Anita2

First of all, welcome to NZ!.... 1. ADHB would be the one i recommended. You can either work in Greenlance clinical centre (appr 15-20mins bus distance away from the city, but free shuttle is offered to ADHB staff every 10-15mins between the centres) or Auckland CIty Hospital, which locates in Grafton and just few steps away from AKL uni medical campus and city centre. 2. With 2yrs of previous experience, basically you may start from a Level 2 staff nurse (5steps included), whose annual salary is abt nz$48,000-58,000. But it varies due to different steps or the department you'll be employed. This can be discussed at your interview, i reckon. 3. As to the shift schedules, it may vary from different departments. e.g. most ICUs and ORs do offer 8hrs &10hrs &12hrs shift but still, it depends on the needed service. 40hrs a week is considered as full-time. The department i work for is quite flexible, and you may choose any shift you like which i am quite happy with. p.s. YEs, Middlemore hospital is another option, but it's a bit far from AKL university. I personally never worked there, but been heard that the staff like surgeons are quite nice. You may try there if they have vacancy fits you. They are all public hospitals, but you can choose to work in private like Mercy hospital, southern cross etc... they also sit in the city. Hope it helped. If you have more questions, just feel free to ask. All the best to you and your husband! Anita

It is NOT easy to manage! Take a CABG as an example, only one scrub nurse deals with both surgeons, one is doing chest, another for conduit-harvesting. This is not the difficult part, the challenge is when the surgeon is harvesting the conduits from both legs where the scrub nurse stands. In this case, scrub nurse still needs to pass instru to both safely and quickly. Believe me, it can be very annoying as the conduit-harvesting surgeon blocks your space and view. In this situation, some surgeons are still fussy to blame you for not quick enough passing him the instru such and such... You know what, I sometimes do wish i am born with 3 arms & hands. Does this help us to be more flexible scrub nurses. i hope it does...lol... Anita

~~~let me make 2 assumptions. ~~~~ when i scrub, first of all, i confirm the types and sizes of the cannula with the surgeon and perfusioninst, then i would ask the circulator to open it up, and grab with my hand. when i circulate, i would wait till the scrub tells me what the cannula they want to open. i would ask the scrub to grab it when i open the pack. if it's in emergency, when there is almost nill-chance for scrub to grab them, and the surgeon decides to go bypass urgently, once the cannula is confirmed, i would open the rigid ones such as dlp arterial and single or 2-stage venous cannula in the sterile trolley, but if they are very floppy and i'm unsure if i can keep them sterile, i would wait and ask the scrub to get them asap when i find a chance comes. opening the cannula is still a team work, and we do communicate with each other. as to the or nurses with 2-faced, cold, snakey personalities, i agree with linda2097, that's human nature. but i always tell myself, i will not be like this to anyone esp. new staff, never and ever. just hang in there, be strong! lilla_fjaril hope it helps. anita

I have to say, i disagree with you, Lucia Cong. This kinda image criteria for nursing job application in China is not true. If things happen like this, i reckon this 'image request' probably applies to certain area such as OR, where is more favorable to have mid-tall staff, let's say, >160cm, but of course it is not absolutely a reason to reject short nurses to be OR nurses, based on my experience and some of my colleagues have been through (BTW, i'm 159cm, and i am not pretty, not slim at all unfortunately. ^-^ But i've been accepted for working in OR for 8yrs plus 2yrs in ICU ). I think if you are comfident, well-equipped with nursing knowledge, practice, quality, etc.... nowhere would reject you just because you are not pretty enough, not tall enough... Let me assume, if a hospital said NO to you because of this 'request', i do feel for you. BUT it's unfair for other countless hopsitals to get the same conclusion, which implies they also have the same 'request'. I suggest you do a research before making a conclusion like this, at least, this situation in the city i live and the hospitals(x3) i work for is NOT TRUE. I hope the answer i gave did not upset you, as i am telling a truth from my expeirence and what i've seen. Good luck to your future, and i hope you can get what you want wherever you go. Anita

I feel same too. I work in CTOR, and we also have some surgeons with this bad behavior, throwing instruments, shouting at you, blaming you for not passing a single instrument in a second, or frequently using a F* word etc.... I cann't tolerate this behavior either. It did not happen to me, but i did observe many times some ass* surgeons act like this to others. So, it is really important for us to have someone like CN or manager to stand for us, and give the surgeon a shout so these abusive surgeons are not spoiled to be like that any more.... I'm not in USA, but it seems the OR culture is pretty same everywhere. Thanks god we still have some nice surgeons who never shout, even in a critical situation, and always say THANKs to you. We are not alowed ourselves to be abused and we come to work with a same goal, that is for the patient to receive an optimal care and treatment in a TEAM. WE DESERVE TO BE RESPECTED! ---another victim from CTOR