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