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I can only speak from an Australian point of view, since that's where I live and work (currently I'm a male RN in a large inner city ED). Transient behaviour on a resume isn't really cared about for the most part. I suppose if you've gone to a bunch of similiar departments in the same city in a short period of time it might be noticed but for the most part it's expected that you'll want to move around a lot and experience different things so it's not an issue. I've worked in 3 different areas in the last 3 years and that's fairly normal. Plus, you can earn extra money by not being a regular (like, 25 percent more at a minimum) so a lot of people do that. You can get jobs overseas fairly easily -- there's a fair amount of bullshit paperwork involved but skills translate fairly well. Where I work there's a lot of overseas-trained nurses, including one American (who says the biggest difference is we do a LOT less paperwork here since the lawsuits are far less common). Having said that, when I tried to get registration in Canada last year it all came to a screaming halt when I found out I'd need maternity experience. Apparantly in North America you guys get a little in your training but it's completely optional here so I skipped it as I've got no interest in it. It is fairly irritating since I'd be doing the same work there as I'd be doing here which involves no maternity but what would life be without bullshit red tape, hey! And if you're squeamish around blood, you're screwed! But you build up a tolerance really fast. These days, especially after working in a colorectal ward, it takes a LOT to get to me, but my mum likes to tease me cause I used to be the one who could never clean up dog crap without gagging.
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Feb 23, 2009 05:43
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In regards to going overseas with nursing ohthehugemanatee is wrong. It's a pain in the rear end, sure, but the hardest transference is from anywhere else to America, mostly due to your maternity requirements. Canada, too actually. I have to go work 3 months of full time maternity if I want to work in North America, which is why I haven't tried. But other than that, passing an exam is usually the biggest headache. The skills are pretty much the same the world over. I work with an American Nurse who says the only real difference is there's a LOT less time spent on paperwork here due to far less lawsuits. And British nurses pretty much say the same thing (although they're more overworked). Money's not as good, though.
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Apr 22, 2009 22:43
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Emergency is my forte -- just finished a week of nights in the ER. Pros: - I haven't showered a patient since I started doing emergency - (almost) never see the same patient with the same problem twice in a row (that said, there's a lot of frequent attenders) - you get to see the coolest/funniest shite around (stake through the foot, finger's off, carrot up the rear end [not all on the same guy!]) - you're the frontline behind paramedics to saving lives, and it happens a lot (dramatic, but true) - emergency docs are usually the most laid back so I personally have a much better relationship with the docs I work with now than I did in med/surg Cons: - lots of psych patients having acute episodes or trying to kill themselves, and I personally don't like dealing with psych (though I still do) - drunks, drunks, and more drunks - really annoying patient families (I've had someone want to report me to the news because their mother was stuck in emergency waiting for a bed upstairs - if the hospital's full, the hospital's full!) - dealing with the kinds of idiots who think that an itchy rear end in a top hat is a good reason to come to an emergency department (a real presentation from last night) - if you like building up long term bonds with patients that doesn't really happen in emergency
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Sep 4, 2009 11:21
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Plus being halfway skilled puts you leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of people who somehow got through a nursing degree. It's amazing how stupid some people can be and stay registered. I'm talking stuff like giving someone who's just attempted suicide by OD their drug stash back when they ask for it, and watching them re-OD. Or panicking whenever someone's BP isn't exactly 120/80.
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Feb 16, 2010 16:46
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I can tell you that if US nurses are anything like Australian nurses grads get cut a LOT of slack where someone who's not in a grad program but just graduated won't. I'd recommend a grad program just for that, since I learnt more in my first 6 months on the job than I ever did at uni.
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May 4, 2010 12:44
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Bungdeetle posted:Yay, an Australian! Would you mind going into more detail about our system? What do you want to know? An undergraduate degree in nursing will get you a dual cert; general and mental health. You can do pretty much anything but maternity since that's either post grad or a different degree. If you want to work with kids there's no special training, you just have to convince a ward to hire you. If you do work in a specialty area you're usually expected to do some post-graduate study but that's almost always provided by wherever you're working (though you have to pay for it). For example, I'm working in emergency and in the middle of a post grad specialization but I was working here a year and a half before I started the course, cause I didn't want to do more study so soon after I finished my degree. If you want to go work in the US/Canada you have to have some maternity experience, though you don't need to be a midwife. When I was trying to get registration in BC (Canada) I either had to do a post-grad course in midwifery or work 3 months full time in maternity, which is why I never went.
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Jun 14, 2010 07:48
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annaconda posted:It will be interesting to see how that will affect things like ratios, pay, penalties for different shifts etc. Be very interesting. I moved from QLD to VIC and took such a pay cut that two years later I'm making what I was as a grad!
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Jun 14, 2010 13:47
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To be honest, I've only ever heard of the reverse. And am mildly contemplating doing it myself.
