I Dare You to Drink the Vinegar

I am sitting on my bed after a long day of taking care of baby Kelly (which primarily involved watching him sleep in his electronically powered swing) thinking about what is going to happen in the next year that I have off from my full-time job on my maternity leave. As I stare into the sweetest, angelic face ever sleeping beside me I cannot help but think about what the next steps of my career are after I complete my Master's degree in 4 weeks and begin searching for casual work when my salary top-up ends in late May.  I have mixed feelings about wanting to return to work so soon but at the same time I look forward to the challenge of finding a casual nursing position outside of my comfort zone of mental health and addictions and in a time of unsteady nursing waters following what I anticipate will be a lengthy contract negotiation by the BC Nurses Union. I am both excited and scared about the possibility that I will find I am going to...

As I sit here, on my third of four night shifts, worrying about if I am going to be able to get my car out of the parking lot in the morning as I watch the snowfall  I am thinking about how huge and physically uncomfortable I am 36 weeks and 3 days into my pregnancy. I am thinking about how I cannot wait for this baby to emerge into the world. Interestingly, I am also think about how inspired I am feeling about the possibilities that lie ahead in my professional future as I am slowly closing in on finishing my final three courses in my Master of Nursing degree. Perhaps the most intriguing and applicable course I am taking this semester is a Leadership course because I am finding that am just now coming to an understanding of what good leadership is and the realization that I didn't really have a good grasp on the concept until I began reading about it this week. In the quiet of night shift I am finding the time to ponder my roles and responsibilities as a baccalaureate prepa...

My biggest pet peeve about being a casual nurse is that I am never quite sure if I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. I have had 2 casual jobs (4 if you count the two orientations that I did at BC Children's Hospital that I never picked up any shifts for) since I began my nursing career in 2008. My first casual position was on the inpatient acute psychiatric unit at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster. I began in 2010, picked up my first shift in 2011, and only did that one shift before I decided that the level of anxiety that I felt walking into that shift was not worth me taking anymore. My second casual position, with Coast Mental Health in the concurrent disorders transitional housing, began in September 2011. This position is not terribly anxiety-inducing, yet I still ask myself every shift, is this really all I'm supposed to be doing? Every shift I work I look around the tiny medication room that I find myself stuck in for 8 hours th...

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to challenge the current practice of seclusion room use within a tertiary mental health rehabilitation facility through conducting a critical discourse analysis. I asked the research questions, “what is the discourse surrounding current use of seclusion rooms within this practice setting, how does this influence health care delivery, and what are specific actions that could be used to transform the current discourse for the purpose of improving health care delivery?” Both textual and verbal communication between interdisciplinary staff are analyzed within this practice setting to determine the dominant paradigms, and uncover the overarching power dynamics and explore their influence on workplace culture and health care delivery. This discourse is situated within the current body of research on seclusion room use. The results show that many challenges emerge from the opposing client centred recovery oriented model that guides the program and the...