So, we are waiting. I’d say patiently, but I’m not feeling terribly patient. We’re waiting for the answer from the Nova Scotia nurse’s board about whether I can take the Canadian Registered Nurses Exam. Now, we’ve not actually been waiting that long. But I’m not generally a patient soul (that’s why I work in the ED). However, it has come to the attention of the Nurse’s Board that my training, at UWE, was theoretical in some areas in which they like practical experience.
Now I’ve got post-qualifying practical experience, and I’ve got self-directed learning that I’ve done. See, looking after kids is terrifying if you’re trained in adults. So I took my (I think several hundred hours) of ‘Child’ training in an EU theoretical pack, and my knowledge gleaned from looking after kids in the ED when I trained, and I ran with that to more study and a child-pack from my workplace, and then looked after kids a lot. I looked after kids who were injured, I looked after kids who were a bit ill, and I looked after kids who were truly sick. Truly, terrifyingly sick. I looked after big kids and babies you could scoop up and hold in one hand.
But I’ve never bothered with a great deal of evidence on this. I’ve done enough training in my life to keep well above the ‘minimum standard’ for continuous training in the UK (Nurses have do do some fairly small number of hours to maintain their registration, given that I just completed a Masters I’m well over that minimum). Now the nurses board would like to know how I’ve addressed my largely theoretical obstetric, pediatric (argh, I hate spelling it with no a) and mental health nursing. And I’m not sure I can produce anything that will make them happy.
Which makes waiting more painful.
And of course, I sent back the e-mail on Thursday night, and it seems that Canada has the same Easter Bank Holiday (or just Holiday, who knows about the Bank-Holiday equivalency for Canada. I know the US doesn’t call them bank-holidays). So I’ve had 4 days of waiting to hear what they think. And there may well be more. I want to know gods-damnit. I’m not a patient soul. Bah.
