Hello down there from way up here

Obviously I did make it north of 60, as evidenced by the title of this post, so as I am cozily settled on call, meaning I am being compensated for dragging the cell phone around with me for three hrs pay (one hour for each 8 hr segment) over the next 24 hours...let me update you on the past two weeks goings on. 

After my whirlwind ten days at home which included the teacher daughter's graduation and provisioning and packing, the past ten days here have been like one of those corporate retreats in the wilderness. My ticket arrived 36 hours before my departure, meaning that I received it Monday evening and checked in online Tuesday morning. Groceries, a stop to pick up seeds to sprout and bug spray and I was stuffing and weighing my action packer, rolling duffle and a suitcase (not cold enough to split one of those hard sided pieces of luggage in May). Perishables in the fridge for departure and a few hours of restless nap. The usual routine of on the road by 2 am, stop for tea and my taxi is waiting in my nursing classmate's yard and I'm whisked to the airport. Check in is routine and bags are tagged through to Inuvik for the following day. Score! Security with Nexus is a breeze and the usual wait to board. A window seat to nap, watch a Bollywood movie and we're landing in Edmonton to collect luggage, shuttle to the hotel and decompress. A quick lunch, nap, walk, some online chatting, supper, bath and bed for the early departure. 

5 am alarm to start my long travel day, dressed, retrieve the perishables from the cooler, and on the shuttle with all the tradesmen being dropped off at the flight centre. Retrieve the bags from storage, check in / security and down to the gate. Notice a family waiting from a community I've worked in...know the face, can't put a name to it or even which settlement. When I ask which community they are flying in to? Kugluktuk ah yes! It's raining so we appreciate the jet port (unusual to not walk across the tarmac to a northern flight) and a quick hop to Yellowknife. Have a nice chat with seatmates - an older couple who "came north from Prince Albert in 1982 for four years and are still there, retired now and near their grandkids" Ice in the lakes and a bit of snow left in Yellowknife so I opt to remain onboard. The leg from Yellowknife to Inuvik sees a former coworker from Nunavut sit in front of me and we catch up - she's the primary care manager in Inuvik now. The north is large geographically but small people wise. A station stop in Norman Wells and it's sunny but cool so again no exit. Retrieve the bags in Inuvik, head to the Aklak Air counter and greet Melissa who states "I can't check you in, you're on standby, you need to wait over there and I'll let you know if you're getting on today" Whaaaaa? The explanation being....your employer bought the ticket late, the other passengers were all confirmed. Sigh. I make a call to my former job share partner (now NIC or nurse in charge) and advise. Both nurses are scheduled to come out today but if I don't make it in, we both know the 30something CHN who is meeting her German boyfriend and heading to Galapagos is going to be the one getting on the plane not the older nurse heading over to another community to work. My buddy describes the CHN I'll be (hopefully) heading over with as small, long dark hair, young and likely dropped off by the RCMP as she's been working in the ER due to a series of scheduling events which defy description. She arrives, we chat (and yes she is the age of my second daughter) and folks are turned away from check in. There's a delay with departure due to 'no one to read the weather over there' and my coworker texts her RCMP fiance who offers to send a photo of the beauty of a day. Finally (after 500 lb of cargo is not loaded) I'm offered boarding but we are all only guaranteed 30 lb

late spring this year

of freight with us - this includes a packback and the suitcase of perishables in my case. We climb up the small stairs and we're off. It's a gorgeous spring day as we look down on the frozen Beaufort Sea, snow covered cliffs and finally bank on approach to the hamlet. Unusual to see a plane on the ground here but there's been a charter in bringing court. Catch up for a few minutes with the exiting nurses, find my bags piled by the health centre SUV, wrestle the 150 lbs into the vehicle and head down the hill to my home for the next eight weeks. It's -12c and lots more snow than last year this time, so good thing I packed the winter jacket. Drag my stuff up two sets of stairs, put things away, supper and set up my life...humidifier, uniforms, crafts...check. An early bedtime with the oncall phone.

