ShirleyMc

Yep, it's true. In Alberta anyway, IEN are getting hired over experienced locally/provincially educated nurses (LPNs and RNs)...and getting away with it 9/10 times! It's because health authorities are getting subsidized by the provincial and federal government to hire IENs. Also health authorities can take advantage of IENs because there are too many nurses right now to fill any vacancies. So nurses are "sucking it up" by working in horrible working conditions with ridiculously heavy workloads, getting intimidated to not put in for OT even though they miss breaks or stay late to complete documentation. Worse, the quality and safety of pt care suffers because every nurse is trying to survive their shift.

I'm in Alberta and have been a RN for many years. I work part-time and am having a hard time picking up any extra shifts, this is been going on for well over a year. Casual nurses have been obtaining very few shifts, despite being super flexible. Overtime is virtually non-existent. Currently AHS and Cov have over-hired causals to take advantage of them because they need hours for living necessities but also to meet their Canadian work permit status. Agencies working with IEN do make tons of promises (a job, shifts, blah, blah), and charge you a lot of money to get here, but nurse is extremely challenging right now. Agencies, and the regional health authorities haven't been keeping their promises. Once you are here, you are sorta screwed -- working conditions are horrible. The old mantra "there is a nursing shortage" is true and untrue --- there is a shortage in that we need more nurses when it comes nurse/pt ratios but there is no shortage of nurses willing to get ANY hours and no shortage willing to work in horrible conditions. Caution.

In Alberta, orientation is 4 shifts in addition to an in-classroom stint for a few days. There is no staffing crisis here ATM, due to a huge IEN hiring campaign/program a few months ago. Currently, there are no pick-up shifts, no OT, and casuals struggle to get hours. Maybe as Summer approaches, more shifts will become available, not sure, but right now....

As of about 2 weeks ago there is a hiring freeze for nurses in Alberta as per UCP government in that province.

Are you required to refresher?

I have a question regarding elderly and COVID-19.... Do people over, say 70 or 75 years old, generally develop a fever with COVID? The reason I ask is because in nursing school they drilled into our heads over and over that elderly often do not present with a fever with infection. Does anyone have any experience related to this?

Do I have any rights here in Canada.... Recently on our medicine unit we've had 2 patients whose families insist on video and audio recording nurses and other staff members while the patient is being cared for. At first the family secretly installed a nanny-cam, but once found out, management asked them to remove that because, and only because, this patient has a roommate and the concern was the roommates rights to privacy. Now the family stands there and uses their smartphone to record. Recently, the family was recording through the narrow crack of the bathroom door while I was providing peri-care to the patient. It's creepy. I have nothing to hide and I believe most nurses on our floor provide stellar care. But it's stilly creepy. The family states they are recording to document any mistakes as well as document any progress, or lack of, in the patient's rehab. The managements response is that we cannot insist them not to record, and that it's basically something we need to put up with. Do I not have any rights/choice to NOT be recorded? I mean, where is that video with my face going to end up? Youtube, FB, other social?? Then there is the growing field of biometrics -- being able to identify and search for people's faces in online pictures through computer software. This is widely used in countries around the world. I don't feel good about having my face out there when it comes to my work life. Any ideas?

It took me 23 months to get a RN job after completing the Nurse Refresher Program through MacEwan. It's really tough out there. I even applied in rural Alberta but they were looking for someone with many certificates so that I could work in a small hospital with pediatric/emergency/l +d/chemo training. It is discouraging, for sure. Apply for any and all to get "in".... you'll likely start casual. Good luck to you. Your time will come.

It is very difficult to obtain an RN position, even a casual one, as a new grad.

It's very hard to get a job in Alberta right now, unless you are willing to move, or commute, to a smaller rural community at least 1.5 - 2 hours out of any larger city (Lethbridge, Calgary, Edmonton). Many new grads from spring 2016, yes 2016, still don't have nursing work and have taken jobs in retail. Personally, I don't anticipate the conditions improving any time soon. Providers are hiring less RNs, more LPNs, and CNAs for reasons of dollars and cents. It is my understanding that all Alberta Health Services nursing positions are filled through a central recruitment team through an online only application process...it's not who you know.

I understand about AHS/Covenant recruiters choosing from internal applicants first (based on seniority, right?), then if they need to, they choose from external applicants. My question, if (a big "if") they look at external applicants, how are they chosen? Is it where the RN is located on the pay scale? I.e. young new grad = cheap. Or certificate with CNA? -- Like a "Perioperative Cert." Or simply their keyword searches on electronically submitted resumes? Or is "eenie, meenie...."? There must be tons of applications per position and likely, in the overall picture, it's rare for an external to even be considered? I'm guessing it is going to be difficult for me to get a job in the next few months. I'm an external, refresher grad (out of nursing for a long time), and not the youngest. I'm not even sure if my past 10+ year seniority counts or I start at the bottom of the payscale. I'm lamenting whether I should get a RN certification of some kind, or bite the bullet and get educated in a totally different field and ultimately change professions completely. Obviously this would be a huge decision and huge investment on several levels. I do love nursing and am/was good at it, but one needs to eat.

