alianeco

I used to work in Calgary (Alberta), and they do a lot of sponsoring of international nurses. I think most of the health regions in larger cities would have programs and budgets to get you here and get you nursing :) Try Calgary. It's a neat place to work & live, but the nursing shortage is terrible there, so you're often working short. Good luck!

Thank you all! That is great information to know. Perhaps I'll look into some other destinations instead :) Thank you especially Fiona! The things I didn't even know about my own country's nursing issues...

Have you tried the Canadian Nurses Association website? It has some good information. Follow this URL to the CNAs page of links. These are all the provincial RN websites. http://www.cna-nurses.ca/CNA/about/members/provincial/default_e.aspx Hopefully it won't be too complicated! We need more nurses here!!

Why is that? In North America we have a nursing shortage, so many nurses are recruited from all around the world. Is this not the case in the UK?

Hello! I'm a Canadian RN who wants to get a different experience. I recently posted a question regarding what it is like to work as a nurse in France (pay, scope of practice, and what not), and now I'm thinking a bit broader. I was wondering if anyone could tell me where I can get more information about Canadian nurses working in the UK. Google hasn't been very helpful... I'm looking specifically for information regarding how to transfer my credentials, what the working conditions are like (patient load, shift rotations, vacation time), what the scope of practice is (I've heard rumors that it is limited in some places), what the pay and benefits are like, and what cities/countries are neat to work in. Is there a professional association website where I can go for further information? Are there any popular & reputable recruitment agencies? What about travel nursing? Any thoughts, suggestions, or information will be VERY appreciated!! Thank you so much!

We have RTs, but we do our own suctioning and ABGs. The RTs do rounds several times per shift and we call them if there is a big problem. They also make ventilator changes and take part in decision making.

I'm new to my ICU, but it seems that we generally have a 2:1 ratio. I've seen the occasional 3:1, but those patients are generally less acute. I'm in a small hospital and it seems our ICU frequently hangs on to patients who do not require ICU care simply because the floors are full or the floor nurses aren't comfortable taking a particular patient. I think these patients can easily be tripled with one ICU nurse, but it's not really an appropriate use of resources.

Hello! I am a Canadian RN and I've recently been toying with the idea of living in France. I was wondering if anyone here can tell me what it's like from a Canadian RNs point of view. How does the work compare? What about the health care system? Is it more/less socialized than our system here in Canada? Is the scope of practice similar? I've heard rumours about a limited scope in Europe. True or false? Is it a comfortable salary? Exactly how fluent would I need to be in French. I can speak some and I have a good foundation to build on, but French medical terminology scares me. Does anyone know of any good online courses in this? And possibly my most important question, how do I even get started in the process of nursing overseas?? Is there a separate RN exam for me to write? Thank you so much for any help/advice you can give me!!!

This is a really helpful post. I've been in L&D for a year and I have never nursed a family with a loss. I know it's going to happen sooner or later and what scares me is that I won't be a good enough nurse. I have no children, so I don't see how I could possibly understand what a loss this is for a family. And I'm terrified about saying the wrong thing. It helps to have a list of what NOT to say, and to know that it's okay to say that I don't understand the loss, but that I'm very sorry for it. I really am sorry for your loss.

I think that the coaching we give to laboring women has more to do with helping them feel more positively about their birth experience than it does with having more physically positive outcomes. A lot of times coaching helps a woman feel in control. Although it is a natural experience, a lot of women - especially those having their first baby, are terrified. It's all unknown and it's almost always harder than they thought it would be. A few less minutes of pushing is hardly the point. I want my patient to feel like they were supported and encouraged. As for birth plans... I'm always nervous when a patient comes in with a birth plan. Not because it interferes with our policies, but because it usually doesn't go the way they planned and then the patient is left feeling like her birth experience sucked simply because she ended up needing to be induced for post dates, or having to have a baby code team present because of meconium. I always feel about a hundred times better when I have a patient tell me she wants to play things by ear. Those patients always seem to leave more pleased with their birth experience than the patients who come in with birth plans.

I usually love working with doulas. Since most of my patients get epidurals and sleep through their labor, I find that working with a doula is a good learning experience. That being said, some of them are very intrusive and couterproductive. I had a patient once trying to get herself mentally and emotionally prepared for a cesarean because of fetal distress. She was asking questions about how things would go, and if she would be able to hold her baby. The doula told her not to "go there" (mentally) yet. I wanted to scream at her! I wanted my patient to be emotionally ready for this and I felt like the doula was working against me. She wanted to go in to the OR too! Like the patient was going to choose the doula over her husband! But like I was saying, usually I really love working with them.

This wasn't my patient, but a patient (who I'm assuming was about to have an ARM) asked another nurse on my unit if the doctor was going to break her bladder. Hehe. I believe the nurse explained the difference to her. I certainly hope nobody broke her bladder!

I've given narcan a few times to babies whose mom's had had narcotic close to delivery time and who are very floppy and not making respiratory effort. As far as I can recall, PPV was always tried first and although the heart rate improved, baby still wasn't trying to breath. In my hospital, any OB, family doctor, or member of the resuscitation team can order it. I've never been faced with a doctor not wanting it given. I suppose you could call for peds backup in such a case. I think that's completely reasonable if you need help with a resuscitation.

Fiona59, I think you're being discrete enough... I'm not entirely convinced we're at the same hospital. But I suppose it's probably the same all over Calgary.

Janfrn, I think I work at the same Hospital as you! "Center of Excellence". Perhaps I was trying to word things carefully before. I know what you mean about being short staffed... I think we may have had 2 full staffed shifts since I started