Nursing

Health care worker appreciation: When the thought doesn’t count

Conditions
June 14, 2022

Maybe we need to educate upper management — those multi-million-dollar hospitals with multi-million dollars per year salaried CEOs and board members with their financial perks — that health care professionals and nurses during “Health Care Worker/Nurse Week” in May of each year are no longer in the second grade.

Maybe we need to remind “them” that we are college-educated health care professionals with degrees, like ADNs, BSN, MSNs, RNs, LPNs, educators, …

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Nurses are struggling in isolation [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 10, 2022
YouTube video

“It’s apparent to most that the dark clouds and stormy waters in the business of health care continue. There is much that needs attention from both health care workers and consumers.

We have learned that when we work together, strength, creativity, and energy multiply exponentially.

We need to move forward and create a …

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It’s time for someone to show up for nurses

Conditions
May 26, 2022

I have been privileged to work with and learn from some of the best. Skilled, talented, giving, compassionate human beings who support their patients and each other. I have been pulled up by nurses who saw more in me than I saw in myself. I have been mentored by them and am a much better nurse practitioner because of what I’ve learned from them. I’ve also had the privilege to …

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Why a nurse should not go to jail

Policy
May 21, 2022

I recently wrote a letter to the Davidson County, TN judge who will sentence RaDonda Vaught, a former Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurse convicted on two felony counts in the 2017 death of a patient. RaDonda faces up to 12 years in prison for her role in a complex chain of events that led to the death of Charlene Murphey. I shared my belief that incarcerating Ms. Vaught will not …

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Lesson learned: Pick your battles

Conditions
May 12, 2022

It was a known fact — I was 4′ 11″ but I had a mouth on me to compensate. I was loud and noisy. Fellow nurses called me the “rebel without a cause.”

But I had a cause.

I knew I was David against Goliath. Almost everything became my cause. And I verbally fought my way through this iron-clad management structure.

I had to fight for the betterment of the patients, their survival, …

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A mother’s advice to her physician son

Education
May 1, 2022

I hope this finds you well. Today, I took some time shopping for a new outfit to wear to the upcoming festivities marking the end of your emergency medicine residency. We have celebrated many educational milestones over the years, haven’t we?

It seems like only yesterday that you started the third year of medical school. I remember the anticipation and pressure associated with moving out of the sim[ulation] lab and beginning …

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How to maintain your relationships during nursing school

Conditions
April 25, 2022

Maintaining a relationship during nursing school takes some effort. Your time is taken up by studying, classes, clinicals and labs. Oh, did I mention studying? At the end of the day, there is just not much time left for significant others. Now, I am referring to romantic relationships here, but the same concept also applies to friendships.

I’ve put together a list of tips from my own experience to hopefully give …

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A tale of 2 nurses

Conditions
April 15, 2022

There is no denying that we live and work in some extraordinarily trying times. Cast your eyes in the direction of any streaming news source, and another breaking story that describes the catastrophic dumpster fire of the current state of the U.S. health care industry will jump out at you.

The weight of this downward spiral, coupled with staggering workloads, makes it almost impossible for those struggling in the front lines …

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Death of a nurse: a soliloquy

Conditions
March 29, 2022

It’s not what you think. It’s not my actual mortality.

It’s that emotional death.

Of being a nurse.

If you’ve never been a nurse. Then you will never know.

It’s that’s giving of yourself: heart and soul.

Constantly and forever.

It’s not being with your family for Easter or Thanksgiving or Christmas.

It’s not being able to go to the bathroom or even take a 30-minute break in 12 to 13 hours.

It’s being surrounded by bully nurses …

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Nurses are in need of racial healing

Policy
February 22, 2022

In a recent survey of nurses (n=5,600), 63% of respondents reported having experienced racism in the workplace. These racist acts were mainly done by peers (66%) or a manager or supervisor (60%). Such widespread racism should send shockwaves throughout a profession known for its caring and compassion.   These findings outlined in a report from the National Commission to Address  Racism in Nursing are a …

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From the prison of my job to freedom

Conditions
January 23, 2022

It became a prison to me — impending doom.

I knew I had only three months left before I could retire. Three months isn’t long, but it is a lifetime away.

That long drive to work in that heavy highway traffic where there was always a collision. The anxiety of the drive knowing all along there was even more anxiety to come.

The patients that were involuntarily committed — forever schizophrenics and bipolar, …

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The displacement of the health care family

Conditions
January 12, 2022

Along came COVID, and no one was prepared. We had minimal PPE. We were told to put our N95 mask in a paper bag, use it on every patient, and use it for one full week. Normally the N95 mask would be disposed of after each patient room exit.

Health care staff was dying at the hands of COVID and lack of PPE. Over 115,000 health care workers died from COVID. …

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The U.S. doesn’t have enough faculty to train the next generation of nurses

Policy
December 29, 2021

Despite a national nursing shortage in the United States, over 80,000 qualified applications were not accepted at U.S. nursing schools in 2020, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

This was due primarily to a shortage of nursing professors and a limited number of clinical placements where nursing students get practical job training. Additional constraints include a …

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3 ways to reawaken nurse purpose in the era of burnout

Conditions
December 12, 2021

In September, the American Nurses Association asked the Department of Health and Human Services to declare the national nursing shortage as a national crisis. At the same time, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses found 66 percent of ICU nurses were considering leaving the profession. Talk to any hospital, and you’ll hear of high turnover and struggles to fill shifts. So far, the …

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What does it mean to be a nurse innovator?

Tech
November 4, 2021

A nurse innovator is a nurse who specializes in bringing forth positive change in health care quality and equity by addressing the unmet needs of a target population through new products, processes, and services. Innovators have existed throughout the history of nursing which dates to the 19th century. Yet, the formalization of a ‘nurse innovator’ role has only begun to emerge within health care organizations across the U.S. over the …

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3 ways health care leadership can get nurses back at the bedside

Policy
September 25, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to push everyone, especially frontline health care workers, well beyond the brink. Nurses have been exposed to the most trying and difficult predicaments related to the coronavirus, and the stress has taken its toll.

During the most recent surge of cases, rural hospitals across the country have resorted to extraordinary lengths to ensure that adequate staffing is available for the patient spikes. This includes …

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The degradation and devaluation of nurses

Conditions
September 19, 2021

Where do I begin? Maybe at the beginning.

Let’s start with the degradation and devaluation of nurses across this country.

For decades, I lived the devaluing of nurses. Daily huddles from our nurse managers, ER nurses, ICU nurses, and behavioral health nurses. Emails and huddles about downsizing. Nurse-patient ratios. Decreasing nursing staff and increasing patients. ICU nurses typically had a 2:1 ratio and, depending on the patient’s acuity, a 1:1 ratio. But …

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A nurse is to a patient what a mother is to a child

Physician
May 6, 2021

I was on inpatient service and had already seen most of the patients on my list. I just had to see one more before I could call it a day and rush out just in time to take my daughter to her tennis lesson. I reviewed the patient’s chart to find out that her cancer had spread to her spine, which had incapacitated her to the point that she could …

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Nurses deserve all the respect doctors and patients can muster

Physician
May 30, 2020

Every year, National Nurses Day is celebrated on May 6 to raise awareness of the role nurses play in society. The date also marks the beginning of National Nurses Week, which begins on May 6 and ends on May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday. In addition to the annual celebration, the World Health Organization has smartly declared 2020 the “International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife,” in recognition of their …

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