  I hope the lackluster buildup doesn't cause this post to be a disappointment. Many years ago the 3 surgical hospitals/campuses in my city were overhauled by some team of somebodies. The somebodies decided there was no need for services to be duplicated at sites as this caused a need for 2 (or 3) sets of staff and equipment to be supplied. They came up with a game plan of which site would absorb some services, and give up other services, and then they came up with a time line (milestones) of when all the changes would take place. Since then, building and renovation have been taking place, and they are finally beginning to switch around services.
My hospital is going to become an ambulatory centre, focusing on cataract/eye surgery, urology surgery, and hand and upper limb surgery, with small contingents of general, gyn, ent and ortho thrown in for good measure. When the teams/powers that be looked at what was transferring, they took into account the amount of work that was being sent, the number of people hours it would take to make that work amount function, and then they broke it down into specific job lines (ie. 8 full time RNs, 2 part time RNs, 1 Attendant, etc). When a program transfers, those job lines have the "opportunity" to transfer with the program, since many nurses and other health care workers have specialized in that program over the years, and may not wish to stay in a hospital which will no longer be providing care in their area of expertise. In November I was told that an attendant with the ophthalmology program wanted to transfer to my site, and he had more seniority than I.
Despite working in the OR for 17 years, I was the least senior in my department, so I was becoming "redundant". They outlined all my options, but I wasn't given official notice because the transfer date had been pushed back. According to Union contract, they had to give me 4 months notice (and only 4 months) and they were not going to give me one day more. I looked at my options. 1. Accept a buy out package, return to school, and get reimbursed up to $5000 for any tuition paid out in the first year. This left me with a lump sum (which would prevent me from collecting unemployment until it ran out), and the knowledge that unemployment would only let me attend school for 1 year, if it lead to a job within one year. Therefore, university was out, and any college program more than 1 year long was out. 2. Exercise my bumping rights and move to the job of the least senior full time person in my job category.
I spoke to several people familiar with work in the unit that person was in, and knew I would hate switching to that job. 3. Apply for any job postings which came up in the meantime, and get one of those. I went to a few unemployment workshops, to learn about the aide available from them. I spoke to college and university counselors, and I seriously considered becoming a pharmacy technician, while attending a private medical school and retaining part-time employment, therefore keeping my seniority.
I would have to pay for the schooling myself, but the job would be in my current union, so I would have 17 years seniority in applying for any pharm tech jobs in the hospital, and therefore job security. I went to the private school, and they had me take a multiple choice aptitude test before the interview. The interviewer then did his job too well. He told me I had the best score he had ever seen, and he raved over my transcript marks.
Shortly thereafter I was conversing with a co-worker who was just about finished her BA of Ed, after returning to school in her early 40's. When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher, but I got sidetracked. My conversation with her, my circumstances, and the interviewers remarks all led me to decide I was going to go to university and become a teacher.
Surprisingly, my husband agreed. He was more supportive of my longer and more expensive schooling than he was of my short-term pharm tech program. I applied for a part-time job in the Central Processing department, and 1 week before the deadline the hospital had in which to give me notice, they called and said I was the successful applicant. I accepted, and so my other options never came to pass. Now I am set on a very exciting course, but I'm very frustrated that the university has not yet accepted me! Grrrrrrrr And that was my restructuring story Cheers Jay-A 
