Have you ever been to an Emergency Ward for a sprain, fracture, laceration or other minor ailment? If the answer is yes, then it is very likely that you have been "fast tracked"! This is when you are assessed by a nurse, sent to xray or the lab and then assessed by a physician. It is a process meant to speed up your stay in an Emergency Department.

So....let's fasttrack you!

As you may have guessed, I am a Registered Nurse in Canada. I work in more than one speciality area. While my first love in Nursing was Emergency Nursing, I have evolved over the past years. I now work in Community Health part time, and casual in Palliative Care. Other areas I have worked in are Cardiovascular Intensive Care, Cardiac Catheterization and Pediatrics (including Peds-ICU). I have come to the love the autonomy of Community Health/Palliative Care, and now love to go to work. The staff are all very knowledgeable, supportive as well as very professional in approach and demeanor.

For you International Nurses I will define casual employment. It is a term referred to employees that work on an as needed basis. Casuals are booked into regular staff shifts to replace them during sick, professional, and vacation leave. They can also be called in at the last minute for sick calls. Casuals in the Acute Care Setting have always retained the right to say no and be unavailable. So basically as a casual you work when you want and not when you don't want to. However, if you don't work, you don't get paid. Casuals do not receive sick time, or vacation time. They are entitled to limited repayment of benefits at the end of the year if they have worked at least half time hours in a year. As you can see, flexibility is the primary reason nurses choose to work casual. For me, it is fitting into my lifestyle presently. I have my booked regular shifts in Community Health, and then have the flexible booking of Casual in Palliative Care.

Amongst other things, I have written an article titled Children Lose Too, helping to resolve a child's grief; which I have posted here for your perusal. I became interested in this subject when I worked on Pediatrics.
Last year I also took a special interest in Chemotherapy and have a posted a special interest project I did on it. You can read it here:Making my worksite safer

If you are looking for humour (which I love!), check out my cartoon I got from TMaker ClickArt. I found it fairly funny, and all too appropriate in these days of massive budget cuts disguised under the term of restructuring. These cuts end up in bed closures, community based service losses and staff layoffs. Then, when the need increases the beds cannot re-open, and the Community services are too stretched to handle the load. Guess the top doesn't think this far eh!

If you would like to see a bit of the personal side of me check out my section describing my trip to Montana, by clicking hereMontana and Princessb.

Links

Educational Facilities/Programs	Resource Sites
B.C.I.T.'s School of Health Sciences, Post Graduate Emergency and Critical Care Nursing Advanced Critical Care and Emergency Nursing Studies, Mt. Royal College	Canadian Council of Cardiovascular Nurses Emergency Nurses' Group of BC.
General Nursing Sites	Allied Health Sites
Carraway's Nursing Net Synapse (a non-partisan Nursing Resource Page, Fraser Valley BC) Emergency Nurses' World Willy's Emergency Room, Ontario Ave's Cybernurse Site	British Columbia Ambulance Service
Fun Sites	Personal Friends' Sites
Journal of Nursing Jocularity	Steve Singerman, Software Engineer PrincessB's Royal Page

© 1996 eelston@iname.com