Visiting Vancouver

[nikignome]

I am a NICU nurse in South Wales who will be visiting Vancouver for a holiday in September this year. I would be very interested in looking around a NICU (if there is one!) in Vancouver but am not sure if this is possible. Please could someone let me know firstly, whether this would be allowed, and secondly, how do I go about arranging it.

[OgopogoLPN, LPN, RN]

There is a NICU at BC Women's and Children's hospital in Vancouver. There may be others, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

Check out this link

http://www.vch.ca/careers/

for nursing careers in Vancouver hospitals. There's other local health authorities near Vancouver.

This one

http://www.fraserhealth.ca/Careers/default.htm

is for the Fraser Health Authority which is a group of cities located between 1-2 hours outside of Vancouver. I'm not sure if any of these hospitals have a NICU though.

Hope this helps :)

[nikignome]

Thanks for the information...I am not actually looking to work in Vancouver, I am just interested in any differences there may be in our styles of nursing babes.

[Fiona59]

I think you might get a response if you got your hospital to write on your behalf to arrange it in advance. Kind of like an official visit.

People love to give tours and share information if they think they are going to get a nurse out of it. I've only been up in my hospital's NICU maybe 5 times in 5 years and they are always busy but approachable.

[AirforceRN, RN]

Hi there, I hope you have a great visit to Vancouver. I just started at Vancouver General and I don't know much about Children's Women's hospital but....I would call the hospital and ask to speak to the education manager or the nurse manager for the NICU. Explain the situation and simply ask if you could come and visit him or her. Say that you'll bring ID if it is needed. As was mentioned before, nurses are usually very eager to show off their wards and another nurse is often welcome. The worst she can say is no and maybe she can at least point you in the right direction. All you have to lose is a few minutes and the cost of a phone call to Canada. Best of luck.