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

Dalhousie university (in Nova Scotia) has a Masters in Nurse Practitioner option. I haven't heard much about it though. I only looked at it because I'd love to live in Halifax :) I believe you can do a Masters in Nurse Practitioner through Athabasca as well.

I've worked in a couple of provinces. I started off in PEI and now I'm in Alberta. They both have positives and negatives though. I found PEI to be great for working conditions and stress level. The workload was high, but I wasn't constantly being hounded to work on my days off, and I always got my breaks. Plus it's just a very friendly place in general. The pay definitely isn't great, but living expenses aren't too bad either. The nursing shortage isn't as obvious there, which is good, but it's also not easy to get a permanent full time position on a unit you want to work on, and community nursing is unofficially designated for nurses who have "done their time" in hospitals. Still a great place to live and work though. Alberta is fantastic in some ways. The pay is great. And even though it can be really annoying to be called to come in every day, I don't feel all that bad saying "no", and I love the option of picking up overtime since you get double pay for it. Calgary is a very expensive city to live in, but I'm still coming out further ahead financially than I was on PEI. Plus I got to pick my unit and FTE, and Alberta payed my moving expenses. The big drawback is that since the population just keeps growing, the nursing shortage is PAINFUL. I often don't get breaks, and sometimes I feel like we're working in unsafe conditions. From what I've read here though, most provinces are feeling the same crunch. Probably the best thing to do is decide where you want to live, then look into what nursing in that province is like. I'm guessing that no matter where you go, some people will love it, and some people will hate it. Best of luck!

Thanks for the replies! This is something that I really want to do, but it's so easy to get caught up in fears since it's very different from what I'm doing now. But I suppose when I switched from a medical unit to labor and delivery, I was just as terrified. I guess I'll just have to be very clear with the employers that I won't let myself be put in an unsafe practice situation. Thanks for the link fancee free. That's really helpful!

I think having a 4th degree tear with one baby is a perfectly good reason to have a c/s for your next. Jeepers! She'll probably have pelvic floor problems for the rest of her life.

Wow. I haven't seen one yet and hope I never do. I've heard of them happening with amnioinfusions and I'm a bit nervous each time I do one.

L&D is one of those special areas where the staffing doesn't go down at nights, so I think we get good and used to turning around and living our lives when everyone else is sleeping. In my rotation I do two weeks of nights and two weeks of days. I find nights pretty hard, but definitely easier than when I first started nursing. One thing that I find helpful is to have my room PITCH black when I'm sleeping during the day. I go to bed as soon as I get home, because my best sleep is before noon. I nap on my break if I get a chance, so I don't get a case of the stupids at 4:30am. Recently I've started taking 0.5mg of melatonin (a hormone that you release at night time) on my way home from work. It helps make me feel sleepy if I'm wired from a 7am emergency. Also, night workers tend to be deficient in melatonin, and that's linked to getting sick more. Since I only do two weeks of nights in a row, I try not to completely turn around on my days off. I'll sleep as late as I can and try to stay up to midnight. I've never tried this, but a nurse I work with suggested having shreddies with bananas when you get home from work. Apparently Shreddies, bananas, and milk all have tryptophan in them and they make you sleepy too. Even though it's hard to get used to nights (and you'll probably hate it initially), a lot of people grow to really love night shifts. I really like the atmosphere on the unit over night. Even though it can be busier than days (most spontaneous deliveries are over night), management is fast asleep at home and staff can be a bit sillier than usual. Oh - and night shift snacks are so great! Good luck and sweet dreams!

Hello! I'm a happy labor and delivery nurse in Canada, but lately I've been feeling like I might like to try doing some contract nursing in the Canadian north. I'm a fairly novice nurse (about half a year of medical experience and almost a year of labor and delivery), and I'm pretty overwhelmed by the whole idea. I'd love to have this very interesting experience, and I'm hoping to make some cash to pay off my (huge) student loans and maybe build a down payment for a house. Has anyone had any experience in this? I've heard some horror stories, and I was wondering what it's really like. Are they generally pretty welcoming to less experienced (but keen) nurses? Is it completely terrifying? How long are the contracts usually for? What is the pay like for beginning nurses? Is this safe?? Thanks a lot! I look forward to hearing!

Hello! I'm a happy labor and delivery nurse, but lately I've been feeling like I might like to try doing some contract nursing in the north. I'm a fairly novice nurse (about half a year of medical experience and almost a year of labor and delivery), and I'm pretty overwhelmed by the whole idea. I'd love to have this very interesting experience, and I'm hoping to make some cash to pay off my (huge) student loans and maybe build a down payment for a house. Has anyone had any experience in this? I've heard some horror stories, and I was wondering what it's really like. Are they generally pretty welcoming to less experienced (but keen) nurses? Is it completely terrifying? How long are the contracts usually for? What is the pay like for beginning nurses? Is this safe?? Thanks a lot! I look forward to hearing!