fleetfoxRN

I have a question here for anyone who works as a part-time RN in Ontario. Recently, I became part of the float team so I would be able to take advantage of the benefits and a pension (only down side is you make less after everything is deducted, but the pension is what I really wanted). However, because I was part-time last year, I was assuming for the month of May I'd be getting a separate deposit of money for vacation. For Part-time RN's here, every year in the 2nd pay period in May, part-time RN's recieved supplementary vacation. HOWEVER, HR has explained that because our wage increase went up from 29.36 to 30.17, part-time RN's will not be getting our vacation pay. Each year the part-time RN's get 2% of what they made from the previous year. HR states "It was in your contact". Well... I looked up our collective agreement, and I don't see it anywhere. I found the Collective Agreement that was signed in October 2012 by our representatives and NO WHERE does it state that. All it states is this: "Part-time Nurses entitled to supplementary vacation pursuant to Article 16.06 of the central Collective Agreement will request such vacation as per Article J-3. Unused supplementary vacation will be carried over to the following vacation years. The additional 2% vacation pay will be paid out subject to article J-5". J-5 States "Part-time nurses will receive their vacation pay by separate deposit in the month of May". is there anyone out there who works in Ontario who's been told this? I can't find ANYWHERE that states it was 'in our agreement' that we wouldn't be getting vacation pay because we got a pay increase? Any advice is appreciated.

I know most of you talking here live in US, but in Southern Ontario here there is no nursing shortage. I came from a pretty big graduating class. I was part of 90 out of 1000 who applied to a nursing program in my home town. Come to graduate, I ended up getting a job but there's no full time jobs. Only part time, no benefits, 13% in lieu of benefits was what I got. I'm full time now, but only because I took a job that not many people wanted (weekend worker, float nurse). Nurses aren't retiring. I have many nurses on my unit who are in their 60's who have no plans on retiring. I also have a nurse who works on our floor who's well into her 70's and she STILL works, and you know what? Many of their husbands have lost their jobs along with that pension they thought they'd be getting.. so... I hear a lot of students who come on to my floor and they say "I'm not working in a nursing home" and I'll say "You'll take a job wherever you can get it, you can't pick and chose where you work, people aren't hiring, nurses aren't retiring". They're not. Here, you have to move.

I wouldn't ever move into a city with a casual position. I would take the part time position. I was part time for almost a year and I made pretty good money, even for 48 hours of work (bi weekly). The long term care facility with FT position, is there a hospital close by? My only concern is going into long term care, you won't be able to keep up on your nursing skills. I started in community before I got into Med Surg and wow, what a shock! I felt very overwhelemed and thought "I can't do this". I was fine after 3 weeks but I'm only somewhat comfortable now, even still I have tons of questions for my staff. I'm still a novice nurse 2 years later. By the way, there's a few nurses I work with who's mother's work at the same hospital I work at, husbands work there, sisters work there.. why would you be the exception to not get hired? Mind you they don't work together, but still. BUT... like you said, the job market is hard to get into, there is no nursing shortage that they 'speak' of. I'd take what I could get, but don't move for the casual position. Money isn't that great, not many shifts.

fairy_C I think that's entirely your decision and how comfortable you feel. I think you need to take a couple of weeks and relax, do things you enjoy. As for taking it in June or writing it in October, I'd rather just knuckle down, start studying and get it over with. Use that determination to your advantage and use it to focus. I studied a lot from that Mosby book. I remember a girl I went to school with had every book under the sun, from someone who had studied the exam earlier in the year, and she failed and failed and failed it again. She wasn't a strong student or strong in clinical. I think what it comes down to is how well you study. How well you read the question... and obviously the knowledge application. That book I found is still important to brush up on your knowledge, even if it's still medsurg, but it provides you tools you'll need in nursing. Yes, if I do recall, I found I did have about 5 or 6 questions that were from that book. Maybe not verbatim, but it was the same. But yeah... that's all I really did. I would look up what other nursing students were studying on here, looked up the best reviews on books, bought it and studied it, and used that prep guide... then I tried to do as many questions as I could. If I did the questions, and I got them wrong (or even right) I would go look up the body system and understand it so I'd know how it would work and I could apply my nursing knowledge. I wouldn't recommend going to those nursing courses. I felt like they weren't telling me anything that I already knew.. It sounds sad, but I felt like even other people I went to school with wouldn't be so forthcoming about how they were studying or what other things they were doing to study or how often they studied. I don't know why. If you need to vent or have any other questions feel free to PM me or I can give you my email.

