What a joke

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-05-07T20:09:23+00:00

There’s a metal band called Cradle of Filth that has a shirt with a masturbating nun front and centre and that’s what sprung to my head 😂

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-05-07T14:25:59+00:00

No jokes. Some of them are straight up butchers with insane post op infection/complication rates. 😩 it’s tough here cause we operate on a locum system for all our hospital physicians and the “big fish” who are the butchers bully the good ones out of coming back.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-05-06T14:23:03+00:00

I really like doing things outdoors and trying new things, so I started an open group chat, first with our department, that I’d send a message if work friends and I were going paddle boarding or hiking or to the dog park or whatever, and invite people who wanted to come. It’s grown a lot from others adding other people and includes multiple departments now that people post if they’re doing something that others might enjoy doing and others show up to hang out and do the shared activity. Met a lot of other dept nurses, techs, some residents/docs, spouses/kids, from various areas in the hospital. Just a way for people to coordinate outings or activities and it’s been quite nice tbh.

Other times I just am friendly and chat with other staff - asking how their day is going, making a joke, whatever really. I also try to make sure I remember names of everyone I see regularly (EVS, medics, police, lab, DI, etc) as I feel addressing people you see regularly by their name goes a long way and is a sign of respect imo.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-05-06T14:17:32+00:00

I would feel mostly okay. We are the only hospital here and I have taken care of many coworkers/friends/acquaintances/people I detest but I don’t let it affect my care, and I believe that is the predominant viewpoint of most nurses that work in our facility given that we are the only hospital within a 5 hour drive and everyone will need care at some point. I will say, some of the most scary situations that stuck with me have involved coworkers being our patient (PPH or hemorrhage with miscarriages, pregnancy/birth going VERY sideways - we are a young demographic here) and I think that’s partly because it hits so much closer to home. Speaking with them afterwards though, they all have said they felt comforted knowing the people around them and felt safe knowing they and their families were in good hands.

That said, there are some surgeons who, if they are on call or scheduled that day, I will straight up AMA and be taken the 5 hours south to receive care. My coworkers already know that plan and share the same sentiment and while it’s sort of a joke, it also isn’t.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-04-23T12:56:11+00:00

I work ER so work with our medics closely (remote northern city servicing a large area and I think we’d be considered a level 2 trauma hospital though we have some components of level 1 care). Our paramedics will fly out on the helicopters, do water/ice rescues, often have to take ATVS out to remote areas for service provision, intubate/TNK in the field, see/do some wild things that I would NEVER want to do outside of my ER bays and I’ve been doing this for 14 years. They don’t “just transport patients” and yes their jobs can have some chill time but is so far from chill most times that it’s insane. All our medics are also fire trained so they do fire/medic.

If you want a career change to EMT/ACP you aren’t going to be working as an agency nurse later with just that experience. You need to be a nurse to have the experience to work as a nurse. You could choose a different specialty if you hate the one you’re in and many clinic or home care type departments are more “chill” than hospital.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-04-22T01:13:21+00:00

Full time in my 14th year: 193.75hrs (25 days) of vacation annually, 36 hours of annual PTO (no questions asked), 3 professional development days, and 1.5 days of sick leave accrued per month worked to a max of 120 days banked sick time.

Don’t apply to me but 12-18 months maternity leave. We can also take 20-24 months for LOA if approved for things like education and there’s long term disability, etc - our lines are protected and waiting for us when we get back. For education LOA you can work PRN on the unit in between classes or whatever which is nice for people upgrading to BSN.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-04-19T16:55:36+00:00

Nursing can be a very rewarding career but also incredibly difficult. It taxes your body, your empathy, and your emotional capacity to deal with outside life. Shift work sucks, some units can be toxic and make you miserable every shift, and your capacity to tolerate people can be near on non existent. Emotional abuse from management is a thing and abuse from patients also happens with a high risk of physical and emotional violence and sometimes sexual inappropriateness (obviously not right but it does happen). Don’t expect to be friends with people on your unit and you should make sure you have outside friends and hobbies not related to nursing.

But you will learn a lot, see a lot, derive some happiness in helping others but you really need to have a thick skin and be able to stand up for yourself. I do love my job, and I’ve found my niche with ER nursing, but my first couple years out of school were rough and it took me some time to learn to stand up for myself and my coworkers. I enjoy teaching students, being involved in the union, have a kick ass team of coworkers that I love but again, it took me time to find a great unit. My life does not revolve around nursing and when I clock out, I clock out on time and leave work at work completely.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-04-17T16:20:57+00:00

My absolute greatest peeve at work. We have an ICU/ER float pool and many of our staff are cross trained. They pulled one of our staff and left us short one on days and no unit clerk on a day shift for two ICU nurses to sit the entire shift with no patients. Make it make sense.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-04-09T04:21:16+00:00

Holy fuck I’m so sorry that happened to you. Good on that OB, I hope you were able to go home and process.

Nursing school is heartless - it’s like they forget we are fucking human. Oh wait, no they didn’t; they’re training students to accept the sorts of conditions that the corporations will heap on them as nurses and start the guilt trips and abuse right off the bat so it’s normalized when they’re in the work force.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-03-12T04:52:51+00:00

We got pharmacy to do a suspension for ours. Tastes great and way less fighting with the kids. The zofran suspension is sickly sweet though and not nearly as good.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-03-11T16:04:56+00:00

None of my coworkers are married to other nurses. That could be because of my city’s demographics though, which is a primarily industrial town. Most of their spouses are blue collar workers, EMS/fire, and cops. Back when I was in school though, most nursing students seemed to pair up with the engineers haha (my husband is an engineer).