This is so discouraging, yet so true and exactly what I am seeing on the unit. I am Refreshing right now and near finished, just the last stint which is an in-hospital Preceptorship -- the burn out, lack of respect for the frontline people, the push to get patients discharged as quickly as possible, and WAY too many managers for every little "thing." Why am I Refreshing again??? Lol.

Joanna, I am wondering where you got this information from. Am also wondering about the Covenant health numbers you mentioned. This is a genuine question as I am totally considering a big shift in career out of health care. I am almost done my Refresher, but if I can't get a decent job in health care, I might as well go back to school for something else, at least while I am waiting for a RN position. I mean, it's not like I can even be considered for a post-graduate at U of A without the experience.

You're right Fiona59. I read the post totally wrong, missed something, or got mixed up with another person. Sorry about that. Please forget what I said.

Have you considered going for your BScN? Speaking big picture and long term, more doors may be open for you. As well, not sure where you are (location-wise and in life), but some courses you take for a nursing degree may be used for a different degree if you change your mind. And possibly during holiday breaks, summers, and weekends you can work as a "student" in LTC to help fund yourself. Just tossing that out there... Are you young? If so, it's easier to get your education under your belt before commitments start to accumulate. Good luck to you!

I worked through a nursing agency for a few weeks here and there during summer breaks and as a new grad nurse. Scarey. I was provided with no orientation and no guidance. Questionable situations. To be honest, I didn't know the difference because I was THAT green and that inexperienced. In fact, I was taken advantage of or virtually abused during some shifts by other staff members. Not safe. I was in risky situations that put myself and patients in potential danger. I was lucky nothing happened. I don't recommend it.

Thank you for this. Sadly, your predictions re: Grande Prairie hospital sound realistic given the other examples you've presented and the track record of this province (Alberta). Sigh. I am frantically "refreshing" after years of being out of the profession. Reading here is discouraging. Very discouraging. Thank you for posting the realities as I have zero colleagues who have remained in the profession over the years so you ladies are my only way of knowing. The refreshing college's admins are reassuring me that if a refreshing student does well on the floor during their clinical placement, they may be hired directly by the unit manager. Doesn't sound accurate based on what I read here. Why would they misrepresent the true scenario? Sigh again. Some days I honestly feel like quitting, going to school for something different, heck even a male dominated profession/designation as they seem to do a lot better in terms of starter wages and less intense working conditions. I love nursing, I love Alberta, I love learning, but I am sad to see where nursing has evolved to. :-( Agh, issues for another thread...

Please peruse this site, banterings: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/why-get-a-flu-shot/#more-34459 You will be glad you did. It’s a blog expressing way better than I can the issues and the science around vaccines. It’s written by those who have way more expertise than myself, with tons of research links throughout, along with critiques of questionable research. The blog is called Science-Based Medicine. Interestingly, today’s blog is regarding the flu vaccine written by an infectious disease specialist. I’ll respond to your items here, but I am not interested in getting into a continuing dialogue. I think this could go on forever and likely has in other parts of this very forum. Please, just be informed through valid sources, replicated studies, basic microbiology, and epidemiology. Base your decisions on knowledge (not fear), and have some trust with experts in the field. This is a very small study, 115 kids so I question its validity based on numbers alone. In addition, it could be concluded that other respiratory viruses were circulating in the community and the infectious agent(s) were not one of the viruses covered in the influenza vaccine -- that makes more sense to me. It certainly doesn't mean that the flu vaccine CAUSED those children to be immunocompromised. Correlation doesn't mean causation! A published study doesn't necessarily make this author’s conclusions accurate -- replication many times over, by independent researchers with reasonable numbers is required. Re: your rights. Yes, of course you have the right to make decisions for your own body. I'd hope one, especially a health care professional, could look at the big picture of risk versus benefit and do the right thing for the community without a need for a mandatory flu shot policy. Seat belt regulation, distracted driving laws, mask fitting for nursing employment, mandatory CPR certification for nurses etc etc are all an inconvenience but are there to protect us all. Regarding your examples: flu vaccination doesn't equal forced abortions/sterilizations. Your individual right to refuse, for YOURSELF, an intervention (like your example of cardiac surgery) should be your choice, absolutely - it certainly doesn't affect anyone else unless you expect the "system" to pick up the pieces of your potentially poor decision. When health care professionals do not vaccinate, they put their patients at risk big time, cost institutions tons of money on sick time, and compromise their own health. If, on one extreme, you believe vaccines are fundamentally dangerous, then you are going to look at employer requirements as invasive and against your rights. If this were true, then you are right. On the other extreme, if you believe in vaccinating any and all 100%, then this is dangerous too. If the middle ground is immunizing those that can be safely immunized, we protect us all. Vaccines can be medically waived. Re: effectiveness of influenza vaccine. No question, it isn't 100% effective, no vaccine is -- CDC, community health nurses, pharmacists and infectious disease docs all agree. So does that mean we should just abandon flu vaccines then? Or does it mean we continue to promote immunization as an effective tool against harmful infectious diseases? Re: the doc whose article encourages physicians to recruit for flu shots based on money they could make on each shot is, yes, greasy. Good thing all docs aren't money-mongers. Now that flu shot stations are located in places where people are out and about, especially the elderly, it does make it easy to get a flu shot. Here in Canada, pharmacists are available at pharmacies to give a flu shot, no cost, without an appointment, and usually with no waitlist, and no crowded area (like a paediatrician office full of sick, coughing, kids). Same, at malls. I think any doc would be hard pressed to get 2000 patients into his/her clinic just for a flu shot, as the author suggests. Re: lawful compensation due to vaccine injury. I suggest risk versus benefit. Does a very small risk mean that immunization programs should be discarded altogether? You do realize the heavy societal burden that complications from the flu can cost us in terms of overall population morbidity and mortality, lost work/school, not to mention government cost? Risk versus benefit.

