princenina

there are a couple of issues here.... and common sense will solve them all. To wear gloves provides a level of protection for both patient and carer. A level of protection which is enhanced by what in my day were called universal precautions... no touch technique where possible and good hygiene. In an emergency situation I'm sure we all done things which in the cold bright light of hindsight we wouldn't necessarily do but as a general rule we really should wear gloves...it's a bit like mouth to mouth without a mask, many of us have done it, we all know we shouldn't and too write such practises off as "I've done it for years" is both unprofessional and lazy. Makes me glad I've retired and no longer have to work with those who have such a cavalier attitude to the safety of themselves, their colleagues and their patients. and if you cannot palpate a vein in gloves you need a bit more practice... sorry. I worked in the OT for years and in order to retain my job learned to do everything in gloves, including threading needles. assembling vascular and ortho bits and bobs to say nothing of managing microsurgery instruments.... it just takes practise.

I spent many years in rural districts and some time as the sole nurse at a bush nursing centre. I loved the autonomy but sometimes found the lack of professional support tough. If you have the skills and confidence it is a fantastic experience and I have certainly made life long friends amongst both colleagues and the communities in which I worked. However be aware that your life will be lived in agold fish bowl and that while your strenghts will be be discovered and utilized you weaknesses will also be on display to the world. In remote Australia much of the technology the rest of the country ... and the military... take for granted DOES NOT WORK. I mean mobile phones, pagers, car radios, broad band etc so remote and rural can be very isolated. Having said that I wouldn't have not done it and I'm sure it made me a better clinician... if nothing else the lack of sophisticated equipment forced me to dust off those tradtional skills rather than rely on flashing lights and widgetts. I had two years post grad acute experience before I first "went bush" and every few years I returned to the city for a couple of years in acute care... mainly theatre or A & E. to keep my skills and confidence levels up. Good luck with your decision.

As the voice of sad experience ... get some legal advice sooner rather than later. Either via the union or ask about. I found one who worked pro bono, also my first consultation was free... arranged by a trade union I had links with thru my past career as an OH & S nurse. You should also ask your Dr or case manager for a referral to some sort of professional support system. Good luck with it all.

GLASS IV bottles............ I remember glass underwater sealed drainage bottles for intercostal tubes and on suction units too, (to go with the stainless steel sucker nossles) which came apart for cleaning ... I specially remember cleaning sucker bottles and wrapping them in towels before they went in the double sided on ward sterilizers on the wards... standard Saturday "extra duty" for the junior nurses in my Australian training hospital. I even remember when Registered Nurses trained in hospitals!!!

Rats to that... the notion of kids wearing tee shirts which advertise colostomy bags is so much more fun.

happily so are these ones. i guess part of the learning experience is sorting the diamonds from the smeary glass, or in australia the true opals from the triplets. the best answer to them all is laugh... or go into the sluice room and polish stainless steel wash bowls while you either cry or swear. gee i'm showing my age now but it always worked for me. in the absence of a sluice room to use a great aussie expression "don't let the b******'s get you down.

what a fascinating thread, as a, retired from nursing, 50 year old female who has worked across this wide brown land in many settings i would have to say that i've met all sorts including some who should be fed to their own..or someone else's young. new grads, we value your knowledge ..even if some of us articulate it guide badly, we also need your energy and enthusiasm to drive the profession forward but for the very few of you who forget some of us have lots of skills we would love to share with you too. for every old bag who eats her young there is a whippersnapper who thinks anyone who trained in a hospital is well passed their use by date. everyone works under immense pressure most of the time.. every one does their best most of the time, sweeping social generalizations are exactly that, and never forget .... we are a service industry and in a culture in institutional violence the ultimate victim is always the person at the bottom of the pile .. the patient. having had my little rant i'm with grace... rather than yank bashing... thanks for the offer of george w but no thanks... surely we should celebrate the diversity including the good steak and cold beer. and dare i say be grateful that colleagues feel this a safe forum to vent their spleen in rather than on work mates or patients. i've worked with great nurses.. and rotten ones... from all over the world and it has much more to do with attitude than passport colour.

i am currently out of the nursing work force.. and planning to stay that way, but a national register is well overdue ....speaking as a rn who at one stage was registered in three states as a consequence of a working holiday and the old ... never get off the register in your home rule... it cost me a fortune. on a much more serious note it would make follow up of discipline action easier for interstate employers. something in the recesses of my antique brain makes me think that the sticking points are cpe requirements (in tasmania at least) and the fact that there is such a huge difference in annual fees.

