RPNs in Ontario

Angelofdeth · Jul 23, 2009

I already moved out and love this place.

Yeah we send patients to RAH, but, remember this hospital was built when the population was 25 000, and realistically isnt designed for a population of 90 000 people. The amount of people that we treat here is ridiculous many times the over run ICU cant accept patients so they get sent to internal medicine. It makes for an intense shift! We usually send extremely acute patients or cardiac patients down, only because we don't have the resources (blood usually) to treat them.

This town is great if your a young person looking to have some fun in a boom town.

2bnrsanna · Jul 27, 2009

I heard St. Michale's doesn't hire RPN's either.

linzz · Jul 27, 2009

I heard St. Michale's doesn't hire RPN's either.

I believe this hospital is called St. Michael's or more commonly known as St. Mike's.

2bNurse-88 · Jul 29, 2009

I heard St. Michale's doesn't hire RPN's either.

Right now they don't, but major hospitals in & around the GTA have been in talks for a bit of time now.

What the government wants to do is bring in more & more RPN's and using them to their full scope of practice.

1. There's obviously a Nursing shortage, and using RPN's to their full scope of practise will definately fill in that shortage quite a bit.

2. We all know in the long run RPN's will cost the gov't less. This is a big debated issue. What i've heard is they're going to raise RPN's pay a bit, and then balance out the use of RPN's & RN's, so that it's equal. This will also save the gov't money in overtime pay of RN's, because of the shortage RN's are working overtime alot, so bringing in RPN's will relieve those costs as well.

In no time you'll see RPN's being used more and more everywhere. Which is long over-due.

mamaonamission · Jul 29, 2009

Wow, that post just made my week! :nmbrn:

pumpkin44 · Jul 29, 2009

I already moved out and love this place.
Yeah we send patients to RAH, but, remember this hospital was built when the population was 25 000, and realistically isnt designed for a population of 90 000 people. The amount of people that we treat here is ridiculous many times the over run ICU cant accept patients so they get sent to internal medicine. It makes for an intense shift! We usually send extremely acute patients or cardiac patients down, only because we don't have the resources (blood usually) to treat them.
This town is great if your a young person looking to have some fun in a boom town.

That sounds awesome. Where did you hear about the nursing job opportunities there? Was it easy to do? When I looked at the hospital websites for that area I didn't see any postings for LPNs.

2bnrsanna · Jul 29, 2009

I did first year of the RPN program and it was on acute care eldery and a complex continuing care and also palliative care floor and during the RPN clinicals we did the same job as the RN for the most part....

I didnt continue with the program because I always wanted to be an RN so now in September I will be starting the RN program....

So I have a question..

During Clinical in the hospitals do we get to do a bigger scope of practice if we are in the RN program compared to the RPN program?

Fiona59 · Jul 29, 2009

Usually not until third or fourth year.

From what I've seen from the two sets that have been through my units, the RN class usually has fewer patients, and take longer to get to where the PNs should be.

By the time the PN students finish on my unit, they have to be able to manage care for four post op patients and the meds. Usually we don't see the RNs come close until their final, long placement. Yes, they get to flush CLines and Piccs but that's not rocket science.

So bear in mind much of what you do in your first three years will be pretty much what the PN class will accomplish in two.

loriangel14, RN · Jul 29, 2009

That's pretty much what I experienced Fiona. I was doing my final placement along side an RN student(her last year) and I was managing a 4 pt assignment but she was still struggling to keep on top of one.She also didn't know how to do simple skills like empty a Foley or take a manual BP.

linzz · Jul 29, 2009

I can agree with the above. I once worked with an RN student who didn't know where to take an apical pulse. Also, my aunt, who has been an oncology RN for over 30 years has told me that the new RN's coming out are just not floor ready. She has said that she has had difficulty getting some, not all of them, to understand that they are required to provide such aspects of physical care such as turning a patient over, checking and rechecking on patients, talking to their famiies, not just constantly retreating back to the nursing station.

I think a nursing degree is a wonderful thing, I have a degree myself so I am not against higher education, it's just that nursing on the floor is just very different than clinicals and school. That is why they call the first year reality shock which thus contributes to the high turnover in nursing.

I feel that until you are actually working as a nurse on your own, you just don't really understand what nursing is all about.

linzz · Jul 29, 2009

Right now they don't, but major hospitals in & around the GTA have been in talks for a bit of time now.
What the government wants to do is bring in more & more RPN's and using them to their full scope of practice.
1. There's obviously a Nursing shortage, and using RPN's to their full scope of practise will definately fill in that shortage quite a bit.
2. We all know in the long run RPN's will cost the gov't less. This is a big debated issue. What i've heard is they're going to raise RPN's pay a bit, and then balance out the use of RPN's & RN's, so that it's equal. This will also save the gov't money in overtime pay of RN's, because of the shortage RN's are working overtime alot, so bringing in RPN's will relieve those costs as well.
In no time you'll see RPN's being used more and more everywhere. Which is long over-due.

I do think there is a grain of truth to the above as Ontario hospitals are no longer allowed to run a deficit so we may see a staffing model in some areas where they will use RPN's with uprgraded skills to a greater extent and the RN with experience will be dealing with charging and managing care for more unstable patients, not just complex patients.

I also don't think there will be many happy Ontario nurses in the next decade as more and more will be put on all of us due to lack of appropriate funding.

2bnrsanna · Jul 29, 2009

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