Since there is no continuity with the handover, the local clerk is out on the land with her family ice

It needed to be said?

fishing (see neighbouring community notice) and waiting for the geese to arrive, my coworker had a few days orientation a month ago and doesn't know the community and I haven't been here since September....we spend Friday finding our way around as we read notes and try to figure out who is where and doing what. A couple of calls are placed to the NIC in the neighbouring community as I tell her that she can run but she can't hide and she tells me that she's running nonstop as it is BUSY there. In fact she had 40 hrs overtime in the first four days. The long weekend passes without incident, well unless you describe two phone calls...one about a dog (no we can't help) and the other for constipation medicine to take out to the camp (not drinking enough water and no tree to poop behind makes this a common problem) as incidents. It's a lovely way to pass the time doing crafts (more on that later), invited out to supper at my coworkers for spaghetti and muskox meatballs to which I contributed blueberry buckle for dessert, reading - Stories From a Travelling Couch was really good, took a windy and cool walk up to the airport - no wonder there are no geese yet, binge watching season 5 of A Place to Call Home - the Australian series we've been following with the final season being released this summer. Although we'd purchased a used laptop I didn't want to mess with the entertainment system, so asked my former partner for instructions and was told "it's too complicated to explain" so opted to borrow my coworkers laptop. And the holiday bonus was only a four day work week.

Tuesday I answered the health centre phone to hear my manager (young but helpful) say "oh good, there is someone there" meaning that both myself and my coworker were here without a contract - trusting souls that we are, so on paper it looked as if the nursing station wasn't staffed. She apologized for the last minute arrangements and lack of documentation and was suitably unimpressed when I mentioned stand by travel and how that could've turned out. She advised that a contract for me to sign would be out shortly and true to her word it was sent by HR, I promptly signed it and sent it back, all within 10 minutes. Sounds like she's getting things in order.  In fact, she made a return call later in the day where she questioned whether I would be able to extend my present contract? I replied, "Depends on the definition of extension as I have a plan to keep my granddaughter while her parents travel to Iceland" and in case that didn't impress her sufficiently, I added "I have an oncology appointment on July 24" which she quickly agreed I must make. I chose not to disclose that it is very routine and I had already changed the date to suit the trip to the city to pick up my granddaughter - don't play that C card often, only when scheduling is an issue. 

And speaking of contracts and being paid...one of my priorities was receiving my vacation pay of over 58 hrs from last September when I resigned from my job share position. I had asked about in the fall and was told that my resignation was being processed and I would receive my money in due process...never did. My new manager advised me to contact HR again and to let her know if I required her assistance ( a refreshing approach). I received an explanation of how my pay out had fallen through the bureaucratic cracks (who cares how it happened, just give me my money) and an apology but the email wasn't signed. Gotta love HR eh? The only part of the message which interested me was the part about where it was being paid out in my June 1st pay. 

The human / technology interface this past ten days has been to describe it politely... painful. I arrived to find that paper patient charts are no more (except for historical review) since April and we use an electronic medical record (EMR) system now. Arrrghhhh is the usual description but apparently it's something which Telus invented called Wolf EMR. The mental health worker was over for a two day visit from the community we share him with and stress management services were called upon by both nursing staff. I'm unsure who designed or set it up, but I can guarantee it wasn't a nurse in either case. I (as have others before and those after me) have been forced to do hours of training over the phone with an EMR educator - and in an effort to minimize negativity I will not describe this guy. Since we are a remote location with extremely slow connection speed it takes eight minutes for the system to load when you click on the icon....can't you just imagine doing this in the middle of the night emergency as it's the only way to access medical history, allergies etc for a patient? There is some kind of sorcery required to search for patients (my NIC suggested that the first two letters of first and last name worked for a patient I was looking for....and I would know that magic how?) and it's frustrating as in...you know the patient is in the system, they are seen regularly, have only the same name as on their chart. I searched DOB (someone is a birthday twin in Inuvik), healthcard number (nope), first and then last name - getting lists of all but not the patient. Who decided that last name AND date of birth are the combo that would call up her name and why in the two hours of telephone yammering did the EMR educator not share that helpful nugget? Instead he used examples where I was taught to enter a prescription for metformin (diabetes drug) which I'd prescribed. I explained that I don't prescribe it, a Dr does that I use a formularly for urgent drugs. We tried an injection for toradol for pain in the case study and he was stymied by the prn (as needed) concept and wanted to give it once a day. I made silent banging my head on the desk and poking my eye out motions to my coworker at this time. Although I had left voice mail messages on the EMR Helpdesk (very deviously named as they provide limited help) and both 'on call' numbers on the long weekend without receiving a callback at any time, even when work resumed it confirmed to me that the only folks on call especially on weekends are... nurses and police, but I digress. 

