thegoose

only clinical is pass/fail.... but i wouln't say that makes it any less challenging than any other class. All the rest of the classes are graded, and yes you do need to do well, especially if you have a preference for your last year of study. THey only give ER/ICU placements to people with high grades in the sicences. Student life is what you make of it... what are you interested in specificaly? The area is nice, often reffered to as 'the bubble' as so many students live in and around campus.

Hi, I recently went through the process of trying to get registered with the Irish nursing board. I am a Canadian trained nurse with expereince in ER from Ontario. I started the application process last september 2007 as I was leaving for Ireland in January 2008. (I have chornicled my experience in annother few posts, if you click on my name you can find it, I think it's under "beacon hospital"- I was not the original poster) There is lots of paperwork to get in order. Your current nursing licence and brith cert needs to be notarized by a lawyer (make sure if you're applying around the end of the year you also send your licence from the new year as soon as you get it) What happened to me that delayed the process was that I submitted everythign in 2007, yet it was assessed in 2008, therefore the licence I submitted was no longer current as they expire every year Dec. 31th At anyrate, after everything is in place, your application waits in a pile for about 8-9 weeks to be assessed. They say everyone is assessed on an individual basis, HOWEVER, anyone from Canada,US, Austrailia (basically non EU) your education will not be considered equivalent to thiers (even though it is) and you will have to arrange for your own 6 week adaptation period with an aproved hospital (they will send you a list) at this point, actually from the get go it's best to work with a recriuter KCR.ie is one alot of the hospitals used. In three monhts of working with them after I found out I needed a 6 week adaptation period, I got 1 interview, which I did not get the job for. (I dont' fault the agency for the lack of interviews) There is currently a hireing embargo/freeze in the nursing sector. It is very difficult to get a nursing job, as to get one you need 6 weeks of supervised orientation just to get reccomened for licensure. The Irish nursing board is not particularly helpful, they do not do anything to assist you getting a placement. They told me I shoudl look into moving somwhere else (I was living in Dublin because my boyfriend was on scholarship to Trinity college) so moving was not an option for me, not sure if it would have really made a difference. If I were you, I wouldn't go to Ireland. A friend of mine when to england where all interntational nurses have to take a 30 day course to obtain registration (after they do all the paperwork) this seems like a much more fair way to go about things, rather than having to secure your own 6 week adaptation period, where you probably won't get to work in your area of interest/specialty. In May 2008 I gave up on trying to get my licence and just enjoyed my stay in Ireland. I'm back in Canada now, so if you have any more questions, I would be happy to answer them. My advice would be to look elsewhere, even in the UK I understand it's difficult to find work unless you are in a specialty area like NICU etc. Hope I was able to be of some help! -C

I'm not sure what this fear of not having experience stems from.... alot of people do the RN program straight out of highschool with little work/life experience (myself included, not meant to be a put down!). The whole point of going to school is to prepare you to be a nurse. There is no requirement in the program that you have experience or work has a health care aid/lpn at any point. Sure some people choose to do that, but lots work other places, and other part time jobs during school. I would take the fear you have and put it towards something positive, start reading a nursing journal, start reading books related to nursing. If you want to be an RN then go for it.

Hello, I suppose it will depend on a few things. I can give you information that pertains to the ONA's collective agreement, but that will only be relavent if you are working in ontario at a unionized hospital. Part time you do get paid 13% in lieu of benefits. You can purchase your own insurace if you want as you will have no coverage. Alot of people go the part time route if thier spouse has good benefits that cover/overlap. You do not get paid for sick time, and you don't get paid vacation days. You can work just as many hours as full time staff, if not more and you are only obligated to work ever other weekend (or every third weekend in some cases) You have to sign a committment document which states how many shifts at a minium you want per pay. That committment is between 2-4. Obviously you can and will work more, but if push comes to shove and for some reason not alot of shifts are available, they have to at least guarentee you your committment (ie. 4 shifts in two weeks if that's what you agreed to) Also I found when I was part time, because of senority, I was usually assigned available shifts last, so at first when the secdule was comming out I would have maybe 4 in a pay period, but as things became available and if I wanted more shifts, I would have to pick them up on the fly, or in some cases they would just be assigned to me. I found that annyoing becuase they always seemed to coincide with days I had plans for, so I would have to rearrange thigns. A good thing about part time is you can 'x' yourself out on days you don't want to work if you know ahead of time. So it's really up to your preference of how you want to work. You can always get into full time at your new job from part time when the position comes up. With the communte to ER being 1.5 hrs that would be something to consider. best of luck

