Sugo

What do emergency nurses in Australia do differently compaired to UK nurses,

I was suprised to find ED nurse practioners do not exist in New Zealand,

In the UK in my dept,
we insert IVC
request Xrays
prescribe analgesia including oral morphine
catheterise,
give all IV drugs including thrombolysis

we also dont have to fanny around with course after course

debbiemc

think you can forget that !!!! a friend of mine, er nurse for 7 years, just returned from aus doing agency work, one of the places wouldnt even let him put on a thumb splint!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nikkers

My friend Tass is an ER nurse in Sydney she has done lots of posts

Try doing a search under her name and pm her- She has found it very different.

cheers
Nikki x

linzib

I'm a nurse unit manager in emergency in victoria,in the u.k I was a nurse practitioner and so used to prescribing pain relief,sending patients for x-rays etc. WELL HERE YOU CANT EVEN SUTURE A WOUND,its very medically orientated over here so you do lose a lot of your autonomy, I can't work at the same level as I did in the u.k. Now I have to do my master's in advanced practice to register as a nurse practitioner. Its a bit of a joke at times when you think of all the training and experience u.k nurses have. But on a positive note the lifestyle is great, so its worth it.

Sugo

where i am at the moment in new zealand its a joke, the nurses still have the hand maiden mentality with the doctors, its silly really they dont even speak up when the doc is clearly wrong.

can i ask if your in melbourne was thinking if the other job im going for in NZ falls through was going to check out melbourne

linzib

I live 4 hours south of melbourne, I too worked in NZ for a year but became frustrated by the lack of autonomy, you don't work at middlemore do you? I'd say there are pros and cons for working either here or NZ and we just have to help the nurses move forward and hope we can eventually be in line with uk nursing. In honesty I can say nursing practice is way behind, but I believe it has been stopped from progressing by the medical profession,well thats my opinion. good luck with the jobs

Sugo

i agree with you, im amazed at how little the nurses respect each, loads of horizontal bullying, backbiting and bitching, then there is the doctors, the nurses wtill play hand maiden to the docs, hopefully the more overseas nurses come in with our different attitudes we might be able to change the culture here,

im wondering if the docs here need a nurse around to wipe theyre backside, one lazy sod said to one the nurses 'im a doctor i dont do bloods, thats a nurses job' WTF i hope hes on nights on his own and cant put one in cos hes underskilled

had an interesting conversation with one of the kiwi nurses who said nurses should be putting arch lines in and doing femoral lines, the nurses here are full on contradictions, they havnt even got it together enough to look after each and have a respect for their profession, but want to take on extra jobs,

somedogsdo

I shall be watching this thread with interest. i am a nurse with ed 10yrs+ as my background but have been working as a nurse practitioner in our community minor injury units for the last 2yrs. we are waiting to hear about our PR visa next month but if and when we get it we are hoping to move out to PERTH.

Is it really that bad for nurses. I cant imagine not being able to do all the stuff i have been doing most of my nursing life. Can you not transfer any of you post qualifying courses over as recognised.

I am expecting to have to get used to differenct procedures/paperwork and stuff but i really dont want to get de-skilled,

your views are great reading though :scared:

Paulaxx

Tass

A lot of what you do depends on the size of the department.You can get RPL and if UR an ENP just now , you will be much valued out here.HOWEVER, ENP's are only just being introduced over here and it is VERY much a hand maiden attitude in the work place. There is no nurse led practice. I was told last week by one of the Drs to remember my place.(you can imagine how well that went down with me after staffing in Glasgow Royal Infirmary for 10 years !)I had to take it up the hierarchy but the "team leader" (charge nurse)refused to get involved and I had to page the after hours manager to come and deal with the incident before I punched his lights out !
Anyway, I don't really post here anymore because....well just because but if I can help with anything just PM me.
All the best,
Tass.

somedogsdo

Cheers for that Tass, it must be really hard having the 'stone age' attitude to deal with, especially since most big city ed dept senior doctors are very welcoming to nurses with experience, I worked in Manchester for 5 years and the docs their were just fab.

Well, I will see if I get a visa before I start to worry too much, trouble is I can see myself being like you, standing up for yourself, I'd sooner leave nursing than let others say were my place was, that is disgraceful and disrespectful to you as a person and as a colleague hope you gave him what for

Cheers Paulaxx

annqldau

Have found in QLD that although the nurses may not do as much as UK they seem to be quite well respected in ED and do get to do quite a lot. It still has a quite medical aspect but there nurse practitioners however they do have to have a masters here.

Sugo

i think thats how we should handle it and perhaps the kiwi and aussie nurses might learn from our examples, docs like that need to be shown the error of their ways and we should stick up for ourselves.

I dont want to be a doctor they have more training than us and more responsibility, but also the nurse profession is a profession and where in our contracts does it say we are answerable to the doctors, were answerable to our patients, its them who we should be sticking up for, sod the egocentric doctors,

annqldau

Could be because the Doctors where I am are mostly British or European and we have already trained them in... .

Tass

Am smiling because you're right !
I have occasionaly worked with UK , European Drs here and we seem to automatically "click" into a way of working.No time wasted and jobs done as expected.
My issue was an ethical one (this time), that normally would have NEVER gone off the floor and would have been resolved between me and the Dr and that's how simple things would have been.I know there is a very different way of thinking out here and I guess thats part of the move.
Good luck to you all.
Don't let the b*st8rds get you down.If you remember how you were trained in the UK and provide practice to the standards YOU are used to you'll do well BUT you will have to stick up for yourself.
(Have actually enjoyed posting on here for the first time in ages ! Thanks)
All the best,
Tass. x

annqldau

Think the doctors as God!!! syndrome went out in UK so long ago now that most young doctors have been retrained to see nurses as valuable resource who they can rely on and we all work together now as a proper team.

Most Gods have now retired in UK.