My coworker spent several hours two days last week with a laptop which was shipped to us, sitting in the server room aka surplus exam room, on a stool keying in information and reading off the screen to an IT dude in Yellowknife who was doing his level best to NOT travel here to tweak the system. In conclusion he admitted that the entire situation was due to something on their end to do with an IP address. Nice, really nice. 

And since we're on a technology bashing theme here, just let me say that interfering with a nurses pay will cause an outburst quicker than anything else I can think of. We use a system called PeopleSoft to enter our time, check on our pay and print the pay advice of the deposit which we'll (hopefully) receive. In order to do this we must first be entered into the system and then activated - for those of us toing and froing and moving from staff to casual, this can be a challenge. When I asked HR on Thursday (Friday being the cutoff to enter time and have it approved by the manager for this pay) I was told that 'it takes time to be entered into the system and you only returned your signed contract on Tuesday' I have to admit that a younger me would've have had something to say about how to return something you were yet to receive...instead I hit delete. On Friday morning with an hour to time entry deadline, I found myself with an icon to enter time on a program that had completely changed since I last used it in September. It now requires a Masters degree (at a minimum) to use. I struggled through with the attitude of positive time reporting everything including the stat holiday pay which I have to have worked 15 days previously to receive, so not sure if I'm entitled. Thinking 'if it's not allowed she won't approve it'.  Within 10 minutes, the manager had approved my time (without quibbling) ending that painful experience with hopefully a pay deposit on Friday. 

And (bear with me here, it's part of a theme) as the local IT offered those of us in the more remote locations of the region with hateful phone lines (those of us who hear an echo of our voice when calling long distance or have to use the cell phone to call one particular health center in our region as the two landlines are mortal enemies) the opportunity to have eFax installed. I've used it years ago in my home office and the concept is great - scan papers to your computer and they're converted to a fax document and sent. All I can say is that with the installation and then trouble shooting, that's an hour of my life I won't get back. At one point the tech says in his Kenyan (British colonial) accent, I'll just pop down to medical travel to see if there's something wrong with the fax machine there. He calls me back to state that "the travel clerk thinks she may have deleted the fax by mistake" (spoiler alert - it never left this computer due to gremlins) and I say "clearly, not a nurse as we do not offer up front to take blame until it is proven we are at fault" He agreed and is calling the vendor...good let me know how that works out for you. Moving along. 

Good thing that it's been a very slow time in the community as myself and the coworker find our way around. She's very keen, has 10 yrs ER and CHN experience in Nunavut, sensible old soul sort and we have had a LOT of laughs already. Her counterpart who took my job share position is known as the young nurse vs the old nurse (moi) and she fits the same descriptor. I never tire of the "welcome back" greeting here. Life is good.

I've made a couple of treks to the COOP and am gradually settling in to the prices, limited selection (although there were escargot and escargot seasoning mix - go figure) and state of the produce. When I asked the clerk if they had frozen orange juice she looked at me as if I've asked for fresh frozen plasma so I feel a food mail order to Stantons coming on. And speaking of food....

Alberta egg on top

As promised, more information about the crafts I'm pursing...such are

bacon & tomato sammich

the activities of a Nanak with time on her hands. I've been (with the assistance of Pinterest and free online patterns) creating crochet play food for the grandkids They are kind of an addiction as you just want to do one more to    'see what the _ _ _ _ will turn out like' and so I've taken myself downstairs to the computer to post this. I'll have quite a food collection by the time I head home mid Julyish. It's a good use of scrap yarn and artistic creativity and my audience is pretty non critical so an enjoyable past time. As I hit publish I am back to food creation. Maybe some cranberry muffins into the oven first and then some....crochet apples I think. Later.