SO YOU WANT TO WORK UP NORTH?

I always wanted to try travel nursing and someday go to northern Canada, although I never started actually planning it. BUT now here I am sitting in Inuvik 200 km north of the Arctic Circle and writing this blog.

All I knew was that the timing was right, there was nothing holding me back in this season of my life and so I decided to go to the one place I knew…Google. This is where my story began…

Fast forward the phone interviews and lots of email correspondence I was finally hired, and all my travel expenses were going to be covered; thank you government of the Northwest Territories.  I was suddenly a little drowned in A LOT of paperwork and documentation gathering. I had to get licensed with the RNANT/NU college to work in Inuvik, my confirmation documents from CNO got lost in the mail so I had to quickly pay for an expedite delivery. Then, came all the extra things like a police check, diploma, references, hours verification and mooooreeee.

My first stop was Edmonton, then Yellowknife and from there Inuvik. I am sitting on a small airplane and we make our first stop in Yellowknife. Some passengers get off here, some continue their way onward and some new ones get on. This feels like an air bus because we are making these mini stops in all the smaller communities. There seems to be a delay and suddenly the boarding crew is asking for my boarding pass.

I immediately find out that the delay is because of me!

I am only booked to Yellowknife and they politely ask me to board off the plane. A little shocked but going with the flow I go hunting for a phone. After a few calls I finally reach the manager and my plane shenanigans are sorted out, but I will have to spend the night here. 

The next day, I finally arrive in Inuvik! What a trip, minor glitches but I made it! It’s my first day of orientation and who knew but I am already famous down here! From almost every person I meet I hear

“So you are the girl that got kicked off the plane!”

I feel special already. The next 4 days I shadow a nurse on 2 day and 2 night shifts, and boy am I overwhelmed with information. The way things are done here are completely different from Toronto. The patient load and acuity is much less and we have a small team to complement that. Compared to Toronto, I feel stripped from all our resources but I am adapting. The patients are blissfully nice, incomparable to Torontonians (sorry). 

So, the Day goes something like this…

Day shift nurse starts at 0730 and is alone until 1000, when an evening nurse arrives. Until that time the nurse is triaging and treating patients, stocking the department and checking crash carts and rooms. We have 1 trauma room, 3 monitored beds, cast room and gyne room. On average we may see 11-30 patients per day. Really depends. Then the night shift nurse comes and is alone from 2200-0730.

WHAT….ALONE!?

Sometimes we do see sick patients, sick babies who are transferred to us from surrounding communities of the Beaufort Delta Region, who we stabilize and who might need further medical evacuation to a larger hospital either in Yellowknife or Edmonton. We use Medevac A LOT!

Here in the hospital we only have an Xray machine, if the patients need a CT we arrange for them to travel to Yellowknife or Edmonton for the test to be done. Mind blown again! To be honest, after a month of working here, it all begins to make sense and the flow works, although one nurse can be difficult especially on a busy shift. If you are a new grad or a new nurse I would recommend starting in acute care first, if you are planning to come to Inuvik.

Behind the Scenes

Day 1

Got home (I live in the residency which is a 2 minute walk to the hospital) felt super overwhelmed and succumbed to the feelings of being home sick. Found the grocery store ‘North Mart”, and food is expensive here.

Day 2

Got home, still overwhelmed, not sure if I like it here yet, but 100 % sure that I like the people because everyone and I mean EVERYONE is super nice. Feeling a little lonely and missing my friends and family.

Day 3

Getting used to the flow and adapting to life, meeting some amazing humans with amazing stories.  Each one I meet has an interesting story of why and how they ended up here, what their life looks like.

A TRIP TO THE ARCTIC OCEAN!

Finished my shift rotation and the next day got to go and experience the feet numbing, cold waters of the Arctic Ocean! A 2+ hour ride on the gravel road with 3 life loving humans. YES! I did it, I said hello to the Arctic Ocean, and it was incredible. Saw Aurora Borealis with another 3 amazing humans in the middle of the night, while not letting the bears scare us! And, finally getting the sniffles from all this NEW and the exhaustion.

The north is a beautiful place, so different in its way of life, but I wouldn’t be able to live up here in this season of my life. It felt too quiet, too small and too isolated. The locals tell me “you came at the wrong time; summer just ended and winter is coming, this is the in between season.” I was constantly reminded of the care free moments of Greece and the warmth of my family, all of which I was missing here. Will I recommend it? One hundred percent YES! I think everyone should experience this. It’s hard to judge an experience without trying it for yourself. I wouldn’t change any part of this adventure and I would do it the same way all over again. What was missing for me might be exactly what you are looking for.

Nursing in Inuvik has made me appreciate so many things in general. I see the value of certain aspects in Toronto and its resources. But I also see the value of how things are done here. Because there is not a huge load of patients and the acuity is much less we get to spend that extra time connecting with patients. In this season of my life I was ready to get up and go far from home and far from my “normal” lifestyle. I don’t have kids, and I’m single I have this freedom and so in this season I’ve gotten to do so much that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to. Don’t shy away from any season you are in, it will pass but how you choose to live it is entirely up to you!

