others) from different walks of life. I can attest to the fact from my own experience that if i had any kind of financial assistance, i could have made the decision to retrain in nursing years ago. Instead now I am financing myself on pitons wages and have already started to suffer the social ills of a below-poverty-line income--infrequent dental visits, weight gain due to sub-optimal diet and lack of regular excercise, stress from worrying about financial woes, mounting debt. Who's the one living in a 3rd country now? The sacrifices we are making to go back to nursing (especailly the 30+ crowd) go sadly unnoticed and un-rewarded. I think it's frightening that the US is simply allowing these oriental women to come here from unknown walks of life (good or highly questionable) and dump them on the public, without speaking english, without training for assimilation into this culture, and with complete indifference about the needs of the country's people. how appauling! Trust me, these countries, would never bend over backwards like this for american people. I think petitions need to be started to stop the madness and to promote training of majority and ethnic groups native to america. Signed, frustrated and just barely coping

hi everyone...i am glad at the general feedback of the group saying pretty much the same thing...lets move on, this issue has been beaten to death. We're all nurses (or nurses to be) and we're all one. Spoken from a Caribbina in Toronto (and there's TONS of us who work as nurses up on in here). love ya'll, bye!

Any excelsior college (regent's) nursing students out there? Can you please fill me in on what exactly is the minimum passing grade for the concepts exams? The website isn't too clear ie., is the grade modified depending on how your peers are doing at the time or is it just a straight 'C' grade to pass? If it is C grade then what do they consider a 'C'--60 %, 55 %? Any help would be appreciated...it will really help me pace myself. Thanx, healthyone :blushkiss

I really don't think professionals should HAVE to keep up with continuing education--I think this is another way to police health professionals/public servants primarily because female dominated. Rarely is this a topic of discussion for male dominated fields ie., ambulance workers, fire fighters, police men, etc. (And this coming from someone who has taken extensive cont ed. couses). Many professionals are very happy with their knowledge base and skills learned on the job and that is good to meet their working needs...there is nothing wrong with that. For others of us, curiosity to learn more and in many cases the need to learn more to ensure employment will dictate how much we need to take. I think it's an individual decision altogether. What do you think?