I have been here 6 days now. There are things you need to know about my new community!!!!
In the hood has different meaning here than in the south. In the hood means the baby is in the hood on mom's back to travel around...not many strollers here. What do you mean when you say I have a Honda..Civic, CRV etc. Up here Honda refers to the ATV that you drive around town on. There are even kid sized Hondas. There is 1 car in town. The modes of transportation are Hondas (mostly), pick up trucks, SUVs and your feet. I walk to work, shopping, visiting friends, banking and getting mail and anything else. Walking is not on nice flat sidewalks, it is on gravel roads and paths. It is down hill to work. The up hill after work is tough because I am tired. I have been on one paved road so far. In the winter you drive your machine...we call is a snow mobile. The terrain is not flat. My legs hurt so much the first few days here...now I am used to it. We go to the cottage here you go "out on the land" to a cabin that you have with squatters rights. Most of the locals are out on the land in the summer for hunting the caribou that has been going by Rankin Inlet. Apparently there have been 2 herds in the last couple of weeks. I have been invited to go out on the land to hunt caribou if I can get a Honda.
The Mountain store is where you buy everything....groceries, electronics, clothes, kitchen ware, furniture, pharmacy needs, craft needs (not a lot), Hondas, bicycles and that is just about it. You really have to think about your shopping as it is very expensive for most things but some stuff is the same as in the south. Eggs and milk are much the same price as down south. A case of 24 pop is $35. Crackers are double.
There are 2 banks in town CIBC and RBC, a post office, 2 hotels, a college, a high school, 2 elmentry schools, 2 churches, 1 cemetery, 1 baseball diamond, 2 soccer fields, CBC radio/tv station and an area. The Tootoo brothers are from this community. I will become a hockey fan when the season starts. There is a radio station in town is interesting and local. If your elderly mother is looking for you and they can't find you..just have it announced on the radio. Not many places to hide!!!!
Now for internet...I will never complain about slow internet again. Our internet is external slow and some times like today it didn't work. I have been told that after some storms there will not be phones or internet for a couple of days.
As for the weather this week. We have had 2 days where you did not need a light jacket. A couple of days with a jacket and the days when it is windy and cold. I am making a head band to keep my ears warm on those days. Snow will start in September and I will see a few blizzards before I leave. Planes will not fly when that occurs...may not make out of here in November!!!! LOL!!!!
Everyone is very friendly and say hi to you or smiles. There are many, many people from Newfoundland here, then New Brunswick/Nova Scotia then it is Alberta. And for my nursing friends 1 of the nurses I work with worked for SEHC in Kingston. Small world!!! There is a handful from Ontario.
The accommodations are basic. I live in a 2 bedroom townhouse in a complex that is 4 units. I share with another nurse...Carol who works in the clinic. On the main floor there are the 2 bedrooms and the laundry alcove. Up stairs is the washroom and and open concept kitchen/dining/living room. We have a small chest and cable tv, and the phone....so work can call us.
As for work, I work in a 10 bed inpatient unit that will have a mixture of adults and children. Now the census is low. There is a clinic that is manned by about 3 nurses and 1 doctor during the days and on call after hours, that acts as an emergency department/regular clinic with mostly nurses. We currently have 3 doctors in town but they travel to other communities in the region. The inpatient unit has 2 nurses on duty no matter how many patients. Patients will be medivaced or regular air to our health unit if we can handle it. If it is too complex they are off to Winnipeg. There is a birthing unit run by Midwives. We have x-ray, ultrasound and a lab in the health unit. We are not called a hospital because of the level of care that we can provide. The food at the hospital is not the in situational hospital of the south....it is good and fresh and appetizing. If we work night we get a meal to eat because we cannot leave the hospital for our shift. During the day you go home for lunch. The town shuts down for 1 hour from 12-1 for lunch.
When I leave here I will have many more nursing skills than I arrived with. I have assisted with a procedure, EKG and IV insertion and I am the resident wound care nurse. I can present a wound inservice for the weekly in services that are held by televideo conference. For my community nursing friends...you think we improvised with supplies....we have you beat when the doctor is improvising to create a piece of equipment we don't have. The current statement is T I N meaning This IS Nunavut!!!