I work emergency too and I feel your pain. People today are so egocentric. There is really nothing you can tell them that will make people like that lady you mentioned feel better about waiting. It's frusterating becuase when they start that converstation "how long is the wait" even if you elude to the fact the doctor is with someone who's heart has stopped/who's not breathing/who's criticall ill etc, it really dosen't appear to register with people. One of the worst examples of this is one time I was working exam (which is our walking wounded/LEAST critical area) when a patient was waititng (can't remeber what was wrong with him) and this room is just off the hallway where our trauma pts. are often wheeled down to the trauma suite. The patient happened to be in view of the hallway when an EMS crew brought in a trauma, tubed, backboard/collared and performing CPR down the hall. The pt looked at that and said "oh great, now I'm going to be waiting FOREVER!" I'm thinking, what if that was your father, your brother, mother etc.... but if the sight of that has no effect on people I really believe there is nothing you can do. I try not to engage them when they ask those questions anymore. I just waste my time and energy!!

If that's the area you want to work in and you have a palcement there, I suggest you work really hard at your placement, make sure you meet the manager of the unit and at some point in your placement, express your interest in working there. Some staff nurses may tell you that it's very difficult to star there and that you need to do med-surg. That's not a bad idea as it depends on your knowledge base, however, if you work hard and it's what you want, the only thing stopping you from getting a job would be if there are no positions available at the time you graduate. Don't forget you can start applying for postings a few months before you graduate even as most people in my year (2006) had jobs prior to graduation. I went from my last placement, which was ER, to working there as my first job. As a student I got on well with my preceptor, the staff and the manager and after applying online (through the normal channels) I was offered the position without an interview. It was really what I was passionate about and I think they could see that I had a good work ethic, attitude and took responsibility to fill in my own learning gaps. So if ICU is what you want, you should go for, just be prepared to work for it. Good luck!

would it being competetive prohibit you from applying? 60 sounds like a large number for a graduate program as those who do thesis based need to be superivised by a nursing professor. From what I know MAC takes only 17 students in thier graduate program at any one time (so maybe 8 or 9 a year untill others graduate). I think your best bet is to go talk to someone at graduate studies at the school(s) you're interested in. Probably best to go in person and try and connect with some professors (most schools usually have graduate recuitment fairs). Where did you do your undergrad? Is there a professor there you got on well with and could bounce your ideas for doing a masters off them? I did that once and I thought she was practically going to enroll me right then. Your professors would probably at least have an idea about reasearch/professors at other universities to give you and idea of people you could get in touch with. I dont' think there are TONS of people doing a masters as I don't know anyone who wanted to do one who didn't get in somewhere. If that's what you want to do, then go for it! There's no harm in applying.

I don't believe I am missing the point at all. I believe this discussion on poop is missing the point. I know LOTS of people i went to school with who have not set foot on a hosopital/facility floor since graduation who work in pretty much most of those fields/departments I mentioned, that's how I was aware of them. There is nothing wrong with wanting a job that dosen't involve exposure to bodily fluid, it dosen't make you not worthy of being a nurse. It's mostly hosptial jobs that are unionized, as most of the people I know who work outside the hospital are not unionized therefore seniority is not an issue. I think this discussion on poop is more focoused on making the OP feel like nursing isn't for him/her if they don't want to 'get thier hands dirty' and I whole harteldy disagree. I think the profession needs all kinds of people and anyone who has an interest in helping someone in any health care capacity, weather poop related or not, is fine by me.

