Marijke

As many have already responded, it isn't nice to be getting a warning about legitimate sick time. However your employer does have a problem, when you don't show up for work, they have to replace you, if that is even possible, it comes at a great cost and has an impact on tight budgets. For example on Christmas day, if you are employed in BC, it could have cost 3 1/2 times regular wages to replace you, and if somebody had to be called during their vacation, they would in addition have to have another vacation day. If they couldn't replace you, your colleagues would have had to work even harder and patient care may be at risk. In your case, I think you need to talk to somebody about your health issues and how things can be worked out, so you can still work (maybe not full-time) and your employer knows you can be relied upon to be there. Does your employer have a disability management program? If so, please contact them and have them work with you and your physician. If there is no disability management program, maybe talk to Human Resources to see what they have to offer. Good luck!

Have you thought about moving to BC? The BC health authorities and the BCNU (BC nurses union) have just signed a deal to hire a lot of new nurses by March 31st 2016.

Hey wasup! You need to empty some of your stored messages, I have tried to reply to you but can not send anything until you create some space Marijke

Welcome to OR nursing, it is a great career. Did you find the great OR nurses forum on this website? Lots of stuff available there. Don't let the surgeons get you down, where would they be without you? Marijke:nuke:

Medical care is mainly government funded in Canada. What type of nusing are you looking for? If you are looking for a hospital job, you need to talk to the health authorities. You can try the following: http://www.healthmatchbc.org/, which is a website which has job openings for all hospitals in BC. Some of the jobs are what they call casual postions, which basically means you are not guaranteed hours. With the current nursing shortage this should not be a problem. If you are willing to work all shifts, there will be plenty of work. The way it works is as follows. Hospital nurses have to be BCNU (nursing union) members, working in a particular hospital gives you seniority. When a position becomes available in this hospital, the nurse who applies with the most seniority gets the job. As a casual nurse you get seniority for the hours worked. The more specialized you are the better chance you have of skipping the casual job stage and gaining stable employment immediately, BC is screaming for ICU, OR, Obstetrical and Neonatal nurses (and other specialties). I made the move from the Netherlands 15 years ago and looking back I would not change a thing. Let me know if there is anything else I can do, probably better to send me an e-mail as weeks go by I don't get to this website. Marijke

i have worked for interior health for years, and this info is bogus. interior health and the other health authorities do provide some financial assistance for rn's to help with moving expenses. wages are determined by the bcnu (nursing union) collective agreement, this is province wide and past experience in another country does count. you need to get your license before being allowed to work, this is done through the crnbc. as a native english speaker, you should not encounter to many problems getting a temporary license after which you can write your exams once you get here. vancouver is a beautiful city, i prefer the sunny okanagan, but it all depends on what you are looking for. good luck, please come we need nurses! marijke

If I were you, I would work on my English, as this is a very important part of the licensing as a registered nurse (I had to do the same 15 years ago). The paperwork for landed immigrant status needs to be started outside Canada, I am not sure if you have started this already. Start work on your nursing license now! There will be an English exam, they will look at your nursing education, if that is all OK, you will need to write the Canadian nursing exam (CRNE). You may have to get all this done before Immigration Canada approves anything (unless you have family sponsorship). There will not be anything for free from the Canadian government, be prepared for some expenses, immigrating is not cheap. Hope this helps! Marijke

Surrey Memorial is like all hospitals in the region a very busy place. In my opinion it is probably best to just experience it and start looking around once you get to BC. Moving hospitals is very easy, the pay and benefits are the same Province wide. One piece advice, do not settle for starting wages, hospitals are allowed to start you at a higher scale and you should be rewarded for previous experience. They may try not to, but as there are many jobs available, you have some bargaining power. Good luck with the move Marijke

Kelowna BC Groningen The Netherlands

Hi, British Columbia is devided in 6 health authorities. These health authorities are the main employers for healthcare in BC. I would give you their websites, but am not allowed to post them. If you are looking for work in Vancouver itself, you should look for the Vancouver coastal health authority or the Provincial health services authority, this last one is in charge Province wide of the specialty areas (BC Children's and Wowen's in Vancouver, cancer agency etc.) If you are looking outside Vancouver but still in the lower mainland you can look at the Fraser Health authority. They are all very easy to find on Google. Let me know if you have trouble and I will send you the links in an e-mail. Mazzel tov Marijke:welcome:

The Crohns itself can cause you to have more adhesions. However for future surgeries make sure they will never use any powdered surgical gloves (even washing the powder off does not help). Powder from gloves is known to cause adhesions, something which has been known since 1948! But only know we are getting away from using powdered gloves. I hope you wont need any surgery for a long long time to come! Marijke

That must be so hard, I am so very sorry for your loss. Take good care of yourself. Marijke

Take it from somebody who has done it, just go for it. I moved from The Netherlands 14 years ago and sure have had my ups and downs. But if you don't try you will never know what it is like. Start it as something which does not have to be permanent and see what happens. You can always go back, plenty of jobs available at home I am sure. Being lonely is indeed a possible problem. What I did was join a theatre group, wasn't lonely very long! I currently live and work in Kelowna BC, which I think is a great place to be. Plenty of stuff to do (and not all expensive). Cost of living is high. Have you thought about looking for somebody to go with, there are a lot of British nurses looking at moving to Canada. Maybe you can find somebody to share the experience (and some of the costs) with. There are plenty of jobs available all over the place. Good luck! Marijke :)

