"I get so attached to my patients that I just can’t get them out of my head when I go home." "Every week I find myself getting distraught over a new favorite patient who isn’t doing well." Is this you? As a nurse, you witness the fear, pain and suffering of others every day. But when you get too immersed in ...

The doctor/nurse working relationship has its ups and downs. When the two work well together, the most difficult of patient cases seems like a breeze. But if there is any contention, if one rubs the other the wrong way, tackling even the simplest problem is like climbing Mount Everest in the off season – a nightmare. We know what doctors ...

Valesca Adams, RN, was a new mother and eager to switch to a unit with regular day hours when a friend told her about an opening on the dialysis unit. Adams landed the job at Texas Children's Hospital and quickly discovered that dialysis nursing offered much more than just normal hours. She found that the rigorous demands of dialysis treatments allowed ...

The CEO of Hewlett Packard, Mark Hurd, got fired last week following an investigation into sexual harassment claims made by a former contractor, Jodie Fisher. After the probe into the allegations, the company found Hurd had not violated HP’s sexual harassment policy but he did monkey around with $20,000 of company funds. Now Fisher, who was also a reality show contestant, ...

Nurses see patients and their families at their worst. Stress felt by the patients because of their illness or injury – or of not knowing what is wrong – can make the most gentle people act out in ways they normally wouldn’t. Since a nurse’s role is to help patients, part of this is helping the patient have a better experience ...

We don't mean to do it. We don't mean to stop seeing the people behind the patient facade. We know our patients have lives outside of the hospital, beyond their illness or disability. They have interests, hobbies, work, and love. They have friends and family. They may have had a charmed life, or they may have had a tough one. There ...

It seems that your preceptee hasn’t quite mastered the art of time management and, well, efficiency. You have three patients assigned to you and it’s 10 a.m. and your preceptee has yet to even see the third. Come 6 p.m., there are two patients whose charts have been empty since 12 hours prior, and you have to wait around an hour ...

True to the claims of the old TV show "Kids Say the Darndest Things," surround yourself by children each and every workday and that statement becomes not only true but very endearing. It would be an unusual occurrence for me to end my workday without a funny/cute/smile-provoking story about one of my patients, whether it be something they said or did ...

Almost all mature companies have shed employees at some point--and in most cases the pink slips don't come as a surprise. "Very often senior management will delay a decision to cut headcount, so unless there is a quick catastrophic event, layoffs have been a long time coming," explains Scott Steinberg, CEO of TechSavvy Global. How can you know if your job ...

The hospital can be a political minefield. While you may all work as a team, you're all most concerned with your own job, right? How your supervisor sees you can determine a raise, a promotion — or even if you keep your job. Navigating hospital politics is not an easy task, but avoiding potentially negative situations should be your first priority. ...

These days, no one can afford to waste time at work. Thanks to widespread downsizing, workloads are piling up. Unfortunately, extra hours in the day are not. Maximizing your time at work can mean the difference between leaving your shift at a reasonable hour (i.e. holding onto your sanity) and staying late unnecessarily. You've got a life outside the hospital. ...

I guess this is the month to talk about being thankful, which is an area I struggle with and need to continuously work on in my own life. It is so difficult for me to look beyond what I have—and yes, I have everything I need—and instead look for the stuff out there that I really, really want. I really believe ...

My clinical experience has been very eye-opening. I feel like I have learned so much about how a hospital functions, and yet know I have so much more to learn. To be embraced and invited into the executive meetings and to see the processes that occur to make change withing the organization with patient care as the the bottom line has ...

Nurses, you've seen it all. You’re on the frontline when it comes to patient care. From the most disgusting patient cases (mysterious bodily fluids and "code brown") to the most heartwarming (pediatric miracles!), what haven't you seen on your floor? Unlike doctors, you don't just deal with a patient's medical condition; you're often left to face the patient's family and ...

As much as we may like nursing and the fun parts of our jobs, like talking to patients and getting to do procedures (yes, this is fun for us students!), there are the parts that make us feel sort of like the “Dirty Jobs” guy. Cleaning up after our patient’s is definitely low on my list of “why I love nursing,” ...

It happens every year. Nurses must write a self-evaluation when it's time to get their raise. No worries, right? Wrong! What you write can affect what your boss is willing to shell out of his or her pocket at the beginning of the fiscal year. Learn how to write a self-evaluation that will make your boss think you're the greatest nurse ...

Although we would like to believe that every nurse is a good person with good intentions, we can't ignore the fact that every year, state nursing boards revoke dozens of licenses. While some of these men and women lose their ability to serve as nurses because of non-nurse related activities, others suffer the consequences of patient endangerment or worse. The threat ...

When you’ve worked so hard to get that first job after college, the last thing you want is to screw it up. Sadly, new grads do it all the time. The problem rarely stems from lack of knowledge or poor technical skills. It often goes back to something simpler: Your persona in the workplace, particularly during your first few weeks on ...

As a nurse we have hundreds, if not thousands of things to do and remember each and every day. We have become masters of multitasking, or so we think. Is it any wonder that we make mistakes? The biggest part is trying to minimize the damage of those mistakes, take responsibility for our mistakes and learn from those mistakes so we ...

Nurses are supposed to be compassionate caregivers. So why are so many scarred emotionally from the gossip, backstabbing, second-guessing and other abusive, demoralizing or hostile acts nurses inflict on one another? If you've had enough of the fighting, read on. Veteran nurses explain why such horizontal hostility occurs, revealing the true price it exacts, and share tips for creating a more ...