Have you considered a job in public health? Counselling? out pt. Psych, Diabetes RN?, health informatics? (there have been a few RN's I work with who left the unit for a time to work on developing and implementing computer programs such as electronic patient tracker in ER), infection control RN, risk management department, occupational health nurse, research nurse.... I'm srue there's many more roles out there that fit with what you are looking for. I know lots of people from school who found that hospital/facility care was not thier desired career path, and luckly in the nursing field the options are nearly endless...with a little imagination I'm sure you could come up with annother type of role yourself. Also, there is nothing wrong with not being into some aspects of care... I could never stand the monotony of working in a doctor's office or occupation health, but it suits other people down to a T and thank goodness for that. It dosen't mean that either nurse is above the roles of the other. VIVE LA DIFFERENCE!

I gave a detailed account of my expereince in annother thread. If you click on my name you should be able to find it... I think the original title was "dublin anyone" or something like that. As I detailed there, I found after many difficulties that although they state they assess everyone on an individual basis, the reality is, if you are educated in canada/us/austrailia you are NOT eligible for direct registration and this is due to the number of clinical and theortical hours of instruction. I'm not talking jsut a few hours short, I was 1,000 hrs short of clinical instruction. The education system is different there, in Ireland they spend thier last year of school as employees of the health system working full time, which is why they have that standard for the number of hours. I found out after speaking with a recuirtment agency who tried to help me get a job that she has NEVER heard of anyone from can/us/auz who got direct registration regardless of expreience. She also said normally the hospitals are happy to take people like us on, but they are so cash strapped at the moment that there is a sort of unnofficial hiring embargo, even irish are aparently having a hard time finding jobs. All that being said, political situations may change in the future, so I would start reading an online irish newspaper, contact a recuirtment agency, and bottom line DO NOT move to ireland unless you have a guarenteed placement/adaptation secured. The reciutment agencies might try to sugarcoat the situation, so take what they say with some healthy skepitism and ask about things like the hiring embargo etc and keep reading a newspaper to stay informed. As I mentioned do a search for the other thread where I detailed my experience to get the whole picture and GOOD LUCK!

I can try to give you some information, although I dont' know how well I'll be able to answer the specific questions. 1. being male - not sure what you already know about this. Do you mean preferential consideration? Even if this was the case, I'm not sure any university would necessarliy admit to this 2.MSF - that query would be better directed to MSF, I don't think McMaster has anything specific to do with it. I also think MSF looks at a whole range of things to make sure you are a suitable candidate. 3. ER - if you mean getting a placement which would help you get a job, there are placements available for sure, however ER is a competetive placement and you have to go through an application process. If you mean working in ER after school - well that's really up to you! If that's what you want, your education certainly wouldn't hold you back from it. It would be up to you to do well in an interview for that position (even if you never had an ER placement you can still get a job). 4. I went to MAC and most would agree it's a heavy workload. In the accelerated program you don't get the summers off. You must have some indication of the workload - it's 4 years of education in about 2 and a half years. And if it wasy easy - or any accelerated or regular program was easy - would that make it worth it? 5.teaching style is PBL, it is different from what most people are used to. There is info on it out there in the literature (this is a very PBL answer to your question) if you have a look at it. The main advantage I felt was the smaller class sizes. However you have to get used to sourcing the answers on your own as the teacher is not there to just give them to you directly. It sounds like you're not doing nursing for the sake of nursing. McMaster Medicine does not give prefence to those who did an undergrad program at McMaster, just so you're aware. And I don't think Medicine programs in general give preference to nurse applicants. I believe you can still volunteer overseas (in various capacities) and apply to medical school though other means - you must have some post seccondary ed already to be a candidate for the accelerated program - a degree in any field is all you need to apply to med school in some cases. If your heart is not in nursing, it will be a very difficult two years. Nursing degree is not the same as other degrees. The learning style is very different and there is the clinical componant that really weeds people out - not due to difficulty of the requirements, but because people realize it is not the field for them. I hope i was able to give you some usefull information and constructive feekback to your queries. Best of luck.

