I Dare You to Drink the Vinegar

Three weeks ago, Kelly and I made a big decision—we're moving back to Calgary. The decision was rooted in personal reasons, but as the wheels started turning, I realized how deeply ready I was for this change. Updating my resume, applying for jobs, navigating the provincial registration process in Alberta—it all started as logistics. But it quickly turned into something more emotional, more meaningful. This move feels like a much-needed break from the pressures and pace of life in the Lower Mainland. It feels like breathing room. Today, I received my first job offer. It’s for an inpatient psychiatry position—work that I know well, work that grounds me. I’m excited. Not just because I’m employed, but because this opportunity marks the beginning of a new chapter in a familiar place. Calgary isn’t just where I grew up; it’s where my nursing career began. Returning now feels like a full circle moment. When I left Calgary in 2008, I was a brand-new RN looking for growth and adventure...

Yesterday I went to work and noticed that there were flyers up for a memorial service for a client. I later learned from a co-worker that this client died earlier in the week. I found out that this client had broken some bones in an accident and made the decision to not seek medical treatment. I was unclear about what exactly led to their death but I assume it was related to the fractures and complications related to their compromised health status. This is the first client that I have personally known, in my almost 5 years in nursing, that has died. Working in mental health and addictions I know that there are definitely clients that I have cared for who have died.  When I worked as a care-aide during the first part of my nursing undergrad degree I witnessed people's deaths; I participated in the process of wrapping the body. But this experience was different, this was the first person that I actually had a health care professional-client relationship with, someone I knew, who die...

Working in mental health and addictions in Vancouver is tough. I think that there are many challenges to trying to "fix" the "problem" of the downtown eastside. And I'm pretty sure the answer isn't gentrification, pushing the visibly homeless further east or pouring more and more money in to the supply side of the illegal drug trade. This is not a novel idea that I have. If you do not believe me, think about this: There are many different stores that sell high calorie, low nutritional value foods that taste great. If one store that sells these products closes down, even a big store, like Safeway, the demand for these items does not decrease. People will still want to buy junk food. You severely decrease the supply, but people will still crave junk food and will probably go out of their way to seek it out. So why wouldn't a good entreprenuer step in and provide this product for those who want it? They make money, the public gets what it wants. Everyone wi...

Last night I attended the BC Nurses Union update dinner. The members of the BCNU will have a ratification vote on October 18th, 2012 for the proposed contract. From what I understand it seems that the bargaining unit did a good job. The new contract had some gains, uses very clearly worded language that is easy to understand and implement, we will be returning to a 37.5 hour work week and there will be 2125 new full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs added provincially. Some people at the dinner seemed happy with this and some people at the dinner seemed frustrated by the lack of gains. However, I think that we have to understand that ultimately, it is not the failure of the bargaining team that is the result of seemingly wishful gains like a cost of living wage increase, more money for education and safer staffing province wide, it is the public and the tax payers collectively that decide what we are worth. I think that many people complain when taxes go up, when they have to pay sales tax ...

How much "free time" do you percieve you have when you're working a shift? How much do you believe that it is part of your responsiblity as a professional Registered Nurse to nurture students, new graduates and new employees in your workplace setting? I remember when I was pregnant with my first child I worked in a community health centre as an addiction nurse. This was a temporary position that I took over from a nurse who had only been in the position a couple weeks and was asked to stop working there during my first orientation shift. My orientation (or lack thereof) left me bewildered about what the position actually entailed. With a little less than two years of experience as a Registered Nurse and my first position working semi-independently in a community setting I did not have complete understanding of what I was supposed to be doing. I spent most of my shifts waiting for phone calls from potential clients, taking stock of the nicotine replacement dispensed and p...

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed when I realize everything that I do not know. Sometimes I feel like I have not even scratched the surface of everything that I think I should know to be a great registered nurse. Over my few years of experience I have come to realize that being a registered nurse necessitates keeping up to date with the latest practice guidelines and trends. This means reading the research, going to conferences, participating in education sessions about the latest products and practice and reading the policy and procedure as it is changed and updated in facilities and health care regions. This is not an easy task. In fact, I am starting to realize this is a huge challenge in an age when funding dollars are being cut for educators and education. When I embarked on my journey into HIV nursing I definitely viewed it (and still view it) as an opportunity for new learning but four months into this new job I feel like there have not really been proper supports to engage in adeq...

As a society are we progressing or just changing? The term progress indicates that there is betterment. But is there more happiness, love and hope and less suffering? I think that many could make the argument that there is more suffering and less care and compassion now than a hundred years ago. Are we better today than were were a fifty, a hundred or a thousand years ago? I guess that depends on how you define the term better.

