Toronto Western Hospital

I did my pre-grad placement here in Toronto Western Hospital in a surgical unit. It is a different unit I must say because clients here do not stay for long. They only stay for couple of day. I really enjoy interacting with patients and family before they go to there surgery. I have learned to much on how they prepare theirselves prior to surgery. I also get to learn on how to interact with physicians and surgeons. I also got the chance to do some health teaching for the clients and their families before and after surgery. 

The staff  and management in the unit where I was assigned where very professional. They helped me grew as a nursing student. They helped me prepare on how to be a real nurse. 

The hardest part of being in a surgical unit was that it needs lots of expertise. 

I enjoy being with a multi-cultural environment and strong dynamic of professional people not only nurses but also the entire health care team.

Working in the Operating Room was not fun!  It was very pressurized.
Everything is Stat.  e.g. 80% of the surgeries are booked and patients are scheduled. the other 20% comes from Emergency or on a patient floor. Once there is an emergency for a surgery that was not scheduled a doctor brings a requisition for the surgery, you then have to page the Charge Nurse and let him/her know that there is an add on, sometimes it depends if it is very urgent or no urgent.  Therefore, the Charge Nurse have to make sure there is enough staff to cover that surgery, if not enough staff then the Charge Nurse will ask the day staff before they leave if they can cover overtime. 

Surgeries are booked using the Operating Code book, you pick the code then input the patient demographics and the code, then call it down to the Central Processing Dept. to pick the instruments which is sent up to the Operating Room

People here are nice, caring and less on edge than some hospitals. You usually have most resources you need: senior staff, phlebotomists, nurse educators, pharmacists, OT/PT, etc. It's still ghetto sometimes especially during the holidays - no spoons, cups, blankets, and briefs. Residents are always there days and nights though it really depends who you work with to say if they will listen to you or not (not much interactions with staff physicians but they do call you out for documentation/clinical findings that don't match theirs). Great environment but toxic culture - the old still eat the young, lots of senior staff here (including but not limited to nurses) are very condescending and will try their best to defend themselves even that involves making lies about you (not sure if other places have the same problem since I started here even before my graduation 2 years ago and spend the longest time here). 

Started at the time of job freeze with promise that within four months I would be switched from contract worker to full time employee. 12 months later I was still on contract and I had to ask multiple times if my contract will be extended as I was told they will not hire full time employees any more. Three days before my contract suppose to expire it was extended for another three months. That’s when I quit. Later I have learned they laid off several people within 2-3 months after I left. Not a supportive work environment... little pay in comparison how much work was expected. Very disappointed as this organization has a great potential. That was in 2011, so maybe things have changed.

Management was great, especially  in Environmental services most supervisors and the manager were fantastic. The work life balance is sadly non existent. You are on call basically 24/7 you cannot advance into a full time position until  you have enough seniority within the union; even then a full time position must be open and somone with more senority is able to take the position before you have the option. It will take YEARS to obtain full time position. 

I had my clinical consolidation at TWH as a pre-graduate nursing student. My preceptor, nurses as well as other staffs at the unit was very supportive and had constantly encouraged me from the first day I started working there. I practiced clinical skills that I had not done before until feeling confident. I also learned that nursing profession is not just about caring for patients' physical needs but also emotional needs. Though I was shy at first, I learned to show myself to my patient as a caring and knowledgeable (student) nurse by continuously practicing and improving with feedbacks from hospital staffs.

Perform general and specific administrative duties. Pull patients’ records for doctors’ review. Obtain patients’ information and record it in the database. Call up patients and remind them of their appointments. Bookkeeping and maintaining other office records aside from patient records. Schedule appointments for patients. Greet patients as they arrive and provide information for the department where they need to go. Used excellent customer service skills at receptionist/registration desk. Accurately collecting information and personal details about patients.

Turn over rate for patients was really fast, often I would have to discharge patients and accept new patients several times during my shift. Thereby I needed to have really strong organization skill and the ability to set priorities appropriately. Post-operative patients' status change frequently so I had to monitor them closely in order to react in a timely manner. Daily tasks and meeting patient's complex health needs was challenging, but I had learned so much during short period of time.

It was very rewarding having to work with such an organized team and the training was phenomenal. I was able to practice and enhance my skills after being in class for some time. 

It was an honor to be a part of such a remarkable and hard working team where strong work ethics are highly valued.

I enjoyed everyday of my placement and I am now ready to work for an organization that delivers the same work ethics.

I am looking forward to a rewarding career!

Working in UHN-TWH is fun and loving. I learn how to respect and be respected.Working in this environment helps me become more proficient in what i was doing. It was not the salary that counts, it's the the concern and how i love the job well. Unfortunately, I was not given much hours to the point i was been deployed from cystoscopy/endoscopy unit to central processing division. On which on my transfer up to this time I wasn't given any position.

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