"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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Patients can say the craziest things, and that's not even counting the ones in mental health institutions. Whether it's a fear of hospitals, doctors, or needles, or the vulnerability that comes with health problems and wearing a hospital gown, nurses hear wild statements from patients' mouths on a near-daily basis. Whether inconsiderate, inappropriate, or just plain weird, here are 10 ...

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 ...

Everyday as a nurse is an opportunity to experience little victories. These are small moments when you accomplish a task, fix a problem, or even when you complete a standard intervention. There are a few things in nursing that fail to get your endorphins pumping and don't make you feel accomplished. And one of those little victories is a successful IV ...

One fact in life is certain; we will all die from something. Simply put, death by natural causes is a death that is not unexpected. It is not from an accident, a natural disaster, a homicide or suicide. It is also one that is not preventable. A disease process that has progressed and caused organ failure is usually the root of ...

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. ...

We had a BIG lapse in communication on the floor recently. A vital patient assessment was communicated incorrectly and the effect was scary. As usual, the lapse was not just one person’s fault, and the whole unit was upset. Ever played Gossip? It’s a game where a “secret” is whispered into the ear of one person, then that person whispers the ...

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 ...

It’s hard enough to come up with the right words to sell yourself in a resume or cover letter, without the English language tripping you up. One little mistake in spelling or grammar can ruin an entire resume or cover letter. It’s not easy to remember all the rules of the English language. So here’s a little cheat-sheet to help you ...

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 ...

With the downturn in the US economy, workplaces are becoming more and more diverse age-wise. Older workers are working alongside younger workers as people at every stage in their nursing career are getting laid off. With this generational gap among health care workers widening, there’s a lot of potential for miscommunication or differing perspectives. Though many people will absolutely deny ...

As a nurse, you’ll be expected to deal with various kinds of situations and many emergencies. However, while you might be prepared to deal with emergencies, dealing with difficult patients is what will tax your resources. You’re not alone in this. Every health care facility has its share of difficult patients. You dread seeing their names on your nursing schedule. The ...

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 ...

Nurse Rebekah Child and Brady Pregerson, MD, good-naturedly debate the claim that nurses are naturally more meticulous by dissecting the medical professional. How? Vis-à-vis an age-old nursery rhyme. Nurse Rebekah: Wanna know my theory about why nurses keep their hands cleaner than doctors? If you do, read on; if you don’t, go and Google, Facebook or Twitter something. It’s because men ...

Nurses are discovering how to transform their frustrations into accomplishments by participating in a form of leadership known as shared governance. "Shared governance recognizes the professional status of the nurse," says Kevin Hannifan, vice president and chief operating officer at Hartford Hospital, where shared governance started to take form at the end of 1999. "Instead of having guys like me or ...