Related: Anger, caring, Conflict, Delegation, Emotions, Expectations, Failure, Mindset, New Nurse, Nursing Shortage, patients, Stress, Support, Time

I went to work: 14 surgical patients. The nurse assistant called in sick and they couldn't find a replacement for the first four hours of my shift.

The day didn’t start out great—-and soon got worse.

That day I asked the hospital cleaning crew to mop up some fresh vomit. "We don't clean up body fluids," she replied. I tried to borrow her mop to clean it [...]

Related: caring, patients, spirituality

The patient who had just had a D&C after a miscarriage. The little girl dying after a failed liver transplant. The man headed to surgery for a colon resection to treat his cancer. The wife whose husband just died. The father who called to tell us his daughter had just been diagnosed with cancer.

These are all people who [...]

Related: Assertiveness, Attitude, caring, Conflict, doctor-nurse relationships, Patient Advocate, patients, Power, Prioritizing, Respect

As Doctor Pru stood there reading the file her mouth turned down into a frown.

"Who triaged this patient?" She called out across the room to anyone who would pay her attention. Everyone ignored her except me. I knew whose file she had and I knew she'd make a fuss, not because there was a problem, but because she loved to pick faults and seemed to [...]

Related: caring, New Nurse, Student Nurse

Brienne Pies, RealityRN’s most recent Spa Giveaway recipient, isn’t a nurse yet—but nursing seems to be in her blood.

A nursing student at South Dakota State University, Brienne remembers how her mother, a hospice RN, changed lives.  “People would always come up to her while we were shopping and thank her for the care she provided them or a loved one. I wanted to know what [...]

Related: Abuse, Attitude, Career, caring, Stress, Success, Teamwork, Truth

I'm a school nurse; I left the ER behind: the stress, the shift work, the adrenaline. Now I work in an exclusive private boarding school in the European Alps. Naturally, like most affluent kids, they don't know how lucky they are.

One of the students told me the other day she wants to be a nurse. I asked her why, and she said she thought I [...]

Related: caring, Conflict, Critical Care Nursing, patients, Perfect Nurse

After being off for a few days, I went back to work at my cover-all ICU. I had the typical two, vented patients, who were very much fluff and turns.

Around 9 pm on my first night back, a twenty-something-year-old male from the ER arrives. The ER nurse gave our nurse report, stating the patient was breathing a little fast. We are all thinking 25-30 breaths [...]

Related: Attitude, Caregivers, caring, Compassion Fatigue, Emotions, Energy, Feelings, Morale, patients

I am drained: mentally, physically, emotionally, and psychologically.

One month at the PICU, I’m so tired. It's been the kind of month that keeps you up all night. If you finally get to sleep, you wake up from a disturbing dream.

You smile and joke the whole day at work, but subconsciously you're bleeding from the gut. And there are no sutures to keep the wound closed. [...]

Related: Attitude, caring, Feelings, Mindset

Nurse Appreciation Week--what exactly does that mean?

Do you feel more appreciated this week than all the others? Does your employer do something special that makes you feel like all the hard work is worth it? Do your patients bend over backwards to give you their thanks?

While it's nice to have a week that's all our own, if we're counting on others to make [...]

Related: Balance, Boundaries, caring, Compassion Fatigue, Energy, Learning, Stress

One of my early posts was about setting boundaries with those who are all too happy to cross them. This go around I'm taking a different slant.

I'm here to admit I haven't done a very good job at setting my own boundaries.

I'm in the middle of a situation that has made me exhausted, crabby, and out of clean underwear. I've allowed myself to [...]

Related: Attitude, caring, Compassion Fatigue, patients

"What are they doing here?" asked Shannon. "They shouldn't be here. It's an emergency room, for goodness’ sake."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, can't they see we're too busy?" I added. At the time I had only been working in the emergency room for six months, and like all good junior staff, I was mimicking my seniors.

You see, the problem was that we were ridiculously busy, [...]