Outpost Nursing

Outpost nurses are registered nurses who work in Canada's territories and in the northern regions of the provinces. An outpost may be an ambulatory center or a small facility (usually referred to as a health center, but we are using the term outpost interchangeably) with ambulatory services and a few inpatient beds. Some outposts are located in fly-in communities without road access, others are along roads, which require nurses to have valid drivers' licenses in order to travel between outposts. Outposts generally serve villages of 300 to 2,000 inhabitants, with all or the vast majority of the population being Inuit or Native Canadian (e.g., Cree).

Outposts are generally staffed by one to four nurses, who function with high levels of responsibility because doctors, if they even visit, come only once every one to six weeks. (Doctors can be consulted via telephone.)

An outpost nurse functions in a combined/expanded role of clinic nurse, community/public health nurse, ER nurse, and flight nurse.

Due to the high level of responsibility, a minimum of two years of clinical experience is almost always required. Having additional training/certification from a northern clinical program, outpost nursing program, or equivalent is sometimes required and is always an asset.

Outpost nurses must have independent, take-charge personalities, and need strong assessment and teaching skills. They are required to perform triage, start IVs, do dressing changes, perform suture/staple removal, provide pre- and post-natal care, perform deliveries, collect specimens, prescribe drugs (according to standing orders), and take/interpret labs and x-rays. Outpost nurses must take call.

Nurses often enjoy outpost nursing because they get to be immersed in a different culture and get to work in a challenging environment with an endless variety of acute and chronic adult and pediatric patients. They also enjoy being able to do health promotion and health teaching. Financially, outpost nurses on far north postings also enjoy the financial incentive of the Northern Allowance.

See our articles Mush!!! and Tales from the Tundra.

Return to main article.

Discuss This Article

Have something you'd like to say? Tell us what you think! Read and post comments for this article.

Find a Job

Choose your career:

MedHunters is the world's biggest healthcare job board. Our job directory has 16,585 jobs with 2,365 hospitals and other direct employers.

We want you to find your next job on MedHunters. Need Help? Call us at 1-888-884-8242, email us at info@medhunters.com or sign up now.