For the past six weeks I have been persistently (bordering on harassment) attempting to get someone in the TB program with GN to take a look at my qualifications. And yes, there is a severe nursing shortage in the north, however there is also a serious dysfunctionality of the staffing system. The first week I applied through the website, second I applied through email, third week I applied through the recruiter, fourth week I sent a former coworker to the recruiter and 'my resume was sent to the TB people', fifth I contacted another coworker who discovered who the TB manager was, found her office, but she wasn't there and the sixth week my coworker asked for my CV to send along to the TB manager, saying she was young, keen and respectful with a suggestion that I follow up in a few days if no response. On Friday morning, the three days I'd allowed myself had passed and I wrote an email to the manager apologizing for one more email with her workload, asking if she'd gotten my resume, and offering to resend. She promptly replied (first response I'd had to anything in six weeks) and asked questions such as public health and TB experience, availability etc etc which led me to believe that she either hadn't received or reviewed my resume, so I sold myself (I'm positive I can do casual contracts as well as the under 30s presently are) and highlighted my northern, infection control, tropical nursing and public health education/experience, mentioned a vague 'fall' as availability and attached a resume. A few moments later I received a response stating that she was sending my info on to HR for next steps, there was a three day in-service in Iqaluit monthly before deployment to communities and she hoped to meet me in the fall, a cc of the message to HR spoke of me being qualified and to put me in the system. HR replied that a package would be sent shortly. Just like that....poof....problem solved. As my buddy said "that kind of stress isn't good for you with your history" and that's hard to argue with. I put all my energies into feeling well and moving forward every day, don't want to use it for fighting a non winning war. You should've seen my happy dance!! As my jobshare partner responded to my great news 'well there ya go' to which I replied "yep, just watch me run". I must shortly tackle that huge TB program manual and a colleague mentioned available courses at CDC:
cdc.gov/tb/webcourses/TB101
and the WHO - with a link on the right side to the course
who.int/healthacademy/courses/en
An interesting and challenging switch it will be, good to stretch my brain in another direction for a few weeks per year. Am sure I'll have to continue to be vigilant with HR as the momentum is so fragile but getting the foot in the door is key and it's a nice setup to moving on with my departure coming up in ten days.
As I enjoy a Monday holiday on call (due to July 1st falling on a Sunday this year) I have only had a couple of calls. One was a mother calling about a child's hives (I actually saw them yesterday at the BBQ) and she's wondering about allergy testing....bring her in and I'll give some benadryl. She arrives...alone. I open the door and say "oh it's you who is having the allergic reaction?" No, it's the little one, Mom's just coming for the antihistamine. Good thing I actually did cast a glance at the rash yesterday. I give the benadryl with instructions and we discuss bug bites, possible allergy triggers and when to follow up. It's very common in the north, especially in the spring when it's cold but not as cold as winter so the kids 'play out' longer and they develop huge wheels of urticaria. Quite impressive really. No accompanying respiratory wheezing, itchiness or any other system histamine reaction. The first spring I saw it I was really taken aback but an experienced nurse said "oh yeah, spring in the north, large numbers of kids develop this, most don't bother to bring them in, we just give benadryl as it makes the parents feel better" and that what my allergen inservice. She was right on all counts. The other call for advice was about antibiotic reaction vs immodium. "And you take immodium for what?" The answer was "travelers diarrhea" apparently meaning the person is nervous when they fly or else the change in water but certainly not my understanding from infection control/tropical nursing education as to travelers diarrhea. Working in fly in communities I am amazed at the large numbers of people who have flight anxiety (ativan given) or air sickness (gravol) as well. Tough stuff when that is your only option for exit and re-entrance.
The snow is mostly melted now (note the date of July) and the ice is rotting quite quickly. The polar bears are getting a bit hungry and there was one in last week at the dump (the suggestion was they were chasing sandhill cranes but lots of foodstuffs at the landfill) and again on the beach where I was walking the week before, likely the same one. They swim over from over spits of land, or off the big ice floes.The kids are smart enough to keep close to home while they're around. There have been a few bugs around and they signal what is shortly to come, making it difficult to enjoy the outdoors. A young fellow came through the door last week all out of breath, holding his baby and was chatting with someone else in the waiting room and I happened to overhear "I almost had a heart attack" so I considered various scenarios such as overturned 4wheeler etc and said "what happened?" The reply was "I saw a bee" to which I explained that I didn't think they hurt you as I have never seen one single sting in my years working north and it's a very common down south ER visit. His infant was regarding him with wide eyes and I said "you'll scare the baby acting like that" to which he replied "well, if you're allergic to them". I could see no evidence of any allergy in his records and am not sure where that self diagnosis came from....Dr Google? To be fair those 'bees' are huge and do look scary. My job share partner said one of the homecare workers in another community was in the vehicle with her and jumped out while it was moving when a bee was thought to be inside and another coworker had a housefly in between the screen and window in her office and every single patient for two weeks asked if "she was the nurse with the bee in her office?" when they came into the room. Northern folks have a healthy respect for polar bears but bees will send them screaming.
