frances81

Just curious if any of you would - or have - ever risked leaving a permanent position in a less desirable location for a temporary 18 month temp. position in your proferred, much-coveted location? From speaking with managers there, it’s almost impossible to get a perm. position in the city I’d like to live in and the majority of postings in my specialty are temp.

I'm surprised how many nurses/ units are listening to music. I've only encountered it a few times on night shift but more so in LTC, again almost always on nights. Considering on the acute units I was on we weren't even allowed to have our cell phones on our person or drinks at the nursing station due to patient/ family perception, I can't imagine music going over well.

I'm fine with it if it's a personal work area/ office and it's very quiet but I'm not a fan in shared nursing stations. I personally don't listen to a lot of music and easily get noise headaches - I know nursing can be noisy but adding more noise on top makes it worse for me, not better. I also just find it an imposition on others who may find it a distraction or not to their liking (I'm most definitely not a fan of jazz or classical). Definitely seems inappropriate to me if doing patient care or in a public space in view of patients/ families.

Where I work it's based on our collective agreement as RN's - meaning all publicly employed RN's (majority) make the same. Start at $36ish up to $49ish CND I believe based on time worked (but it's a higher cost of living & higher taxes up here).

Also it's true about the documentation - home visits take forever to document!

It probably depends where you are but in my province PHN's do home visits for newly discharged mom&babe - ideally within 48 hours of discharge. In bigger cities there will be a specialty group of nurses who do this. As a generalist in a smaller town, I do them along with running the rest of the public health centre (well child clinic, adult and travel clinic, flu clinic, opioid outreach, prenatal teaching, cdc, etc).

No problem. Glad you made a decision that worked for you. I just wanted to clarify - I wouldn't replace free online courses for everything - for example: an official 20-hour breastfeeding course with a clinical or some perinatal/ neonatal credit courses. But Coursera & the like could be good for the lesser needed components. Anyway - good luck! I love PH & could never go back now.

Also, if you're willing to go rural to be a generalist PHN, any experience &/or courses in communcable disease control, opioid addiction/ naloxone administration, travel health & vaccinations, sexual health/ birth control, & routine childhood & adult vaccinations would be helpful. Coursera offers free courses online that could help your resume & show your desire to be in PH if you're on a budget.

I started in LTC and am now a generalist PHN Nurse but I don't know that the LTC experience especially helped. I'd say what helped more was that I had my perinatal specialty theory courses, neonatal resuscitation, fetal heart monitoring, breastfeeding course, a little experience doing flu clinics, and a willingness to go rural. LDR, Mom&Babe, & flu clinic experience is preferential if you can get. I'd suggest staying in acute for now and start taking courses towards the above rather than leaving for LTC - which can be hard to transition out of.

I moved from Victoria to AB for a variety of reasons - but a big one was cost of living. Cost of living and housing has been going through the roof the past few years; add to that lower pay, I cant see ever being able to afford going back. And definitely could *never* afford to buy there

I also always saw those ads while living on the Island and it was frustrating as meanwhile I'd been applying to hundreds of positions with no response.

Having graduated from U of Vic in 2013 & taken my BCIT Perinatal Specialty theory courses & first practicum I can tell you: - VIHA/ Island Health is extremely hard to crack into. They have a new grad hiring program and guarantee anywhere from 20-100% of new grads will be hired yearly. There is a yearly glut of new nurses (approx 180 or so) in a small location. Unfortunately I graduated on a extremely low year and the only position I got with VIHA after 2 years and hundreds of applications was a casual position over an hour up island in geri-psych. I didn't keep that position long due to feeling unsafe with the mountainous drive and workplace violence while pregnant. I finally moved to Alberta to work rurally as a PHN as I gave up on VIHA. -the LDR unit is one of the most competitive areas to get into in Vic. It's very small and has a very tight-knit (some say clicky) group of long term nurses. Because you actually have to complete two 4 week practicums there before you might even be considered as a casual on Mom&Babe, I'd suggest worrying less about taking your courses now and just concentrate on finding any job with VIHA on the southern island and getting settled. I'd also suggest using your husbands address and getting a Victoria number as being external is hard enough without being out of province. Good luck!!! Check back and let me know how it goes. :)

I lucked out in that I found my dream PHN nursing position within about 6 weeks but I had to go super rural & isolated. Not my ideal location but the experience makes up for it. Hoping to move back to the city - or within an hours drive - in the next few years.