It’s October, and after a month my time here has come to a bitter sweet end. The nights are getting darker and the air cooler, winter has come. So this is goodbye, this was a glimpse of Inuvik.

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

—Mahatma Ghandi

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Join me on my adventures as I continue my journey onward. Who knows what the future holds.

XOXO Olia ❤

Once upon a time, in a land far far away…. Okay what story in the 21^st century ever started like that? More like, on a dusky morning where the cool breeze softly caressed my skin, I could feel nothing but the beating of my own heart and my body buzzing with excitement. Not remembering much of the road until I found myself face to face with an airport agent. This is where my story began.

Its 830am and Jen is nowhere to be found, the plane is boarding and the line spans far into the hall of the airport. “I wonder if she will …” my thoughts are interrupted by a phone call.

“WHERE ARE YOU?! I AM ALREADY ON THE PLANE!!”

she says, catching me completely off guard.

“How did that happen?”

was all I could think of. The last to board the plane, I hold my breath until I find my feet tasting the solid ground of Greece. I can feel the electricity all the way in my toes as we board the tram and head to the heart of Athens. “This is it” I am thinking and I can see Jen’s eyes sparkling with the same excitement. We are high on the hot current of Athenian air.  It’s 9 am in Greece and as we roll our luggage on the cobbled streets of Athens, my body starts to slowly succumb to the effects of jet lag. But life has other plans, our rooms aren’t ready and we find ourselves dropping off our luggage and joining the FREE walking tour of Athens.  Forgetting about fatigue, the buzz carries us through 4 hours of walking, and navigating the city has now become second nature. The dry heat makes us find cover on a cool porch and it’s already 3 pm. Almost 24 hours without sleep, I tell Jen to leave me behind because I won’t make it up the hill, through the Acropolis back to our hostel. I am beat. She won’t have any of that nonsense and before I know it, I close my eyes on a cool, soft bed and disappear under a cloud of dreams.

The next day, as we enter the Odeon of Herodes Atticus Theater built in 161 AD and restored in 1950, I feel nothing but awe. The grand atmosphere and architecture, the lighting of the show and the acoustics are more spectacular than I imagined, although we understood absolutely nothing as we sat there for the next 2 hours of the show. The days are speeding by and the next evening we find ourselves sitting on the rooftop of Cine Paris, with a breathtaking view of Acropolis on our left and sweet tasting ice cream in our hands, as we settle to watch Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. What a night!

Before we know it, we have made friends in all of our favourite restaurants (but that’s a story for another time) and decide to head to the beach. I finally taste the freshness of the cool sea on my skin but, today is also the day where Jen’s cell phone succumbs to an unfortunate fate of drowning in the depths of the Aegean sea. Our resuscitation efforts yielded no results and so we had to say our goodbyes.  Jen’s last words were touching as she whispered “How will I go to Santorini without you.” And so a replacement was soon acquired.

We say our goodbyes to Athens as we once again head to the airport. We are greeted with..

“Please don’t tell me you did not check in online?!….”

and things tumble downhill from there. Not only did we have to pay 70 Euros for not checking in online but also for our hand luggage, all because it did not look like a back pack. We finally reach the security gate that the agent wrote for us, and are told that it’s not the right one! Fast forward a few more glitches (and a note to self, don’t fly Ryan air), we are finally in Santorini .

SANTORINI

We reach our hostel in Perissa, carry our luggage up the stairs, open the door to our room and encounter a sleeping body on one of the 4 beds. A male body.

“There is a MAN in our room!!!”

Jen loudly whispers into my ear, I guess I forgot to tell her I booked a mixed dorm and can’t help but laugh. This sleeping male body by the name of Yury, ended up being one of those awesome things that happened. In the morning, disheveled and exhausted we finally meet Yury, a photographer, business man and an overall fun human being who drives a mini cooper and who ends up being our trusty tour guide.

The next few days are filled with the black and red beaches, volcanoes, hot springs, sunsets in Oia, Fira and Imerovigli. But the most ridiculous thing we accomplished was stuffing 6 large adults into a tiny mini cooper to go dancing in Fira. It was sweaty, cramp and hilarious but added to the fun of club hopping and forgetting all our problems as we danced the night away in the heart of Santorini. A night with friends from across the globe and vibrant memories that will once fade into the forgotten, but for now new and fresh they travel with their owners some to Portugal, some to Germany, Serbia, Russia, Norway and  some to Toronto.  Yes, a night to remember!

Bitter sweet goodbyes as we head onward to Ios where we arrive right on time. Out of all the days in a year, we arrive on the day of the festival where the whole town gathers and dances and of course there is FREE food! A little paradise for the day and we once again reunite with our friends in Santorini. Out of all the days in a year, today is the birthday of our “man in our room” Yury. A bottle of wine (or maybe more), Francisco, Jen, Yury and I welcome the sunset for the last time in a secluded, local paradise. The air becomes cooler and the night sadder as we taste the last drops of Santorini. This is Goodbye, this was a glimpse of Greece.

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.”

– Tim Cahill

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•