I am very sorry you are having a bad time. It sounds to me your preceptor is having a very rough time herself, and is not ready to deal with you. Does your employer have more than 1 hospital? If so, would you be able to go to another OR to finish? If not, would you be able to get another preceptor? There must be somebody in charge of the program. Is there a clinical educator you could go to? You are also going to have to make up your mind where to go next. The 24 month period sounds like a long time if you don't want to be an OR nurse (not everybody is you know). If you do want to be an OR nurse but not at the facility you are now, you need to look for a different place to finish the clinical part and see if you can have some arrangement with the place which has paid for your course to pay the bursary back. Hope this helps, and I hope you stay in the OR God knows we need all the OR nurses we can get. Good luck! Marijke:icon_hug:

I believe organized chaos could be used to describe it, but I love organized chaos. You can keep the hernia's, lap chole's and all the other routine stuff. Marijke

As far as I know it, testing the balloon is a sacred cow, which should be discontinued. Especially in the larger catheter sizes, testing the balloon makes the outside of the catheter less smooth, this can cause irritation of the urethra, which makes the patient more prone to an infection. I have this from several reputable sources (including several urologists and one of the major manufacturers in the world). A balloon which does not stay inflated rarely can cause harm to the patient, just some inconvenience having to reinsert. Bladder infections on the other hand can cause very serious problems in hospitalized patients. Everything we can do to prevent these infections should be done (and this one is easy). I know I will probably get some arguments against my stand, but I am totally comfortable with my decission not to test the balloon of an urinary catheter. I do test the balloon on an ET tube, since a defective balloon on that one could cause the patient to aspirate (and we all know what happens after that). Marijke:sofahider

I also have a problem with a lot of perfumes (including all the mentioned one spritz of bodywash etc.) especially the cheaper ones, most expensive perfumes with true essential oils don't bother me nearly as much. The fruity stuff makes my chest very tight in no time flat. For years I was having problems coming of nightshift, about 3 times a week. There was a companion coming in with a dialysis patient. When she entered the building you could smell her perfume hundreds of feet away. Finally last year just after Christmas, I encountered, she was on her own and I talked to her. Explained to her what perfumes can do to other people and showed her the Canadian lung association sign, which is posted at every door. I was amazed I could actually do this and certainly tried my best not to offend her. I have never had a problem with this lady again. Just hope I did not hurt her feelings, but some people just appear to bath in the stuff.:uhoh21: Marijke

Thanks guys:kiss Marijke

About checking the foley balloon. Checking the balloon could actually harm the patient (according to one of the urologists I work with). When you inflate and deflate the balloon, the surface of the catheter becomes less smooth, this could be irritating, especially when you are talking catheters with large balloons. Makes sense to me. Marijke

One of the hospitals in my region is looking for a different kind of umbilical clamp cutter. They are using the hole you would normally guide the clamp cutter through to guide and secure transponders with. As a result they can not cut the clamp in the usual fashion. I have done a bit of searching, but did not find an alternative for them yet. Any great ideas? Marijke

It would be advertising if I worked for that agency, however to bypass the silly rules, send me an e-mail Millenko and I will send you the info that way. I guess the biggest thing is allnurses only wants to see its own advertising which there is plenty of. I just tried to help. Marijke :angryfire

The true cause of eclampsia and pre eclampsia is unknown at this point (as far as I am aware). The only cure at present time is delivery of the baby. Early warning signs are: high bloodpressure and spilling of protein in urine. As symptoms get worse, the mom can get a really bad headache, bloodpressure increases further, changes in blood values (increased liver enzymes, reduced platelets), epigastric pain (often described as really bad heartburn), reflexes are hyperactive. As things get really out of control, several things can happen, including seizures, fetal demise, HELLP syndrome ( this stands for:Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, Low Platelets), shut down of kidneys and ruptured liver. There are several actions that can be taken to prevent things from going very wrong: bedrest infusion with magnesium sulfate (this helps prevent seizures) if there is a risk of seizures, reduce stimuli (low light, no noise) careful observation of signs and symptoms delivery of baby, as soon as baby has a chance to survive delivery of baby when mom's life is at risk (even if baby can not survive) These last two are very tricky, baby is not getting very good perfusion from the placenta when moms BP is very high, and if mom has a seizure, blood supply can be totally gone. If mom gets HELLP syndrome, she can bleed to death. After delivery, mom still needs close watching for a while, it takes some time for the body to go back to normal. There is still some risk for HELLP and seizures, but usually she starts to improve within 48 hours. The whole thing can be very scary, good prenatal care very often prevents the seizures from happening. However if you remain in the field of obstetrics, you will see eclampsia again. It is just good to know the signs and symptoms, so you might be able to prevent the worst from happening. Nurses have a very big role in this. I am sure this story is not complete, the obstetrical textbooks will provide you with a lot of info. Marijke

Have you thought a bout home care? This can be very rewarding and you can be little more your own boss. Good luck, Marijke :)

i work in kelowna as an rn. interior health is one of the biggest employers in the region (hospitals, nursing homes, home care). i just had a quick look at the website link edited out; advertising the best thing is you can apply on line :) one of the private nursing agencies is also hiring edited: advertising but those agencies usually pay very little :angryfire are you aware the cost of living in kelowna has gone through the roof? rental housing is limited and expensive. anyway good luck, hope you can finish your lpn, plenty of jobs for those as well. marijke

A lot of women have a little spotting during early pregnancy, this does not always signal trouble. If it doesn't get any worse you could probably wait till Monday. However if it does, seek help ASAP. Good luck! Marijke