As I ran some errands yesterday in the community I grew up in (hardly recognizable over half a century later) I encountered folks I knew through various stages of my life and the surprised statement "oh you're home" was followed by "when are you leaving again?" each time. It does at times seem a misnomer to call my house 'home' as I've not spent much time in it since last summer. It was wonderful though to sleep in my own bed, with the trio of cats Wednesday night.
So....a brief recap of the last six weeks adventures..... Often when you're a teenager you say 'when I get married I will never' and of course....you do, or before you have children you say to yourself 'I would never do that as a parent' and again...of course you do. But rest assured at my age when I say "I am NEVER doing that again" it is a certainty. If something isn't enjoyable...I'm just not doing it. Doesn't matter if I'm being paid well, visiting parts of our country I'd never see otherwise, not on call or up at night, or working with great support staff - of course you always meet good people along the way. Nurses talk - which hospital, unit, region, manager has a bad rep? News travels fast in the nurse world. With all the studies, business plans, recruitment, bonuses etc. out there, the correct answer to nurse retention is ....R-E-S-P-E-C-T. If you treat old nurses well, they are loyal and...if you tick them off, they walk away. The warning signs were all there in the previous post and the slide continued.
On January 2nd at midnight I drove on clear roads to my nursing classmate's house, left my car and was met by the taxi I'd booked, then whisked to the airport. I hadn't been able to check in online and this was repeated at the kiosk so I was relieved that the counter agent found my ticket and attempted to check me in, couldn't check my bags all the way through to Igloolik so another lengthy wait in another line before my bag disappeared on the belt. Through security (thank you Nexus) and up to the departure gate where I was joined by friends of ours heading to Ottawa then on to New York to catch a cruise, Panama Canal, Fiji, Tasmania etc...ahh. Quick flight/nap to Ottawa and through the airport to the gate where I was told that Canadian North baggage allowance is no longer two pieces so I must pay $39.55 for the second bag which was now enroute. I encountered a retired RCMP buddy/insurance salesman heading in to do security in Pangnirtung and we caught up on the news. A routine but fully packed flight with breakfast, nap and no issues until...we approached Iqaluit and as the pilots attempted to put the wing flaps down, only one set would move. This required that we circle the airport while the flight crew ran through the checklist, a warning about a faster and harder landing than usual and eventually a clear runway with every emergency vehicle present and flashing, but down safely on the snow covered ground. The departure lounge full of passengers didn't get to leave as the plane 'went mechanical' and they were delayed until the evening flight. After a bit of a delay I boarded for Igloolik and my security buddy headed over to Pang with plans to get together should I make it over for the second half of my contract. About an hour and a half flight northwest into Igloolik through noon twilight then a sudden blizzard as we attempted to land. Still not sure how we made it down. No one to meet me, so I asked an RCMP officer if he recognized anyone in the waiting room from the health centre, he didn't but offered to call them and informed me that "Mark" would be along shortly. The caretaker arrived in the health centre vehicle and as I gazed forlornly at the collection of baggage I realized neither of my two flowered duffle bags had made it. I was deposited at the health centre (fortunately the same floor plan as Pond Inlet so I could find my way around) where I wasn't expected until the following day. The nurse in charge (we discovered we had met in Sachs Harbour last July as I was leaving on the charter) found me keys to housing and instructed the homecare nurse to drive me to the apartment to get settled - not a big job when you only have a backpack. I insisted on directions to return to the health centre in the a.m. as I'd be walking in the dark and he obliged by saying "walk towards the mushroom" and went back to work. I scavenged some food from the communal cupboard and crawled into bed at 7pm and was out until the morning. Never doing that travel in to a Baffin community in one day again, especially as we are paid a maximum of two 7.5 hr travel days only if it takes you two days and GN works at trying to save the cost of the hotel and the second day!
