NURSES OF THE NORTH: November 2014

Dear Followers,

We’re back in the great white north! Another chapter in our northern nursing adventures started…two weeks ago. We know, we know we should have written you sooner. No excuses; however, we did lose our fingers due to frostbite. It has proven to be quite a challenge to type and navigate a computer with only our toes.

All jokes aside, we are alive and well and are really enjoying our return visit to Inuvik. We left Toronto bound for Inuvik on Oct. 30th. Our spirits were high but we were feeling a little nervous to be returning as acute care nurses for four weeks. The flight from Toronto to Edmonton took us about five hours. The following morning we were to leave for Inuvik; however, due to extreme weather conditions we had to land in Yellowknife. It was quite unnerving to look out the plane window and see nothing but white fog when landing. Needless to say, we’d be spending our halloween in Yellowknife.

Our time in Yellowknife was short but we managed to go for a nature walk and then headed into town for some “local” vietnamese food. This was probably not the best decision on our part. We promptly returned to the hotel, put on the stick on moustaches we bought earlier and celebrated halloween with a scary movie and candy.

As weather allowed we finally arrived in Inuvik the next day. We quickly got settled into the residence and headed over to the hospital. We realized we didn’t have much time to relax as we started work the next day.

We got into the swing of things quite quickly. It didn’t feel like we’d been gone for nine months. The staff was very welcoming and very happy to see us because it was going to be a busy month for obstetrics. As nurses know full moons bring in the action. However when you’re up north the full moon is out all day and night. Basically, we were screwed.

The Inuvik Regional Hospital is made up of three units and doctors clinics. The three units include emerge, acute care and long term care. Basically, ANY patent who is admitted from emergency comes to us in acute care. Therefore, it is not unlikely to have a labouring woman in the room next to a palliative care patient or somebody withdrawing from alcohol. We are exposed to a wide variety of medical conditions on this floor. It’s a great way to build up your nursing skills.

We have noticed several differences between our obstetric work in Toronto compared to our obstetric work here. First off, the women from Inuvik labour and recover quite fast. One of the reasons being that they tend to be younger in age. As well, pain management is often not in their “birth plan.” Most of the women labour unmedicated and if they do require pain management it is often in the form of laughing gas or IV medication. Epidurals are not expected and therefore not commonly used.

In contrast, the women we deliver in Toronto tend to be older in age partly due to the higher importance on education and career building. This means that the women are not delivering within the preferred “child-bearing ages.” Their bodies tend to not labour or recover as quickly.

Enough about work and now onto our free time in Inuvik. This time around we do not feel like tourists instead we are trying to become more a part of the town. We have gone to the local meat auction (the cool place to be on a Saturday afternoon), dined at Shivers the local restaurant with new friends, gone to the cafe for hot chocolate and book reading and finally gone to the gym to combat all the carbohydrate loading. See photos for proof that we have actually been going to the gym.

Speaking of carbohydrates, the groceries here are crazy expensive. The cheapest, and debatably, the best purchase we've bought so far is the box of halloween candy for 50% off. It will be nice to be home and have a big salad, that’s for sure.

Once again, one of the highlights so far has been seeing the northern lights. Unfortunately, it is really hard to capture such a beautiful sight without a professional camera. The lights are known to be better at this time of year and this past weekend proved to be a good one.

Lastly, as we walked around town during our first week here we noticed that nothing much had chained except for a old abandoned school had been knocked down. Speaking with the locals we found out it was one of the last residential schools that existed. For those who don’t know residential schools forced assimilation, meaning the people of native and Inuit decent were not allowed to practice or acknowledge their background or speak their language. A lot of abuse and cultural shaming took place in these schools. According to our local friend there are still people here who are dealing with the aftermath of being a part of these residential schools. Its hard to believe that they last once closed in 1996. However, it is refreshing to see how much their culture is once again celebrated.

Wow! That was a long one. It was two weeks in the making. We are over halfway done our time here and will hopefully have a few more stories to share before we head home.

Enjoy!

p.s. It seems that the Arctic is the place to be compared to Buffalo. There is more snow there then up here. Suckers :p