Day Four of Twenty

The early mornings are catching up with me. I think the excitement of the new job got me through the first 3 days, but today I am tired. I have actually adapted to the change in shifts well. I have been going to bed at 11 pm and waking up with no problem. But after the lunch break I struggle to keep my eyes open!

We were given an english manual for the course material yesterday! It helped me out sooo much. At least I can translate the medical terms, which will help with my future charting. I use the french manual to follow in class, then come home and read it in English.

Yesterday we did respiratory systems and head and neck exam/trauma. It was a full day, but the teacher was excellent and fully bilingual (he is a MD from France). Today we covered Gastrointestinal system and inner ear infections. Both topics were very difficult and will require much studying :(

The things that gets to me most is the traffic. The 40 west at 5pm is CRAZY! It is faster for me to take the service road than try to merge onto the 40 at cote vertu. I do not know how people commute on a daily basis!

Practice the French!!

Second day of training. It is funny, because you would never guess by the way nurses are hired to work up north, but it is a fact that the Inuit speak English and not French!! For the exception of my friends and myself, all the nurses are francophone with limited English. All the teachers are french, the company is french, the manuals are french, the exams are french, and the lectures are in french. I find it funny that I needed to do my interview in french, when the population I will serve will be English speaking!!??

Anyways, I am not trying to complain. I am actually impressed with myself, as I have had no difficulty understanding the content......until this afternoon. We covered the central nervous system, the 12 pairs of cranial nerves, and how to evaluate them physically on a patient. I have already learned 60% of this content 7 years ago in nursing school, and I had not retained much. The problem is that the medical terms are all in french. The terminology is not typical french conversation. I had to come home and use the Internet and find all the content in English in order to fully absorb it. Hopefully the other systems of the body will have easier terminology....hopefully.

First Day of Training

So, the first day of training.......and we did not do any training!! It was a welcome day that was full of useful information. We learned about the Inuit, and our impending culture shock. They talked about the 6 villages we could possibly work in, and what activities/amenities they offer. They talked about packing, proper winter attire, food expenses, housing and transportation.

It looks like I will live in a transit building in Puvirnituq for the first two weeks up north, and training at the hospital there. Transit is like living in a dormitory. The kitchen and living quarters are used by everybody, and we get a bedroom. That will be very interesting, we get to meet other nurses, doctors and specialists that are currently in transit.

After the training, we are flown to one of 6 communities to work at a nursing station. The communities are very small, and population goes from about 300 to 1300 people. Often, we will work only with one other nurse, with a visit from an MD every 2 months or so. We will live in the nurses apartment that we will be replacing while they are on vacation. The apartments look pretty much like any 3 1/2 you would find here. The pictures of the housing and medical facilities helped me imagine what it will be like when I am up north. It is building the anticipation....I am ready for an adventure!

I am going away :(

It has been 9 months since my last blog entry. I started this blog with the help of my brother while in Japan, so that I could send news to my friends about my trip. It will come in very handy during my new adventures up north. I plan to use this blog almost as a journal of my experiences up there.

So......it all started about a month ago. A friend from work, Angelique, was talking to Sharon and I about her job up north in Nunavut. She told us all sorts of details and information about it, and Sharon took the number to send an application. In my head, I thought "I must do this, I must apply". Of course, 2 weeks later, I had not applied, I had not even made a CV. Denise, a friend and coworker in the ER, took a rough draft of my CV, and turned it into a glowing letter of experience. She then faxed off my CV.......and voila....the call came to do an interview 3 days later.

The cool thing is we are 4 people that applied, and we all got a call for an interview. Sharon, myself, Leilani and Marcelle were all working together, and we all got called for an interview.

The interview went horribly. It was all in french and it was on the phone. There were 3 people interviewing me. After the hour long interview my confidence had deflated and I was sure I would not get the job. But, to mu surprise, I did get the job, and so did my 3 friends!

So, my last day at the ER was on Friday. It was a tough emotional day. I will miss the ER and the staff. I thrive there, I love the pace and the challenge. My friends and the staff make it worth it to go in on the days where I just did not feel like working. I will miss everybody tremendously, and hope to return to the ER after my one year leave of absence to the same team on the evening shift.

Well, I start 4 weeks of training Monday before flying up to POV in Hudson Bay. It will be weird to be getting up early after working 5 years on the evening shift. I am ready for this new experience, and can not wait to start!