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| Nunavut Research Centre |
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| Sign on an elder's wall |
The next morning, I walked in the dark and -48c temperature past the mushroom to the health centre where I stumbled in the door to report. I spent the first week in Igloolik getting to know the caseload and routine so I could orientate the full-time homecare nurse who had been hired. One of the larger challenges was the CHNs expended large amounts of energy attempting to have homecare do their work - a big problem as their scope of practice is much wider. On my first day of work the nurse in charge said "I know you're a CHN, are you interested in working as one here?" When I protested that I hadn't done a CHN contract for over a year she corrected me and said "I met you coming out of Sachs Harbour as not just CHN but NIC in the summer" for which I just stammered "I'm not up for it here, this looks like a busy sick community" and let me tell you, I wasn't wrong. As a buddy says "glad I did it then, even more glad I'm not doing it now" about his time in Nunavut. At the end of the week, a positive development was two CSAs arrived for me to sign with step 4 for Igloolik and Pangnirtung. The clients were lovely elders, the interpreter and home support workers were wonderful, the vehicle was a new crew cab truck and after I cleaned my way into the apartment I had a quiet first week. I picked up my Filipino replacement (and her husband) on Saturday and we settled into the household. The husband was a wonderful cook who prepared lots of Filipino dishes, kept the house immaculately and used up all the water by Wednesday! There was a lot of entertainment at the community centre as 'return of the sun' activities were on the second week and I took in games night (won a prize) a fashion show and craft sale. When the nurse in charge changed, it was the young Ugandan guy who had been in Clyde River last year with me, so another familiar face. Our homecare manager came over for the week of orientation, but mostly worked
remotely while we did our thing. My replacement caught on very quickly and was often mistaken for Inuit until she spoke, so wasn't immediately viewed as a foreigner. Soon it was time for me to move on, leaving her to make the position her own.
Quick flight in to Iqaluit, over to the Frobisher Inn for supper and overnight. An early Saturday morning wakeup and cab to the airport for check in. Met the NP who'd been in Pond Inlet in May and one of the fulltime CHNs flying back in to Pond, the north is a small group of nurses. A clear 45 minute flight over to Pangnirtung past the mountains, up the fjord with wingtips VERY close to the mountains and finally into the bright yellow airport in the center of the community. Met by the manager and she gave me a tour of Pang with lots of photo ops of the breathtaking scenery. As there was no housing available for me in the nurses residence the first week of my stay, I spent the first night at my manager's and then moved on to a house sitting arrangement for a regional dietician who was away for the week. By Friday I was able to move into the residence for my final two weeks. I felt like a homeless person dragging my stuff with me and living out of bags.
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| Towards the National Park |
Although Pang is physically beautiful, it is a very troubled place with lots of alcohol and drugs, suicides, violence and disrespect - thus the 24/7 health centre security. The nurses residence might have one intact window in the entire place. It is not a community where I would ever make a home visit alone without the interpreter, although the elders are lovely people who are quite dismayed at how things are now. As the regional office for department of health is in Pang, there is a sense of entitlement and frequent administrative interference, as well as overt aggression. I had found myself backing away with hands held up on more than one occasion while out and about and was almost creamed by a young couple (with very small infant in amauti) on a careening skidoo.