Thanks guys. I would have thought 4 years would be enough too, and to be short by 1,000 hrs just didn't make sense to me. I did go through the transcrips, and contacted my school directly. What I found was over 4 years I received aprox 1,200-1,300 hrs of clincial time (cant' remeber the exact amount) the Irish Nursing Board requires for direct registration for candidates to have 2,300 hrs. I contacted the local nursing school (trinity college) to see if I could get an idea of how they have this many hrs. What I found was that over the first 3 years of schooling they do about the same amount of clinical time as i did over 4 years (1,200hrs) In their fourth year of studies they do 36 weeks of placement (full time hrs) as paid employees of the Health Service Exceutive. 36 weeks of full time work is annother 1,200 hrs to make 2,400 hrs just above thier cut off and that's how they arrive at that requirement for registration. This option to be a paid employee/student is not part of the cirriculum, and probably not possible in Canada where I did my degree. The fursterating thing is this 6 week adaptation course I guess "makes up" for this deficit, however there is apparently a hiring embargo, and as I mentioned very few jobs or employers who will take on people in this situation. I believe that anyone who wants to should be able to get registered regardless of the political/economic situation. If one can't get a job after that due to thier field/lack of experience/interview skills, whatever, then it's on the individual. I think this registration process is outdated and unfair to those who are non EU. If there are concerns regarding abilities there should be a test or something that is not dependant on the economic stability of the health care system. Also, as an aside, I found the Irish nursing board to be very difficult to deal with. People move thier lives to annother country and have skills and want to work, and they don't seem to have any sense of what it's like. For example, I needed to send in some extra documents from Canada, so I made arrangements to have them sent by courier (takes 3 buisness days). I called 2 1/2 weeks later to check on the progress and aparently they hadn't been put in the system, and were probably still in the mail room. I called back after an hour of fuming to find that they had just made thier way into the system just now. I'm working for minium wage at a bar when I used to work trauma ER, this is my life and my ability to make a living! But youre just annother pile of paperwork to them. ok, that felt good to let off some steam. i appologize for the tangent. The sliver lining is my amaizng BF whos' been supporting me, and the fact that my fantastic job is waiting for me when I get back to Canada. I hope this info helps anyone else who is considering Ireland.

As i recently learned, any nurses from canada/us/austrailia (bascially non eu) do not qualify for direct registration. They say they look at everyone on an indivisual basis, but if your education is from can/us/etc... it apparently will not contain enough clinical and theoretical hours. My four year BScN degree was apartnely 1,000 hrs short of clinical time. (Work experience does not make up for this) so then you need to get an employer who will put you through a 6 week adaptation course. They give you a list of hospitals, and then you're on your own. I worked with an agency to get me some intereviews as they have more resrouces. I also applied to all the hopsitals on the Dublin area list and ALL of them told me they were not taking on ANYONE who needed a 6 week adaptaion period - it's just not in the budget this year. The agency put my CV forward to Beacon, but i did not get the interview, I was told it was because they too were not looking to take someone on who needed the adaptation period. in 3 months with the agency I got one interview, which although it went well, I was not selected. I'm not trying to be mean or harsh, but just honest and realistic as I wish someone had been with me before I tried to work here. Thinking it would be fairly straight forward, it was devestating when things didn't work out. I wish you the best of luck, I hope it works out for you. as for me I'll be back to Canada and my old job there in a few weeks...

I just came accross this thread and thought i'd add my 2 cents. I graduated from McMaster Nursing 2 years ago. I know alot of people have criticisms of the program - it's certainly not perfect, but i have to say I enjoyed it immensly. The problem based learning is difficult to get used to in first year, however when I meet up with my MAC nursing girlfirends 2-3 times a year, we all comment on how much PBL (problem based learning) has been one of the greatests assesst in our careers even though we are all in different areas of nursing. One of the things i enjoyed most at MAC was the smaller classes, I got to know alot of professors well and even have coffee with them occasionally to catch up and discuss experiences. It was also helpful, espcially in fourth year to have one on one time with your 'tutor'/professor to discuss issues that come up in clinical. I found most of the professors to be extreemly supportive academically, and also we all got to know eachother personally a bit, which you probably won't find in other larger class settings. If I were you, I'd go to the admissions office at mcmaster and mohawk and speak with someone direcly to find out if there is anyway around that 1 year science thing- it seems a bit much really. however I know there are not alot of spots for mature students generally speaking. Could you do some of the required electives instead during that one year? that would save you time down the road...? Could you enroll in annother program and then swtich to nursing after a year? I know some people that did that when they realised they wanted to be in nursing instead. anyways, best of luck.

Have you found a place to do your 6 week adaptation yet? and are you working with an agency to find work or doing it on your own?