Dkim

Hello, fellow nurses! Today, I was notified of an interview for a casual LPN job with the neuroscience department in a local hospital in Edmonton. Since I have not worked in an acute setting after my acute care practicum, I feel really nervous about the interview. Plus, I only have been an LPN for a little over 2 years now. They also said that there will be med-calculation exam right after the interview. From my acute care practicum, I recall that there was a large percentage of elderly stroke patients, but other than that I don't have a good knowledge of what type of patients I would be seeing on a regular basis. Could anyone offer me some insights about what sort of questions the interview panels might ask and other helpful tips for the interview prep? Thank you so much in advance.

Thank you Fiona59, I remember being asked about those things you mentioned at my job interview with continuing care centre. And it's always followed by few intensive scenario questions. I also remember a question, which I thought it's particularly tricky to answer. "What would you do if you are working on Stat holiday and your shift's almost over and your co worker asks for help, in which situation might put you on overtime?" Grrr! Thanks again.

Hi guys! As other fellow nurses have commented about hiring freeze, I can see that the oil price has a lot to do with our employment situation in AB. It's scary to see what will come down to us and got me thinking about getting out of health care but I want to stick around for a while depends on the change. Anyhow, I am an LPN and in Edmonton now and have received an interview call today from Glenrose rehap hospital. I don't even remember if I ever applied for the position but here it was. The job is in Brain injury unit and I have no clue about what do prepare for the interview. Of course, I will do my best in doing research about the brain injury unit before the interview but would still greatly appreciate any helpful thoughts and advice from seasoned fellow nurses. There will be a med test as a part of interview and 85% marks is passing score. What kind of meds do nurses deal with in brain injury rehap unit? I am quite familiar with antipsycotics as I've worked in a LTC before but other than that I ain't got a clue for meds part. Any thoughts are appreciated and good luck to other fellow nurses who are in job searching. Thank you again.

Hi Fiona59, I think I learned to reconstitute IV medication and hang the piggy bag in the lab but no IV push. Unfortunately, Our instructors didn't really focus on IV medication administration, assuming most of us would find an employment in long term care facility or home care industry where IV skills were not critical part of nursing care. Most of skills were focused on patient hygiene, oral+IM,SC medicattion administration and charting. In fact, most of our classmates were expecting to find a job in LTC by the graduation.

Hi itsmejuli, Yes. I have heard that there are increasing numbers of nurses moving into Alberta to look for a job. To be honest, I don't really know what's the demand of nurses in healthcare and how long I need to wait for hearing from them. I've already read a few postings under this subject and it sort of scared me. My heart goes out to all the new grad nurses who are struggling in looking for an employment. Oh well, it is what it is and I have to deal with this reality.

We weren't taught how to initiate IV in school. All we learned was to prime IV tubings, changing IV bags, and monitoring complications. We might have an in house training after get hired or have to enroll IV course with the local college. I believe that starting IV is varied on work setting and the policy of facility. I wish we were taught IV skills in school. As you know, BC LPNs have limited scope of practice compare to LPNs in Alberta. Now the new curriculum is in place, students under new system might have IV skills in their curriculum.

Hi Fiona59, I thank you for taking your time to leave a comment on my posting. I understand what you are trying to say but it's not even possible to submit application for most of acute care setting if I don't have specific qualifications(i.e.IV certificate) since they want to hire someone who has the prerequisite to begin with whether or not they are actually able to perform it. So it seems as though if I don't have every single requirement they ask for prior to screening process, my application will not be even considered therefore, I don't get to have an opportunity to be assessed by the "CNE". To make to matter worse, I have to compete with the local graduate. If don't get my foot in the door, I won't have access to the "In house course". I think it would be wise to keep my options wide open and take any opportunity as long as it gives me experience to move up. Perhaps, it's time to gather all my energy to find a job in a community or LTC if getting into acute care is not feasible in my current situation. Anyhow, Thank you for your insight. Adam

Hello fellow nurses, My name is Adam and I have moved to Edmonton on March 1st, 2014 from Vancouver in the hope that I could find a job after a long frustration in finding a job in Vancouver. In fact, I haven't been able to work as a LPN after graduation in 2013. I made every effort to get hired when I was in Vancouver but noting really worked out for a 7-8 month period and then I decided to do something about it rather than whining about my situation. So I applied for Care aid jobs with several health authorities(VCH, VIHA, Fraser Health, Providence etc), but had no luck. Well, as some of you might know that it's a norm for new grad LPNs in Vancoouver to start working as a care aide and work their way up and hopefully get a casual position in the future. Getting a casual position in hospital is nearly impossible unless you had a preceptorship there or know somebody work there. None of this applied to my case so I didn't have choice but kept applying for online postings and I was getting fed up with no response from HR. Of course, I had contacted nearly every LTC in Lower mainland, but was told to submit the resume and they were not hiring. SO many new grads are being pumped out of school in BC and there are no jobs for us and even seasoned nurses are even getting laid off due to "CDMR" and PCA are replacing their position. I considered moving to other part of BC but the situation is not that different then what's happening in Lower mainland BC. So I made a major decision after a careful consideration, which was aided by another fellow LPN I've known through online BC LPN community. I thought I would be much better off moving to Alberta then staying in BC and I moved here in Edmonton. I've got my Alberta license a few weeks ago and have been applying for jobs ever since. In fact, I started applying positions with AHS in February before I move but haven't heard anything from HR but kept receiving the automated rejection letter. If I am not mistaken, I've applied about more than 50 positions so far and also applied several positions with Covenant health as well. After I learned that the hiring process with AHS and Covenant health is extremely slow, I started contacting LTC here around Edmonton and submitted a few applications for them and targeted on non-profit Org, such as The Good Samaritan, BMHC, and Salvation army etc. After all this, I realized that there may be some issues with my resume, so I decided to redo my resume and cover letter by hands of a professional whose company is located in Alberta, hoping that this would worth spending my money for. To be honest, I was quite happy with the their work, but I had to work on bunch of questions in worksheet to aid the rewriting process. Anyways, I applied for few positions with new resume since last week and am waiting to see what happens. I think I've done nearly everything I can do in my situation, but still I'd love to have your insights into my struggle of finding a job. I know I am not a patient person and am not sure if I am being too hasty. I am sure there are new grad nurses out there like me having been forced to make a difficult choice and start all over again in new place. Again, I don't know the reason I am not getting any response if it's because I am from other province and have no previous nursing experience. I've even enrolled a course with NAIT, "Combined IV and Phlebotomy", starting next week in an attempt to fill the lacking BC's scope of practice. And believe me it's EXPENSIVE!!!. I was asking myself if I am being too paranoid or impatient but I wanted to try everything before anything happens next. I feel like the time's running out and so is my budget(LOL). I really want to stay in the city rather than having to move to rural area because I don't have a vehicle. I 'd really appreciate your insight and thank you for reading my long story. (P.S. I am a male nurse!) Thanks, Adam