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| Out for a spin |
Further to this dysfunction, I found myself coming in to the community after an agency homecare nurse who clearly couldn't organize herself or the workplace. The office was a disaster, there was no schedule or plan, she sat in the office and gave me tasks to do, she called in sick my second morning, afterwards saying she'd taken a vitamin D tablet which caused a stomach upset. I wasn't introduced to the clients and when I insisted on day four that I must have a master list of clients with diagnosis to practice safely, she was unable to tell me any information. Our manager had fractured the head of her right humerus and so was off on medical leave with emergent situations being handled by one of the directors who stated she had NO homecare experience - helpful I thought. I didn't have online access for the first week as IT is still scrambling from the network crash and the homecare clerk was out for medical travel so I drove the home support workers around to their visits. As I said at report "I'm going better, only got lost once yesterday". I made it my goal to try to get the situation under some form of control to handover to my replacement and worked hard all week towards that plan. There were a series of young, new to the north nurses who arrived at the health centre as CHNs and although very keen, required mentoring. I had two of them as roommates before finally making room for my replacement. On Monday I picked up my replacement as we had 3.5 days together to get her up to speed. She had never been north before but had lots of nursing and homecare experience, so working in a remote area was her major challenge. We discovered we were both Parrot Heads and so got along famously, although she had been to more Jimmy Buffett concerts than me for sure! She's since updated me that the past week was a doozie as in...interpreter got in an accident with a skidoo, no one hurt but right front panel smashed off vehicle and windshield washer container is broken. One of the clients called the Director to state that my predecessor is not to come to her house and two of the staff have stated they will quit if she returns. Glad to have made my exit and those were tears of joy when the flight landed! It'll be good to not work for a bit as I'm headed back to Taloyoak in the fall for a six week public health contract and really looking forward to visiting the community after six years
I spent a lovely long weekend with the parents to be of my fourth grandchild and things are coming along with the new Canadian son in law. He is studying English Monday to Friday mornings and has begun work at Farm Boy (upscale grocery chain..think Pete's Frootique) in the produce department. He's thrilled to be making $15/hr (shhh don't tell him it's minimum wage) and enjoying his fellow immigrant coworkers. I smiled as he ran through the various types of apples with me - previously his knowledge as a Cuban of apples would've been...it's an apple :) Lots of new fruits and vegetables for him to write in his little notebook. Enjoyed a great Persian supper and also Vietnamese. Yum. We did some shopping and planning for the baby. As daughter #1 said...we can pick these things up now, or you'll be the one getting them in April. I booked my flight to Ottawa for April 25th and will either be to see or wait for the grandchild. The weather wasn't great as we made our way to the airport on Tuesday morning, but at least no cancellations as in Toronto and Montreal. The shore captain was heading south so his flight to Cuba out of Pearson was delayed but did leave.
Uneventful flight with a beautiful arrival across Halifax. Can't recall flying over the two bridges with Halifax/Dartmouth spread beneath us. My nursing classmate met me at the gate as she volunteers at the airport and drove me home to her house/my car...that's service! I made my way over to Dartmouth, arriving shortly before the family made it home. We ordered pizza/garlic fingers for supper and an early bedtime for all was in order. The early wakeup time followed and I spent some time with the grandkids, then headed out to my rhuematologist appointment for realilgnment and injection. Stopped at two Frenchy's and scored great finds, finally making it home after dark. Ahhh
I've spent the past two days unpacking from north, doing laundry and storing northern gear/repacking for Cuba. I've gotten a haircut, a spa appointment tomorrow and run lots of errands to pick up last minute things. I've managed to get my travel claim submitted (hoping it'll be paid out before I get home in five weeks) opened all my mail/packages and paid some bills. Checked with the house/cat sitter that all is in order and I've cleaned out the freezer and the son in law stored it in the bait freezer...take that NSP! Collected up my study materials and am really looking forward to getting back to class. This weekend the oldest grandson is visiting and he enjoyed a 4H builders meeting as he's signed up for three projects which he hopes will take him to Pro Show next fall. He's a social guy and a big fan of public speaking so is pretty pumped.
He was more pumped when we booked accommodation for our Easter get away to Vancouver as I'm using my WestJet companion fare for a six day trip. And yes...Breakfast with the Bears is still on the list he Googled of 'what to do in Vancouver'. Let the planning begin tomorrow.
Looking forward to the fire hall breakfast on Sunday, some time with the grandson, then my 6 am Monday flight to the warm. Life is good.
In closing....to quote the physicist Richard Feynman...if you think you understand it that shows you don't
Although Pang is physically beautiful, it is a very troubled place with lots of alcohol and drugs, suicides, violence and disrespect - thus the 24/7 health centre security. The nurses residence might have one intact window in the entire place. It is not a community where I would ever make a home visit alone without the interpreter, although the elders are lovely people who are quite dismayed at how things are now. As the regional office for department of health is in Pang, there is a sense of entitlement and frequent administrative interference, as well as overt aggression. I had found myself backing away with hands held up on more than one occasion while out and about and was almost creamed by a young couple (with very small infant in amauti) on a careening skidoo.
