Akyi

I work in Vancouver, Canada. I work in L&D now and I have been a nurse for 3 and a half years. I make $ 34.44 but I would make this if I worked any where else in the hospital as a nurse. It depends on your years of experience as a nurse. Shift differentials is extra $ 3.50 for nights and $ 2.50 for weekends plus double pay for OT hourly. Cost of living in Vancouver is expensive. A decent home will start around $ 600,000 + . Food is not too bad. Gas/transportation is expensive.

I think getting a good experience in med/surg nursing as a new grad is very important. Alot of job postings where I work usually wants you to have atleast two years of medical/surgical nursing before you get hired for a speciality. In medical/surgical nursing you will learn a wide range of common diseases and surgeries, organizatinal skills, many useful nursing skills (IVs, catheter insertions, pain managment, NG tubes, colostomies, oxygen saturations, dealing with code blues, fluid electrolytes imbalances, blood transfusions etc....). I started my first 3 years of nursing in a acute surgery floor and I must say I am so glad that I started there. The amount of knowledge and skills I learnt from this type of floor has really helped me to become a more experienced nurse. Speciality nursing can be great later in your nursing years but I think it is very important to grasp the basics of nursing first before you forget it. So yes, I would recommend medical/surgical nursing first before OB nursing.