Get out while you can, folks!

tallaght01

Hi Guys,

Haven't posted on here for a while because I was moving my ass halfway round the world to start work in New zealand.
Just wanted to say that it's well worth the long trip, if anyone has been considering it.
I know Australia is popular (I'm starting on a paeds rotation in Queensland in January myself) but NZ is definitely worth spending a while in too.

Scenery is amazing, and there's loads of outdoorsy stuff to do. They're also a very friendly people. Weather isn't too bad either at the mo, but I've just missed winter.

The hospital I'm in is definitely a much nicer environment than other hospitals I've been to in Ireland and the UK. Staffing levels on the ward are so much better here. The patients are generally not as unwell either. Nighshift is 10hours long. You start and finish on time. It's only 3 hours per shift less than I'm used to, but it really makes all the difference when you're doing 7 nights in a row. Leaving on time is something they're generally good at in NZ.I stayed an hour after work 2 days last week, and came in for an hour on saturday morning to see one or 2 sickies I'd admitted the night before (I live on the ground in the hospital accomodation, so it's just a 5min walk to the ward) and was branded " a workaholic" by my boss!

There's lots of young nurses, as well as the old hands. I'm not sure about Ireland of recent years, but that's not how it is in the UK. In Britain, youngsters aren't staying in the game for long, because nurses are undervalued and underpaid in the NHS. Most of the people left in the UK are nurses who've been overworked for the last 20 years, but have to stay working for whatever reason. As a result they can be stuck in their ways, and they don't have that enthusiasm for work that newer staff do. So, the attitude of staff over here is a breath of fresh air.

Of course some things remain the same. As always, A+E is a disaster zone for kids. Nobody there knows how to treat kids, and no-one wants to help. I saw a 5month old kid in respiratory distress the other night. She hadn't had a single set of observations, or any oxygen until I was called 2 and a half hours after she'd been seen in triage. The A+E nurse said she was too busy. I told her if she was busy she should prioritise, and that a sick baby takes priority over nearly anyone in the hospital. So she offered me a compromise. "I can do the kid's temperature, or her oxygen saturation (a way of measuring how much oxygen is in the kid's blood), but I don't have time to do both". I told her I've never seen such poor care. I picked up the baby (This all happened in front of baby and mum) and said I was taking her away to the kids' ward where she ended up on a type of breathing support called CPAP, and was looked after excellently by our paeds nurses. I've rarely been impressed with an A+E dept though, so this wasn't such a surprise.

Anyway, I'd better stop rambling.

Hope you're all well.

PS we're short of a paeds reg and SHO at the minute...if anyone fancies making the move and is finished their intern year, you can PM me and I'll give you contact details.

Vorsprung

Ha funny you should say that, I'm on paeds at the mo and loving it! Could be the speciality of the week. Inevitably it'll change next week.

I've heard a couple of dodgy things about Oz though. There's a few SHOs I know of who are out there now, and when they're on call they cover Emergency and ICU. Wouldn't be loving that :eek:

What's the night life like there? Heard it can be a bit on the flat side, mayeb it depends where you go.

Traumadoc

DO you not think what you said in front of the childs mother was unprofessional?

tallaght01

Traumadoc wrote:

DO you not think what you said in front of the childs mother was unprofessional?

No way. She was pissed off, and I'm all done defending crappy care. Crappy care is unprofessional. Defending crappy care is unprofessional too. When she asked why it had taken 2 and a half hours for me to come and see her kid, I wasn't gonna take the hit.

I used to always tow the party line. I'd always defend a colleague when there was a complaint. I still do if I don't know the circumstances, or when I'm not involved.l don't defend anyone anymore who provides crappy care in front of my eyes though, especially when your dealing with a seriously ill kiddy. I've just never heard the likes of "you can have a sats reading OR a temperature, but not both". I was flabbergasted. I don't know how we define "unprofessional", but I don't regard what I did as unprofessional. Others can have their opinion though.

As for the nightlife in NZ. Agreed it's a bit flat. But there's lots of other stuff to do here. I think I've developed a reliance on a good nightlife, coz there isn't a lot else to do in Glasgow. I know when I get back to Dublin I get bored easily coz the nightlife is poor. But NZ is still a lot of fun. There's a consultants Vs juniors soccer match on in an hour, which I'm playing in. I'm looking forward to it in a way, but a bit nervous, coz I saw what the kiwis did to Brain o Driscoll on the lions tour :P

I think some SHOs cover a lot of stuff in OZ, I agree. But where I'm working there will be be 2 registrars on at all times in the neonatal unit. When I do medicine and A+E there are three registrars on at night and out of hours. 1 for A+E, one for medicine, and one for ICU. That's on top of the SHOs. So, hopefully it'll be ok. But the hospital is suposed to be crazy busy.

Traumadoc

Does not really achieve anything, and you could get yourself into real trouble, you could have a nurse that clams she has been bullied by an arrogant doctor- does not matter if you are correct, just be careful!

tallaght01

I would love it if she took the issue to the level of a complaint. At least it would expose the crappy care given. I'm only here til xmas, the kiddies and their parents have to put up with this rubbish for the rest of their lives.

eth0_

Traumadoc wrote:

Does not really achieve anything, and you could get yourself into real trouble, you could have a nurse that clams she has been bullied by an arrogant doctor- does not matter if you are correct, just be careful!

It takes ten seconds to read someone's temperature and write it on their chart, I fail to see how she could be *that* busy. Do you not think she was being deliberately obstructive to tallaght01, perhaps because he's just a "blow in" and will only be working there for a few months?

sam34

agreed. she'd have the temp and sats done and recorded in the time it took her to say she was too busy to do both