Also, yes, you will be looking at part time jobs. When I was part time i got paid 13% in leiu of my benefits. So I had no paid holidays, no sick days. I got 13% extra on my pay cheques because I was part time. I actually make more money as a part time RN then as a full time RN because I won't be paying for my benefits and pension. The only reason I'm concerned about getting full time is because the sick days, benefits and a pension and I want to build up my seniority so I can apply for full time jobs once they come up. Besides, there's this 'mega' hospital that's probably coming to Windsor, so I don't want to get 'bumped'.

I got a job fairly quickly, however, I worked in community first. Not something I'd really advise when you're a new grad. Just because half the stuff in community you've never really seen. 6 months later I got a job at the local hospital here in Windsor, Ontario. I started that in April, and a year later I'll be working full time as a float nurse. Before I start my float position, I worked on a Med Surg floor, so I saw everything. Some nurses who came from different floors never even seen a chest tube or JP drain or knew how to remove an epidural or knew not to give PLAVIX while on a epidural. So. However, despite that I'm going to be working full time, I'll be a weekend worker. So I work Fridays (8 hour shifts) Sat and Sun (12's) and I have Monday to Thursday off. Not a bad gig, eh? Reason most nurses in my hospital never apply for float is because they're scared to be sent to the floor I'm on now, where I literally get no breaks. I know we're mandated to have breaks but there's too much going on. When ICU' full, they try and send up patients to my floor, so these patients are still very unstable and are mostly RN patients. I work with RPN's, and even the RPN's sometimes have to take patients with a chest tube, however, I still have to monitor the patient. So even thought I might have 5 patients, I really have 8, because I need to double check all my partnering RPN's work. Yes, it's not safe, and yes we continually fill out unsafe work forms to the CNO. If you have a master's degree and go straight from your BSN into a Masters, you'll actually have a harder time finding a job. The hospital wants a good worker they don't have to train. It costs our unit almost 5-7k to train somebody, so getting a Masters is a waste of money unless you're practicing as an RN AND going to school, too. What I'd do, is hand out resumes like it's your job. Build a portfolio. Call up and find out the unit managers names. Take other nursing courses. Keep up on peer reviewed literature and go to seminars. They'll want to know what you're doing with your free time to be a SAFE nurse they can bring in the unit.

Fairy, I'm sorry to hear about the bad news, but keep your chin up. With my graduating class in 2011, almost a QUARTER of those who took the June 2011 CRNE failed in my city. How did you do in school as far as testing? I'm only asking because the ones who failed the CRNE were people who I found usually studied at the last minute or barely passed at all. Now, there's obviously always exceptions - nerves. I'm anywhere from a B- to A- student, but I studied hard. When I was studying I used the Mosby's book (same one you have) and I got my hands on any material that I could where I could study the questions. I found that yes, I did know a lot of the anatomy and physiology in the books but when I was doing the practice tests, I wasn't reading the questions properly. I know a lot of people never started studying till a good month before exam, but I started studying right when May came around (finished school in april, gave myself a couple of weeks to relax), studied like it was a job. I woke up, read the news, got in some exercise, started studying at 9, finished up around 2 or 3, and then got ready for my part time job at night. I know some people think it's excessive but I figured there was no way I was spending $$$$ to got to Toronto for some test taking class, paying for a test... you have the tools. I also never went to 'study groups'. I studied with one other person who had the same schedule I did. The day or two before the exam, I stopped studying and I didn't get in touch with my class mates. I showed up just before they let everyone in so I didn't have to talk to anybody, I brought ear plugs to my test as well. I'm not sure what the exam was like this time for you, but I had a lot of community based questions and a LOT of OB. I never did well in Theory but I always did well in complex nursing. I can't tell you why, but those 'easy' classes didn't come well to me. I thought I failed that exam. I was pretty upset.. I didn't even know what to think about it. I know a lot of my friends wanted to go out drinking afterwards but I was in no mood to celebrate. Anyway.. all those people who hardly studied and said 'it's a piece of cake'... well, they FAILED. Was I surprised? NOPE. That test was HARD, and anyone who says it's not, well, I don't believe it. When I got to a question I didn't understand or was spending too much time thinking about, I ticked it and came back to it later. You need to take some time off, think about what you found difficult about the exam. Was it how the questions were asked? Was it your anatomy and physiology rusty? I mean, I know some nurses that have no idea what SIDE the LIVER is on. . So, just because you failed this test doesn't mean you'll be a rotten nurse or you'll never be a nurse, so don't ever get down on yourself. I'm not sure about any of you, but I found that Canadian Registered Prep Guide was pretty close to how difficult the questions were. I also found coming on here was a great resource. Not longer I finished writing my CRNE, I started studying for the US board exams and passed that. I got to the second last question and I thought I just about failed it, but I ended up passing.

