Fiona59

Cannot like this enough. Clinics are hard to get into! It took me 15 years to get an interview in the clinics in my hospital. But so many new grads expect a clinic job with less than six months of working because ‘it’s Monday to Friday, day shifts and works for my family life’. It’s not up to mature nurses to work shifts. There is way too much of the ‘you can work anywhere you want’ on forums. You need experience

I went into nursing thinking LTC would be my future. Loathed it. Turns out I was meant for Acute Care. don't start school with blinders on.

Are you employed by AHS or Covenant Health, can’t re the name of the catholic system in Calgary? check the posting boards, they usually offer the training a couple of times a year.

I highly doubt it. The only extra jobs on units are due to Covid and are often staff drawn from clinics. The screeners are also drawn from reduced staff units. I know people who have been redeployed to general medicine units. The government is planning to slash and burn and anyone who say this isn't true needs to do a serious reality check.

If you are currently in Alberta, you should be well aware of the UCP plans for healthcare. Pretty much every nurse with less than 10 years seniority is worried. Bumping lists have been drawn up in some areas.

The current government in Alberta has promised to cut healthcare spending. The plan is to eliminate 11,000 support jobs and 750 nursing positions. My unit currently has four lines that can not be posted and one full time line that is posted as a temp. Good times.

Read that posters other posts. There’s more to the story

Read up on the UCPs plan for healthcare

I guess when members of your family are attacked and murdered, driven from their livelihood, you shouldn’t warn people?

Where is the Walmart located? That would be a biggie in the equation.

We're metric. So learn kilos, centimetres (height and weight) Temps taken in degrees centigrade. Blood sugars are in mmols. Basic patient care? Minimal nursing aides on units, esp. ER (service workers are there to clean the bays, change stretchers and don't provide patient care). LPNs carry their own assignments and don't do the care of RN's patients. And yes, there are LPNs in many ERs

As a casual, you can make yourself available for one shift only, but you usually won't manage to make full time hours. When I first started working, I could only do days due to family obligations. There were times when I had two days work for a paycheque. I wound up working at five different sites to make ends meet and pay off that student loan. As new hire casual, you will be at the bottom of the to call list. You have to be aware that COVID has caused all sorts of economic problems. Alberta nurses are facing cutbacks in numbers, benefits, and wages. Ontario is probably looking the same.

Took nearly 17 years to get a one shift line. you just do what you have to do.

I don't work in Ontario but in my province, my ER has multiple shift patterns. There are 8 hour shifts that do D/N, D/E. Then there are 12 hour rotating A/B shifts. The shift starts are staggered and different from the rest of hospital to optimize staff being on the floor during the busiest times. We joke that shifts are rotating so that everyone can have the same level of disruption in their lives. No one has a straight line. Our ERs have LPNs who carry their own patient load and a few service workers who clean the bays after discharge/transfer of patients. Your patient is yours and when necessary you work as a team. We're in the middle of the transition to paperless charting, it's all been delayed due to COVID.

Er, even AB government is planning on slashing nursing jobs. The economy sucks. I’ve got 20 years seniority and am worried if I will have a job this time next year.