Yesterday was the July 1st celebration on the beach and it was a great BBQ of burgers, sausages and hotdogs with all the fixins, salads, watermelon and a great Canada day cake which the eldest community member cut. Games were played and the 3 legged and sack (garbage bag) races were hysterical to watch with only minor injuries. Great time to socialize with all the generations. I was having a chat
with an energetic and very competitive preschooler and asked how old she was and she replied
"I'm over three" and I said "yes, I have been here three years - when I
first came you were a little baby only six months old and you got really
sick with pneumonia and had to go in the airplane ....you scared me" and
she said matter of factly "that was because I didn't have a bum" and I
replied "oh and here I thought it was your breathing, silly me" and she
nodded, grabbed her kite which was a prize from her previous race and headed off to the next
game. It was so cold and windy that I couldn't stay for the harpoon tossing contest or tug of war. The positive of course was that there were no bugs. Those large, hungry northern mosquitoes are just starting to arrive now and will soon be here in clouds. There were great prizes to be had and although I chose the role of photographer vs elder participant my name was entered in the draw and a teenager delivered a huge bag of romaine lettuce with cesar kit to the door. Now that's a great prize! I'll be eating it for breakfast, lunch and supper and I started with having the local clerk and her husband over today for brunch - lobsters and eggs, cornbread muffins, tomatoes and of course cesar salad. Enjoyed great conversation of 'back in the day' local stories of only two telephones in the hamlet with the button and crank (oh yes, I'm familiar with same) hauling water in barrels on a wagon with a tractor, before there were 4wheelers, when electricity and TV came, stories of New Yrs parties at the DOT base and the dog teams finding their way home, going up the the river to visit someone and just turning the sled over and the dogs would lie down and wait for you to come out. Have met really great people in all the places I've been fortunate to work in, will miss them. While at the beach the young fellow who manages the maintenance at the health centre got a call on his cell, said to the guy who manages the power plant "there's no power" who in turn yelled over to the fuel truck driver at the next picnic table "must be out of fuel" and he grumbled, found someone to watch his kids and left briefly as the festivities continued. Let me interpret....the maintenance guy gets a call from Arctic Alarms when the power goes off as the alarm sounds in the health centre and the school, tells the fellow who runs the diesel generated power station who 'oopsie' must've not arranged for fuel delivery and sends the COOP fuel truck driver up to fill the tank. No one was in the least alarmed by any of this. The only fallout was resetting my clock and remembering to re-record the voice mail message on the answering machine reminding folks today is a holiday.
The play food creations continue and I'm pleased with most of them. The kiwi is a fail as no one can identify as same....mint chocolate chip cupcake was one guess, a cake maybe, no idea another. It and the corn maybe banana goes in the give away pile to a local kid with better imagination and I'll keep the one on the left which was more successful, the cinnamon roll does look good enough to eat. I loved one of the online pattern sites where someone had commented "these look great but my dogs would eat them" and I am considering designating these as an 'at Nanak's house' collection.Have arranged for the new custodian at the health centre to come and clean the apartment for cash upon my exit so that is a positive leave. Getting excited to be heading home soon, well except for all the 32c+ temperatures folks are mentioning. I'll melt when reintroduced to that climate. I'm pleased that my overnight in Inuvik coincides with the opening of the Great Northern Arts Festival being held July 13th onwards, even if I don't buy, I will enjoy seeing arts and crafts from around the region.
An exciting event this week was the paying of the final installment for the Rocky Mountaineer for end of September. Some final tweaking of plans with talk of including a jaunt from Vancouver to Victoria and a Buchart Garden visit as well as tea at the Empress Hotel. Only additional details such as transfer Jasper to Calgary and an airport hotel remain. Getting pumped for the adventure. Time to close and eat some cesar salad. Likely one more update before I head 'down south'. Later
