Templedoll

Enjoy your time as it goes pretty fast. The syllabus can look pretty over whelming but read everything you can and then you can apply it to practice. There are always plenty of jobs in NZ once you graduate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Here in New Zealand for Registered Nurse we all have the same badge. It is blue and red consisting of a five pointed star with a red cross in the centre on a white background. This is surrounded in gold. The ouside is also gold. The design has not changed since the inception of nursing in New Zealand. It has the letter NZRN and Comprehensive on it which is on a bar above the star. This is in Blue with gold lettering. It has comprehensive written on it if you have completed mental health during your training. Within mental health nursing the badge is never worn as nurses wear civilian clothing. We do a three year course in New Zealand for a Bachelors Degree. We spend so many hours in clinical and the same on theory. It is an excellent course however I would like to have seen the last year spent in a hospital to gain more practical knowledge. Many new graduate nurses take up preceptorship programmes over here.

When I read a few of these posts I could just about feel the steam coming off the pages. Everyone who posts on here has a valued opinion an it deserves to be that. It is amazing what you can learn from reading these posts. :nuke:

Thankyou Karen for your great post.

To DBMC, It sounds like you are really fed up and who could blame you. Obviously if you are experiencing pain like this then your pain management is not being controlled very well. This would be enough to drive any one into depression. Here in Nz we have a pain mangement clinic and people are referred to this, do you have one in the states? I am not suprised that you are experiencing pain with what you have described is your condition. Don't lose faith in the medical profession each of those Doctors and nurses are individuals and will all act differently. As to people wanting pain relief when others who are not the patient think they don't need it. I suggested that they are really maybe in mental pain. A nurse who has many years experience answered my post and said that I was making up excuses for them. Now why would I want to do that. It is not for the nurse to make judgements about who is in pain and who is not. The tolerance of pain varies from one individual to another.

To DBMC, It sounds like you are really fed up and who could blame you. Obviously if you are experiencing pain like this then your pain management is not being controlled very well. This would be enough to drive any one into depression. Here in Nz we have a pain mangement clinic and people are referred to this, do you have one in the states? I am not suprised that you are experiencing pain with what you have described is your condition. Don't lose faith in the medical profession each of those Doctors and nurses are individuals and will all act differently. As to people wanting pain relief when others who are not the patient think they don't need it. I suggested that they are really maybe in mental pain. A nurse who has many years experience answered my post and said that I was making up excuses for them. Now why would I want to do that. It is not for the nurse to make judgements about who is in pain and who is not. The tolerance of pain varies from one individual to another.

Well I would like to return to nursing. Here in NZ we are expected to do a refresher course once we have not nursed for five years/ That is no problem. But the course is for nine weeks and no pay during that time, so unless you have financial support it is hard to do. I am going into administration although I do hold a Bachelor of Nursing so it seems a waste. I would not give up on the idea because you have been out of nursing for 19 years. You still hold the knowledge. Maybe you could work in rehabilitation and not an acute area. Not all areas are fast paced. All the best.

This is a violation against human right. Report them. If everyone stands together then they have power to do something. What are these people like to their residents?

I don't think there is a right and wrong answer to this question. I feel that if a patient wants a nurse to pray fro them and she is not comfortable with that then get in the priest,chaplain. You will still be sensitive to the wishes of the patient. If you are happy doing the praying then go for it.

I have read through these letters and one thing that has struck me is really lack of good communication. You are now a Registered Nurse so you are actually on the same level as the person who is your preceptor. I think the best thing to do would be to set a time out with the preceptor and perhaps have a talk to her. This is probably easy for me to say as I am probably years older than you and don't find it that hard to do this. There maybe a clash of personalities and are you feeling a bit insecure. I think the fact that you have been crying over this is quite terrible. We spend years training for this job and at the end of the day many preceptors have been doing there nursing for years. It is probably easy for them to fall into the trap that you know how to do this and that. Thinking about my own experience that I had years ago and have written on this forum. ON reflection I wish I had done something at the time. However I was a nursing student then and you never want to jepordise your chance of registration. All the best and don't let this incident put you off. In NZ my friends did the new graduate programme, some found it ok others quite emotionally draining. They hung in their though and say they are glad they did.

Gosh things don't change too much. Good on you for hanging in there I would have given up. Why these nurse have to be so mean has made me wonder for a long time. Many years ago when I was a student I went to A small town to do clinical practice. I was given a fantastic report when I left. ON arriving back to the nursing school I was asked to see the tutor. She asked me for my side of the story as these nurse had phoned her when I left town and been really negative about me. Only hours before I was given an excellent report both orally and written from them. Try to work that one out because I never could. Good luck

I am from NZ and have never heard of that. You probably would have more show of getting residence here if you are qualified as we are desperately short of nurses in many cities. If you want further info log onto the immigration website for NZ.

If you cannot nurse in Auckland maybe you could go to Christchurch. There is one main hospital there that has a pediatric ward. THis hospital is called Christchurch Public and it is located in the Canterbury Province. You could look at the Canterbury District Health BOard website which is www.Canterburydistricthealthboard.co.nz. There are job vacancies posted on the website. Christchurch is a lovely city and accommodation not too expensive. They are desperately short of nurses in this hospital. All the best.

If a patient is seeking drugs but has no pain physically, mentally he has a lot of it. A nurse is never in the profession to play judge and jury. The best thing you can do is have belief in your patient and not judge. You ask how can you tell. I don't really think you can.

In New Zealand you may have to do a competency based assessment. This means 3 weeks at a Polytechnic and 6 weeks clinical (no wages). This is the nursing council address. [email protected] Maybe you can write to them and then decide. Their are heaps of jobs in New Zealand. I am not practising at the moment due to the fact I do not have an annual Practicing Certificate. Quite expensive to obtain.Good Luck.