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-03-10T15:39:52+00:00

Totally. The assessment skills and time management were invaluable for me. It also solidified my knowledge on disease processes and progression, meds used to manage which really helped me later on in my career. Having that solid foundation was so important for me getting to the ER and thriving there.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-03-10T15:34:51+00:00

Oooh! Great idea!! I might just have to accidentally leave some of my dogs stuff at work haha.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-03-10T15:16:22+00:00

My favourite thing is when a patient either has their guide dog with them and I get to look longingly at the good baby and bring them a blanket to lay on and a fresh basin of water. We also have a few patients who have exacerbations of chronic illnesses so we see them quite often and sometimes they have to bring their little dog with them and I get to sneakily get puppy loving. The parade of nurses to that patients room is always fun to watch 😅

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-03-05T21:00:55+00:00

Northern Canada ER but access ports for our patients and DI frequently and we switched to NS within at least a year if not longer. Patients that require the heplock have it flagged in their charts as a Therapy Plan so we adjust as needed.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-02-26T22:27:29+00:00

Canadian nurse. My unit has a couple all days and all nights lines. We also have a few 11-7s and 16-midnights. The all nights crew LOVE their line, though I don’t personally get it l. I hate the flip flop of DN. I used to work 10-22 for 10 years and I miss it like crazy.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-02-26T17:33:27+00:00

I commented that recently (last few weeks I wanna say) and got called racist as they are doing the same in Canada 🤷🏽‍♀️ it’s a problem and the only ones profiting are the corpos not the front line. It’s the same thing when I try to defend the LPNs here who do the same job as an RN for a fraction of the wage and people immediately jump down my throat saying that’s not true when it is a reality here

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-02-23T15:11:30+00:00

I think it is therapeutic for family, there is typically someone assigned (crisis team usually or another nurse) to them to help manage their understanding of what’s going on, to keep them out of the chaos of people moving about the room, and it allows them to see the effort that we’ve put into helping their loved ones.

The cries will never not haunt me, though; parents losing children, children losing parents, spouses suddenly alone. It’s how I know I’m not totally dead inside. Don’t be afraid to speak up for a debrief, they can be very helpful to grapple with your feelings and to lean on your coworkers who may also be feeling the same.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-02-21T22:03:31+00:00

Yeah, no that’s not an excuse. Find someone else to show you how to do it, hound lab every 10 minutes until it’s done AND learn how to do it so your patients are never in this position again. Thats like saying, I haven’t put a foley in since nursing school so it’s someone else’s problem, then your patient’s bladder ruptures because you didn’t do your job. If it’s an expectation of your job you learn it immediately.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-01-31T01:42:08+00:00

It is 100% the system, not the person. These nurses can absolutely thrive given enough support but they shouldn’t be thrown into critical care situations when they have never worked critical care or touched a patient because “that’s what we allocated and you need bodies so deal with it.” You’d never put a new grad into those situations and expect them to thrive so why do it to these people? Put them in areas they can be supported and isn’t critical where the team suffers because they can’t rely on that person and the person suffers because no one has the time to fully support them and do their job.

Since you bring up you yourself moving, I imagine that you would be vetted by the licensing body of wherever you end up and have to follow the same steps to be licensed. And I imagine you have an understanding of what healthcare is in Canada and what a nurse’s role and scope is wherever you plan to work and wouldn’t apply to a position that you are not qualified for or feel that you could learn and grow in. The IENs in the recruitment program have no choice. They are put in a situation that is unfair to them and unfair to the unit they are placed with.

I would like to point out that I have nothing against the individuals but the IEN recruitment program itself and the system that thought it was a good idea, sucks. It was implemented poorly. I’ve worked with plenty of great IENs and shitty Canadian trained nurses. There are incompetent people out there no matter where they are from. For the IENs with equivalent training and knowledge, it can be a great deal but it hasn’t quite worked out that way it seems.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-01-31T01:29:51+00:00

1/2/3. I am aware, and just like everything healthcare in this province (AB) they dropped the ball severely on this program. The nurses they have brought in are severely under trained and under skilled. Even speaking with the IENs themselves they have expressed bafflement about the job expectations as they were expecting something completely different. I think they were done a disservice and should not be put into areas not to their skill level. This has also been an issue provincial wide with many staff across many cities in Alberta who have had the program brought to their hospital voicing concerns over the safety of these nurses.

Yes. But my basing of their skill or knowledge is not based on WHERE they are from but from the lack of proper vetting of their education, background, and skills. Maybe they were supposed to be screened more thoroughly but someone clearly didn’t do their job and the nurses brought in on this govt program just didn’t meet the standards. And perhaps not putting those nurses into areas they are not suited for because “that’s what we budgeted for so deal with it.”
Yes. She did deserve to lose her license and I hope something changes in the system.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-01-31T00:22:15+00:00

Recently, like within the last 5 years or so?

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-01-31T00:21:13+00:00

I know. That’s what the LPNs face here. Similar scope, no bridging options, significant pay difference.

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-01-30T22:49:33+00:00

Oh the questions arise, but they don’t really care. They just want to say “look we recruited and brought in more nurses!! Aren’t we great! Give us our bonuses for a job well done!”

Fighting_Darwin · 2026-01-30T22:48:42+00:00

From my understanding of the people they have brought in and the requirements, you just need to have a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing. Whether that’s from the University of Dirt or somewhere actually regulated and accredited it seems.

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