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Jul 13, 2010 09:40
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IVC insertion is my forte - it's a really useful thing to be especially skilled at at work but not something you can brag about on dates. Getting a line into someone first try who's had a lot of bad experiences with failed attempts is a great way to start off a therapeutic relationship! I was lucky enough to learn at a hospital that didn't really expect nurses who weren't on the IV service to cannulate so when I pushed for training I wound up getting two days one-on-one with someone who's only job was IV's and as a result if I'm good enough that I can't get a line in someone they almost always wind up with a central line or intraosseous access. Get used to putting in big ones. I'm always arguing with junior staff but the way I see it, a needle is a needle, and a 22g is going to hurt as much (or as little) as an 18g, but the 18g will stand up to a lot more abuse. Not only can you can push blood and fluid down it a lot faster without it blowing but it'll let you pull back blood for a longer period of time than a smaller cannula which potentially saves a bunch of pricks later down the line when serial bloods or whatever are due. A tip that I learned from the IV service that I've never seen anyone at my new hospital but me use is a hot towel - if you can't find a vein, or if you want to try and make a crappy vein easier to cannulate, put on a tourniquet and wrap up their arm in a towel soaked in hot water. I use boiling water and let it cool until it's barely tolerated. Leave it on for a bit (it takes about 20 minutes to do damage with a tourniquet so there's no real urgency) and most of the time a vein will pop up somewhere. I've used it on junkies numerous times with success. Speaking of junkies, a good spot to start looking is the basilic vein of their dominant hand - it's the hardest for them to ruin so is often your best bet! Oh, and NEVER admit that it's your first one or that you're not very good at it. I've seen a lot of nervous medical students and nurses be too honest when they're about to jab someone with a needle and it not only freaks out your patient but they tense right up and make it harder to get one in.
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Oct 1, 2010 09:37
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Just out of curiosity, which kind of questions do they ask on these exams you have to take? In Australia if you get your degree then that's it, you're registered. Is it the kind of exam where after 5 years of high acuity experience I'd still need to study for it or is it pretty practical?
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Jan 18, 2011 11:21
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A guy I used to work with in Emergency moved to midwifery and his stories make even mine sound tame - his groups of "methodone mums" make most of our patients sound manageable! As far as ICU goes, I remember working on wards as a student and having to deal with so many problems of ex-ICU patients who'd had their vitals sorted but were missing what seemed like all the top layers of skin from their backs due to absolutely terrible pressure care. On the other hand when I was on the wards I never had to deal with situations like at triage the other day, where a dude walked in whose friend said that he'd been bitten by a dog and when he took the towel away the bottom half of his face fell off (he looked like Dr Zoidberg!).
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Jan 28, 2011 12:27
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Look, I wasn't trying to get in a pissing match over which sub-specialty was more complicated, I was giving an example of the different medical things you have to deal with in lower acuity areas. If you really want to compare though, I work in a trauma ER and one of our really sick resus patients would be more complicated than anything that makes it to ICU because by the time they get up there they're either more stable, or dead. A number of nurses I work with have gone to work in ICU for a change and almost always come back because they're bored up there.
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Jan 28, 2011 20:10
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Heck, the hardest work I've ever done was on a gen med/neurology ward. I still have nightmares about dealing with 6 full hoist/full care patients with only an orderly and a nursing aide to help. 6 months in that job burnt me out pretty bad - thank god for grad rotations!
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Jan 29, 2011 04:02
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Seems pretty good to me. Most grads have pretty bare-bones resumes (I redid mine last year and it was refreshing not to have to use any padding) so the focus on her clinicals and other experience is what she needs. Hirers are big on volunteer experience I've found - I got my first job interview based on having some experience volunteering in a home for disabled children. Course, I'd left off that I'd done it when I was 14. So that's the kind of padding she could do if she still feels it's thin.
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Jun 16, 2011 23:19
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99% of the time. Once you're out of the bullshit of exams you realize that 99% of drug calculations are "give 1g of antibiotic, antibiotic comes in 500mg vials, how many vials do I give?" It's only when you specialize that it gets a little complicated (Eg an adrenaline infusion is 6mg added to 94mls so that 1mg/hr = 1mcg/min - but you'll never see that out side of ICU/Emergency).
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Jun 27, 2011 07:57
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Just out of curiosity (because I have no plans to relocate) but is the job shortage just a grad thing or would I have just as much trouble finding employment in the States as an experienced ER nurse with post grad qualifications?
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Sep 13, 2011 16:52
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Best practice and hospital policy so rarely go hand in hand.
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Sep 26, 2011 18:15
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I subscribe to the Dara O'Brien quote that "alternative medicine has been around for thousands of years, but 100 years ago they sat down, worked out what actually worked, and that became medicine." That said, if it's not going to actively harm someone, I see no reason to stop it. I've seen someone with MS swear that acupuncture was making them more able to move their arms and legs, and who am I to argue with that as long as they do it as well as their normal treatment instead of instead of.
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Oct 1, 2011 12:34
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I tried to get registration in Canada from Australia a few years ago so here's 300 dollars worth of advice: you need 3 months full time maternity experience or the equivalent study to qualify for the registration exams. Since maternity's not part of the undergrad degree here I had to do a bridging course if I wanted to keep going with it.
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Nov 5, 2011 17:58
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sewersider posted:Today I'm starting a three month swap between ICU and ED. I've been in ICU for about one and a half years and haven't worked in ED since I was a new grad in a much smaller hospital. Any tips for the switch? The hospital I work at is a major adult trauma referral centre in Sydney, Australia. I love ICU but I'm really looking forward to something different. I work in ED in Melbourne and know a lot of ICU nurses who switch between: expect the pace to be a lot faster. The name of the game these days is stabilize and move on. You won't be able to provide care at anywhere the same level as in ICU because the environment is far more chaotic and you'll have more patients at any one time - what will make you effective is if you're good at prioritizing and recognizing that it's better to provide adequate care for 3 people than brilliant care for 1 and crap for 2. You'll also find government policies will get in the way a lot more - people being moved around for no reason other than to satisfy random criteria.
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May 31, 2012 03:31
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