Its probably a silly question but... do you actually have an employer to sponsor you ? If so then that is probably the way to go. the rules are very strict tho..you cannot just wing it you must have an employer before you file... Immigration should help them and you thru the process.... including any extensions. An employer should also help you , and your friend deal with the Nurses Registration Board. There is plenty of work for nurses in Australia so it should not be difficult to get permanent residence once you qualify, but you must have a guarantee of work or be financially independent. Without a bit of post registration experience your friend might to better to apply for a place in a post grad program to get that experience. I'm not sure if he should do that on a migrant visa or a student visa. good luck princenina.

:balloons:what a hoot... we will nearly be neighbors.I looked very hard at Carlton when I moved out of town... finally decided to come out a bit further to buy a place one house back from the crown reserve and the water. Working at Port Arthur Historic site (as a tour guide)after many years working all over the place, including at Ouse and Rosebery....I assume you have been following the local parish pump politics and our appalling politicians.. Had a call from an old friend last night... RHH trainee who is back there working in theatre... and hating the constant battles with admin. Fingers crossed for you that the real estate deal all falls into place, we Tassie girls can't stay away from the beach for ever can we...doesn't matter how hard we try when retirement looms just have to have the water view, the sight of the sea eagles, and the smell of the salt laden sea air. and if the mountains loom in the middle distance so much the better. I grew up in Launceston, so the beautiful Tamar Valley , the north coast and the western tiers influence my expectations of real estate. I must confess King George Sound just outside the front gate is perfect.. cheers Wendy

watching the news tonight, with horror, this idiot intervention into rural services in Tasmania. I have worked in two of the three hospitals under examination at present. There are not enough nurses to fill the b***** rosters, and there haven't been for years. I can't imagine how anyone thinks a few million dollars will suddenly make nurses appear. Its all very odd... as you say what nursing crisis.. not enough nurses about to have a crisis. I'm pretty happy I'm retired.. had a very stressed mate who works in the OT ring tonight... she is about to resign she is so stressed. happy days.

Hi from a retired Tasmanian still here. Living now at Murdunna, just past Dunalley on the Tasman Peninsular. Real Estate is almost affordable so hope you get your house of dreams. Where are you coming home too? Health remains chaotic... gotta love politicians ... I am an LGH extrainee... how about you. cheers Wendy

happy hunting, the tas health dept has a casual register, access it via the state gov web site...follow the links to jobs.tas.gov.org...i think. there is a system where health workers can get three month appointments too, i'm not sure how it works. don't forget you need a separate practicing certificate for each state so need to contact each nrb individually. having said that, rural nursing is great fun and all manner of challenges and experiences present themselves. many moons ago i scored a very cheap ski season by working at bright one winter at the old bush nursing center. i guess for city work agencies are probably the go, altho some to service remote areas too...just not here in tassie. good luck. princenina.

1. why did you go into nursing? just sort of happened, thats more or less what girls who didn't want to be school teachers did in 1974. 2. where did you receive your education? in what year did you graduate? hospital trained, 400 bed base hospital which did every thing but ob and gyn. graduated march 1978 3. what kind of education did you receive? (rn-diploma, associate's degree, bsn?) hospital trained r.n, b.app sc.(nursing) years later. 4. what was taught in nursing school and how were clinical experiences structured? (more class time than clinical time, etc.) one 6 week block at commencement, three more six week blocks followed by exams over the next three years then final examinations. 5. who were your instructors and what were their level of education? nurse educators, generally with at least a dip of nursing education, some with a bachelor degree. many lectures later in our training done by members of the medical profession. 6. what were the conditions of the health care system during your education? state funded universal health care accessible to all australians. i trained in a major public hospital. 7. what was nursing practice like at the time you were receiving your education? when i trained my training school was trialling patient allocation/ team nursing rather than the previously used task oriented model.... where a junior nurse spent all day worrying about bed pans and fluid balance charts. 8. were nursing care plans utilized? yes 9. what differences do you see in standards of care now versus when you were in school? my suspicion is that there is no reasonable comparison, patients are sicker, surgery is more complex, turnover is higher. certainly we spent a lot of time straightening bed wheels and pleating curtains, activities which don't occur now... thank heavens, i think work loads are very different so comparisons are not worth much. 10. what was the role of nursing on the health care team? while nurses were part of the team, generally the surgeon or physician called the shots, having said that there was a real notion of it being "my" ward as far as communication, ward rounds etc went.. 11. any other interesting facts, or differences between nursing then and now. the world is very different, dress code, titles, documentation, medication management, and probably more than anything the potential for litigation which haunts us all. my experience is australian, i trained between jan. 1975 and march 1978. after that i worked in many areas of health care including remote area nursing as a sole practitioner, o.r. aged care and surgical wards. much has changed yet much remains the same. generally nurses in australia work very hard in an under resourced health service to do the very best for those under their care. this generation is probably less constrained by the old hierarchy which was the bane of my life but patients are much sicker and more critical/questioning of the care they are given. hope this is of interest if not actual help. good luck with what ever research you are undertaking. wendy