There's 5 of us so I'm pretty sure they'd know who did it lol - and I can tell you now it would be *bad*. As it is I've already got the 2 older staff members purposely opening the door wide after I've just closed it....can't win. I'm going to let it go.

I think you're spot on. I was just super irritated yesterday but I've decided to let it go. Personally I think it's pretty disrespectful as I'm the only one in the back beside the washroom and unprofessional, but you're right - it's not worth the stress. I think it's hard because it's not just this but I'm getting questioned from the older non-nursing/ admin assistant staff on every little thing, for example: the type of pens I choose to use, to how I arrange my chairs during clinic, to not wanting more crayons in the clinic when we have so many already, etc...Just so tired of being questioned/ challenged on every little thing because it's not the way it was done 10-20 years ago. Sighhh. Thanks for the perspective!! :)

I'd love too! Unfortunately we can't even afford tea and coffee for our public health flu clinics so I seriously doubt that would be approved! But I was joking about that today with a co-worker.

Hi everyone - Can you please let me know exactly how crazy/ obsessive/ petty I'm being - if at all. LOL. I've recently started working in a small public health clinic and my office as well as our clinic room (mostly for well child clinics) is directly across the hall from the staff bathroom. I guess it's always been that the bathroom door was left wide open after and between uses by other (non-health care) staff. I've recently asked that we please keep it closed or semi-closed for both sanitary and professional reasons (who wants to walk past an open bathroom when taking their newborn in for immunizations and assessments?!). Also, tbh, I'm very scent sensitive and just am grossed out with my office so close. I didn't think this would at all be an issue but I'm getting push back from the couple non-health care staff who've been there for 10-20 years. Not only do they leave it wide open still, but after I close it they open it again minutes later. I'm considering emailing Infection Prevention & Control for best practice recommendations/ back-up Am I over reacting? Should I let this go in the interest of office peace?

Oops. Sorry about the typos. Good luck! Lol

I actually got here by googling "meditech sucks" that's how much I dislike it lol

Just moved provinces to start a new job - which I love - but *cannot believe* there's a program this bad and outdated. I'm used to the user-friendly Powerchart - I never even needed training for it it's that simple and straightforward. Meditech on the other hand is counterintuitive to anyone who's used to modern computers imo. Meditech looks like something from the mid-90's. I hate hate hate hate hate it. And not because I'm not used to it - because I can't imagine a worse system. Glad others out there agree with me as it's boggling my mind why any health authority would chose it. Ok rant over lol.

I just started a PHN position in a small town. Looooving it! I think what helped me was: -my perinatal and breastfeeding post-grad specialty online courses is taken - my excitement and desire to work in PH -my non-judgemental nature -how I stressed preventative and primary care in my interview answers -my willingness to move to a tiny town My main suggestions: take courses, especially in neonatal and breastfeeding, immunization, CDC, and sexual health. And apply to remote areas. I just started and I've finally found my niche. I'll never go back to bedside. I'm so excited to have a relaxed, regular schedule, relaxed coworkers and managers, and being encouraged to take time during work to learn and focus on education. Good lick

To clarify, I don't see rural nursing as worse or less-than. I'd be honored to be offering the position and have that opportunity. And I'm also not necessarily planing on staying just the one year - just trying to gauge what is appropriate and if rural nursing has a higher turn-over than city nursing. Personally the only reason I can't see doing more than 2-3 years is I'd be quite far away from family. Thanks for all the diverse input :)

Agreed. I've only ever gotten 5 shifts of orientation for LTC. My understanding is the place I'm looking at gives 2-3 weeks of orientation and then you're on your own. Obviously there will be a learning curve but not sure how that's all that costly for them? I understand that new grad acute training positions get 12 weeks of buddy shifts & preceptor though, so I can see how that cost the big bucks. I've never been in acute though and am no longer a new grad.

in nursing school almost every single instructor said to get at least a year of med-surg nursing, which would imply that at least among instructors - that a year would be considered acceptable (?)

I should clarify - I'm not a new grad, I was just referring how I know many new grads have that mentality. I've been working in LTC mostly for the past 3 years. I've been applying to more rural areas as there's not much opportunity for external hires in the city I've recently moved to and I keep reading one should go rural to get a foot in the door - at this point it's really just a hypothetical/ planning question.