Remote Canadian locations and Nursing in Canada

Here in the eastern north of Canada, things are truly remote. My sister's have lived in the Yukon for many years. When I had a chance to visit with one of them recently she described her ideal world...'You will come back in late Spring so I can fly in, rent a car and drive through the province, making a month or two exploration.' A few days prior I was making inquiries because my niece considered driving up to visit me, so I relayed what I'd learned to my sister.

The first 130 km of road is pretty rough, but then it gets pretty good. At P. you go to the hotel to pick up a satelite phone because there is nothing between there and H. (about 4 hours drive). It's locked so you can only call emergency numbers but if you get into trouble it's all you have. When you arrive in H. you drop it off at one of the hotels there. This whole trip took (my informant said) just over 12 hours after (a certain point).

My sister's comment: People think the Yukon is remote!

Of course, except for looking out the window of the plane, I have seen little of this. Most of my time has been working. We work 12 hour shifts with one midwife or obstetric nurse. The difference is that the ob nurse is shown how to catch a baby in the event no one else is available but is not allowed to be the primary attendant at a birth. Midwives here are the primary carers for women who do not have a regular GP, which includes the women who live in small communities and come to town for the birth of the baby. There is always a GP at every birth since they are the ones who generally receive, assess and admit the baby.

It's so different from my Australian workplace where well babies are cared for by the midwives after birth. If they are sick the paediatrician called. GP's only come to their own patient's delivery. There is no doctor who admits the baby to the hospital. They are admitted by being born and only if sick do they require the paediatrician to admit them to neonatal intensive care.

There are things I'd forgotten about nursing in Canada, like transcribing doctor's orders. While I was agast at first, I can now see some advantages. Just as junior doctors write the orders for the senior consulting doctor and learn in so doing, nurses also can learn by the action of transcribing. It does require the same thoughtful consideration of what one is doing to avoid making mistakes with medications. And an ability to decipher doctor's handwriting. They get around this by having all standing orders printed; the desired page is signed by the doctor and put into the patient's chart.

But now to go home and study for the course exam tomorrow afternoon... Sorry there's no pictures, I haven't gotten camera and cable and computer in the same room at one time!
Susan