Herd Immunity! With infectious diseases you are vaccinating populations, not just individuals. When more people get vaccinated, more people are spared of the flu (or other disease) which makes for a healthier population / area / country. That's Community Health 101. Edited to add this link to a Canadian study called: "The Effect of Universal Influenza Immunization on Mortality and Health Care Use" (2008). Kwon, et al. http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0050211 [h=3]CONCLUSION: Compared to targeted programs in other provinces, introduction of universal vaccination in Ontario in 2000 was associated with relative reductions in influenza-associated mortality and health care use. The results of this large-scale natural experiment suggest that universal vaccination may be an effective public health measure for reducing the annual burden of influenza.[/h]

According to my sister (not in the health field) who has lived in Grande Prairie for 30+ years, says they are building a hospital in GP to be completed summer/fall of 2015-ish. Article (altho I haven't read it): Grande Prairie new regional hospital | About AHS | Alberta Health Services

I have this text for doing my Nurse Refresher Certification. I LOVE it! Lots of detail. It's expensive new, and it may be hard to obtain because it's one of those texts i think most nurses would want to keep for reference. Unless you could get one on a site like Kijiji from someone who dropped out of nursing.

Janfrn…great ideas…and thank you for your response!

Does anyone know where to find Alberta (especially Edmonton and area) hiring statistics to indicate to a divorce judge that obtaining a job is very difficult right now especially for a person who hasn't worked as a RN for 16 years. I've been a stay-at-home-mother and am currently obtaining my recertification and hopefully done by the end of the year. Unfortunately, after following posts on this forum I think I will be lucky to get an interview, not alone a job...ANY job, in any area of nursing! While I would love to print off threads from this wonderful forum as proof, I am not sure the judge will go for it. :-) I think having these relevant statistics, or even something similar, would help my case in terms of amount and duration of spousal support. TIA for any suggestions! :-)

In regard to nursing positions, I wonder what will happen in Alberta now that Ms. Redford has stepped down. Doug Horner, finance, is quoted as saying a few days ago: "That means more teachers, doctors, nurses and other essential front-line supports for Albertans." http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-plays-it-safe-with-cautious-2014-budget-1.2562938 This is good right?? Gosh I hope so... soon to be finished my refresher course... and so need work... and I'm keen on the OR. Time will tell...

I would like to know the difference in qualities of RNs who makes it in the OR and ones that don't. It seems, from my reading on this forum, that a new-to-the-OR nurse is either successful in the first few months, or they leave (or are let go). When I was a student many years ago, I spent some time observing in the OR and loved it's flow, the exposed tissues/organs, the tools, and the friendly team work. But I also realize that just because I enjoyed spending a few days watching, doesn't mean I am cut out for the OR (and I know an experienced nurse makes the job look easy!) I am 47, so it's now or never, I'm thinking, but at the same time I don't want to invest time/money/energy into a long preoperative course if it's not for me. I don't have the option of observing in the OR at this time because I am out of the hospital setting. So, please do tell, what type of RN makes it, what type doesn't? Thanks,