Language is extemely powerful. The language that is used to describe mental health is important. I think that sometimes people forget that. I recently participated in an online discussion about whether stigma attached to mental health issues is more damaging than mental health diagnosis. One particpant, another mental health professional suggested that labels themselves do not do the damage, it is the meanings that we attach to these labels that causes damage. My question is, do words function independently of meaning? For example, is the term addict or personality disorder simply a neutral word? While I understand the author's notion that positive meaning could be attached to these terms just as much as negative ones this ignores the fact that there are meanings already attached to these words. Further, this ignores that fact that in medicine a client is often identified by their label, their mental health diagnosis. Since the beginning of my nursing career I have worked with ma...

I have made an executive decision that my goal for the remainder of 2012 is to be an extremely prolific letter writer and comment maker on both on-line and print media for the purpose of educating the public about health care as a social justice issue. On a similar note, have you heard about the 59 Cents Campaign? If you have not, learn more about it here . Peace,  Michelle C. Danda, budding nurse academic 

I have heard it over and over again, and, in fact, at at time I believed it, "what does the union ever do for us?" A statement and a question that indicates both one's belief that union dues are money spent that one will never see a return on but also, that one has never taken the time to actually learn about what the role of the union is and how it works for the rights of the worker. As a person who has worked in both union and non-union roles I can safely say that I will remain pro-union because the collective bargaining for our worker rights as registered nurses has brought us to where we are today, which is still not the best position it could be. This has nothing to do with greed or wanted more than is deserved but with fairness.

I was listening to the radio the other morning and the DJs were having a discussion about how much money they would have to win in order to participate in a contest where they would go shopping naked. Two of the women DJs said they would need to win hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to participate in such a contest. One of the DJs mentioned a contest sponsored by a grocery store in Europe where those who showed up to the store naked to shop would win $400 worth of groceries. This made me think, perhaps those who are financially stable require an exorbitant amount of money to participate in such a contest but those who have less may be more inclined to participate. This in turn made me think about the nature of the contest, what the experience of being naked means in our society, and how 'winning' involved putting oneself on display in order to gain a basic need, food, in an amount that most of the ‘haves’ of the world likely spend in a weekly shopping trip.  What does t...

I have learned a lot by listening and transcribing the Traditional Knowledge interviews. An important piece of learning that I have taken away is that the traditional way of life that involves hunting, trapping and harvesting is still very much a part of Aboriginal communities in rural Canada. Meat in the grocery store is expensive. Hunting wild game, trapping animals and collecting eggs is important to participants food security which in turn impacts their health. The framework that many of us (and by that I mean not only people who live in urban centres but also those who have been born and raised within a Western perspective) approach land use is one of economic gain, largely ignoring the fact that there are still people who live off the land.

In recent weeks I have become the Executive Vice President of KSDavison & Associates and obtained a casual Registered Nursing position in the Day Health program at the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation .  Both of these are very exciting new opportunities because they are allowing me to venture into areas of business and health, respectively, that I have not previously had experience with. Did I mention that I had a baby 5 months ago?  Leadership Ventures       KSDavison & Associates is a company owned and operated by my husband, Kelly S. Davison. Although he is now a third-year nursing student, in his previous (current)career his role was Traditional Knowledge Facilitator. I am very pleased to say that I am now going to be part of this company. The past month has been full of firsts. I went on my first business trip, helped to facilitate my first Traditional Knowledge Use (TDK) interviews, and am beginning to learn how to write TDK reports. Alth...

Unfortunately too many people believe that one's health is determined solely by personal choice.  Research supports that this is not the case, but rather, that the social conditions into which one is born into and lives are inextricably connected to how they experience health.  This is not common knowledge but it should be.  Learn about the social determinants of Canadian health and how they impact those living in Canada. http://www.thecanadianfacts.org/

     The other night I was sitting in a pub with my husband and some friends and the the issue of fully funded public higher education came up.  A friend was making the argument that if the Canadian government decided to fully fund all post secondary institutions then everyone would have a degree or post secondary credential of some sort and then no one would want to do jobs like cleaning toilets.  This was an interesting argument that indicated the lack of knowledge and understanding about formal education and how it works in and how it effects a society.  My first response was that equal access and funding does not mean the same thing as everyone being granted a degree.  The reality that there are different levels of motivation, ability and desire to pursue post-secondary education would continue to exist but there would be more equal access to formal education.  In my later reflections on t...

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...