Havre St-Pierre, next on your checklist

Le Havre St-Pierre. A village of three thousand people that was founded by Madelinots a long time ago (but back in the day, not in our time). It’s hard to explain, but I fell head over heels for the place. Some will say I “fall in” easily for the assignments I take, but what can I say, the warmth of the people in remote regions is hard for me to handle.

Le Havre had been on my list for a very, very… very long time and I just couldn’t get it out of my head. After two weeks, I can confirm it has claimed a spot in my heart.

What’s it like to work in the Havre St-Pierre ER?

It’s from one extreme to the other. The team is small (but perfect). That means you’ve got to be a solid nurse. You have to be able to do CPR/resuscitation and triage (at the same time), because in the evenings and at night you’ll be alone with the coordinator. Rest assured, the coordinators are nurses and are on the floor with you. They’re always there to help you, but that doesn’t change the fact that they still have rounds to do on the second floor and can be called in urgently to long-term care (for a fall, for example). Bottom line, I’m glad to have experience and to have gone through resuscitations, in the past, in bigger centres where there’s a whole team. You’re brought in to take part, without being the “leader” of the place like here, at le Havre.

For those who aren’t quite there yet, but who still feel like discovering the place.

I’m telling you; let’s go. Short-term care is, for REAL, short-term care. Do you feel like exposing yourself to more acute care on the second floor and getting familiar with arrhythmias? This is your place. I may not have worked on the second floor, but I transferred cases and I couldn’t stop telling myself it was really stimulating and active care. You’ll be able to; manage an ACS protocol (while awaiting transfer), take charge of VTs, or juggle septic shocks and why not keep an eye on the telemetry?

At le Havre, you’ll also get the chance to do one or several interhospital transfers. Put your clinical judgment, and your ginger Gravol, to work, because these are, in my opinion, experiences that make you grow enormously and that you’ll never get in the city. Especially since, in a remote region, the cell network is not to be taken for granted.

Finally, between you and me, what’s fun about the Havre hospital isn’t just the clinical cases, it’s also the people. A-d-o-r-a-b-l-e. A warm team that feeds you every morning (thank you, girls, for all the breakfasts and Tim’s smile cookies), that invites you to the social club’s happy hour at the Vilbon, and to take part in loto vino rapido.

There’s just no way to say goodbye.

See you soon, le Havre.

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