Wow, I'm frustrated here. I started my new job at the beginning of November (well, October 31st) and I was suppose to have gotten paid this past Friday, but I never got my pay check. I emailed my supervisor, who said she would look into it and get back to me on Monday for "sure". Sure enough, I have not had email from her. I also emailed the co-ordinator. They managed to get an email to me asking me when I'll be able to work on my own (I'm a new grad, so I need at least 5 shifts done before I can go on my own) YET, when I asked them if anyone knew about my pay check, what happened to it and if anyone has looked into it, no-one has emailed me back. I'm very dissapointed... I work as a community nurse, so that money they are meant to pay me, is suppose to cover my car insurance I need in order to be insured to drive to the patients I see. Am I overreacting here, or has anyone had this happened to them? I understand that they need to investigate to see if I am actually telling the truth (the money has to have gone 'somewhere'... just no-one knows 'where' is) but they very least they could have done was emailed me back to say "We are looking into it, we have to speak with so and so, I'll email you as soon as I know what's going on". I don't want this pay to get added on to my pay from 2 weeks from now, since they will tax me even more. Besides, how do I know this won't happen again! Has anyone else had this problem when they first started a job?

No there was not.. my orientation only included assessments, an IV class, compression bandages but nothing in personal safety.

The previous poster is correct, however, when I was upgrading my chem and bio 5 years ago, they did not allow in those who did not either, a) properly withdraw from a previous university program and those that were kicked out of a university. This is at the University of Windsor.. It may be different now, but nursing programs are so competitive and that was something they considered when looking at applicants.

Hi guys! I'm just starting my first new job as a community nurse with Saint Elizabeth. I'm quite excited about it; the orientation so far has been great and the staff so far are awesome. I've mostly had in class training about the work environment, however, I am a recent graduate (I'm not technically a 'new' graduate anymore, as per HFO.. ha,) so this is my first job. I will begin begin precepting on Friday. I am aware that for community they would prefer to have a RN with hospital experience doing home care, however, hospital wages are competitive and I think this is a really good opportunity to learn. Regardless, the pay is great - I'm excited since I know it's hard to get a job where I live right now. ANYWAYS! I was wondering if any of you knew what were common illnesses, ailments, diseases, etc., you saw in the community and what to expect? I took an IV course at the hospital because I had limited experience with IV training (my friend blew my vein; I have a nasty bruise on the inside of my arm) I'd like to refresh myself... if anyone can help, that would be great. My community placement had NOTHING to do with nursing (I was in an office with social workers...) so working alone is completely new. I don't want to get myself too nervous and too worked up. Thanks.

ughhhhhhhhhhhhh I have done that so many times... HOWEVER, I did get hired at the place I accidentally did that for. I just re-sent my cover letter.

I was just wondering if any of you applied for jobs before you had your license? Or if you received a response from any potential employers if you did? The reason I'm asking is because, I sent away for my Michigan license around the 12th of September (I know it can take up to 6 weeks from the time I received the letter from Michigan stating they have my documents) I have already taken the NCLEX exam and have a Minnesota license and I currently have my Visa Screen which would allow me to work in the US (I'm from Canada and I live across from Detroit) I'm anxious to start working but just wondered from those of you who work in the Detroit or SE Michigan, if you had more of a response from potential employers when you actually have the paperwork. Hope you guys are all enjoying this awesome weather!

As a UK citizen, i'll tell you right now it's not that easy. Even if you get married, they won't necessarily let just anyone in the country. They have a massive immigration problem as it is. Cameron's changing the immigration policy, and there's requirements you need even before you consider. Such as what job you had in your own country, how much you made, schooling (if you went to Uni) money in your bank account, etc.

If you guys are that upset about degree holders being able to write the CRPNE, you should write to the CNO about it. You can bet that if the option is THERE, I'd take it. Anyone who successfully completes any school of nursing I'm sure has worked their butt off in school.