One of the most important roles for all nurses is patient education. As we move forward with the healthcare reform, that role is going to continue to expand in action and importance. A big concern plaguing the new reform act is the high cost of medical care. Through education and information, nurses can help patients learn more about their health status ...

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 ...

Every nurse (and student nurse!) carries around the essentials, here’s my “Top Ten” pocket-essentials for nursing and clinicals! 1. Pens – There’s something magical about nursing – nurses can make pens disappear into thin air! Make sure you keep extras near by, but always have a black ink pen on hand. Even if your hospital has gone paper-less, you’ll need it ...

We all have dreams and goals for our personal life and career. Whether you are a brand new nurse straight out of school or a seasoned nurse looking toward your future, we all need a little bit of help and guidance. That is why a mentor is so important. Not only to help you as a nurse just managing like I ...

Last week I spent four days at Disney World with my family. It was amazing see the magic of it all though my four year old’s eyes. One of the biggest things I was amazed by was how friendly everybody was. And their friendliness made even waiting for over an hour for a three minute ride tolerable. I saw people yelling ...

[photo:179393] Being a nurse is a rewarding but tough job. The excitement that comes during the first year of your career can fade away as long hours and a bursting schedule take their toll. “Adultitis” can creep into the lives of even the best nurses, and it is NOT something you want to live with. Besides causing loads of stress, it ...

In work, as in sports, it’s not enough to know your position – you must be able to work with others. In any medical office or environment, doing your specific job well is expected, but you work as a small part of a much larger whole. What does “teamwork” actually mean, and how can you help turn your hospital or clinic ...

All it took was an injection to cause relaxation of the muscles, followed by another to stop the heart, and his suffering was over. No more pain, no more suffering. The tearful couple in the room caressed his well-loved face before saying good-bye and leaving the room. He was no longer in pain. The "he" in this case was Rox, a ...

You can never be too safe. In no industry is that more true than in healthcare. No matter your job title, you are impacting patients' lives every day. You may think that medical malpractice insurance only applies to physicians and nurses, but in actuality, almost every healthcare professional can obtain some form of malpractice coverage either through your employer, a professional ...

It is official…3 West is closing permanently. During an emergency meeting, the staff was informed that the neurosurgical floor will close at the end of this month. One of the neurosurgeons has retired and the other two are leaving to start a practice in another state. The patient census has been consistently down over the past year…the unit is simply losing ...

As a nurse, one of the most unsettling things one can face is seeing a doctor do something incorrect, incompetent, or unethical. Luckily, the vast majority of doctors don't cause a problem in this area. They're well educated, conscientious, and completely trustworthy. But doctors are human, and there are situations when nurses see things from doctors that trigger the questions no ...

With the various corporate scandals of recent years, we've seen plenty of headlines about whistleblowers in the business world. Now, the nursing industry is bringing us its own front-page cases that could see more medical watchdogs come to the fore. Legal experts say the number of whistleblower cases in the healthcare field has been on the rise since 1999, when the ...

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 ...

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 ...

If you're an adrenaline junkie seeking a lifetime of adventure, look no further than emergency nursing, where you could work to save lives in high-pressure situations. Here's a look at some of the aspects that set this niche apart. The Thrill According to Carol Howat, RN, BSN, a nurse in the emergency room of Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois, ...

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. ...

The big day has finally arrived! You are an audience member at your profession’s annual conference. The next presentation is on your subject of expertise and you are excited about the opportunity to learn something new. The anticipation builds as you listen to the expert’s introduction. The speaker has credentials and initials a mile long. You are ready to be dazzled. ...

“Superstition: An irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome.” -from the American Heritage Dictionary With St. Patrick’s Day happening this month, I have been loving all the green and the so-called lucky four-leaf clovers floating around the hospital. I’m hoping all this “luck” will rub off on our floor: ...

One of the more challenging subjects for me when it comes to test-taking are the questions revolving around therapeutic communication. I think it’s mostly because when we look at the range of topics we have to cover, we see therapeutic communication as something “easy” since we all communicate every day. And unless we’ve had some bad relationships lately because we can’t ...

Sexual harassment of nurses can be as simple as a patient's unwanted flirtatious winks or as elaborate as a male hospital physician's systematic assaults on female employees. And nurses are likely to encounter this occupational hazard. In a University of Missouri study, 21 of 29 nurses surveyed said patients had sexually harassed them. A 2001 NurseWeek/American Organization of Nurse Executives study ...