Related: Attitude, Boundaries, Caregivers, Caring, Charting, Expectations, Patient Advocate, Patients

Rooming patients, giving injections, charting, answering the phone, taking messages.  These are all listed in my job description with a whole list of other normal office nursing kinds of things. 

Not listed, but also expected: picking up paperclips from the floor, trying to keep my piles neat, and telling someone when the Kleenex are running low.  And really, truth be told, I probably spend as [...]

Related: Attitude, Caregivers, Doctor-Nurse Relationships, Perfect Nurse, Respect, Stereotypes

Nurse Jackie.

Love her or hate her, she certainly has generated some strong comments from our readers.  The general consensus was that the TV show, which depicts the life of a nurse, is unrealistic.  Some find it offensive, some find it funny.

We could argue the rights and wrongs of this particular show for days, but here's what I would like to know.  How would a good [...]

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: Career, Caregivers, Nursing Jobs, Public Health Nursing, Service Nursing

Surf the networks at primetime. Bet you won’t find many—if any—dramas about public health professionals, implementing health programs at the grassroots level.

But the job has big payoffs, according to Julia Muennich Cowell, PhD, RNC, FAAN, and Professor and Chair of Mental Health Nursing at Rush University in Chicago, IL.

To recognize the pluck and passion of public health nurses, the VNA Foundation developed the Super Star [...]

Related: Addiction, Anxiety, Balance, Caregivers, Caring, Compassion Fatigue, Energy, Healthy Living, Motivation, Nurse Support, Spirituality, Stress, Time

“Take care of yourself!” - Wouldn’t it be nice if your job description included this directive?

Unfortunately, nurses, who pour themselves into caring for others, are notorious for self-neglect. There’s no one around to make sure you make “you” a priority.

It’s a conundrum—you know you ought to take better care of yourself, but you don’t. Maybe you’re too tired to care. Maybe you don’t know [...]

Related: Boundaries, Caregivers, Complaints, Conflict, Inappropriate Relationships, Patients, Professionalism

About a month ago I took care of a female patient on my unit who was post-op. She was relatively young (in her early 40s) and healthy.

I took care of her for two days in a row. At first she seemed pleasant, and we got along well. We have daughters the same age and live in the same city.

At the end of the [...]

Related: Attitude, Caregivers, Caring, Patience, Patients, Time

I read a blog entry this week from a friend whose son is having a bone marrow transplant today. I could fill a book with all the things I've learned from this family, but I'll just share one thing with you today. This particular entry was about how you can't rush a 10-year-old who doesn't want to do something. Especially if he [...]

Related: Balance, Caregivers, Caring, Charting, Expectations, Mindset, Morale, New Grad, New Nurse, New Nurse Tips, Organizational Skills, Patient Advocate, Patients, Prioritizing, Professionalism

As a new nurse, your goal is to make a difference. You want to heal people. You want to engage with patients, communicating to them your professionalism and that you care. But countless tasks and a steep learning curve may prevent you from the patient interaction you were expecting. According to Donna Cardillo, considered to be the “guru of career development” for new nurses, this [...]

Related: Attitude, Career, Caregivers, Caring, Patients, Quitting, Student Nurse

When my boyfriend told his mother, who's a nurse, that I started a nursing program, I think she thought I was going into it for the money. I'm not going to lie, I was.

The first day of lecture, the instructor said to us, "Walk out of this room if you're getting into nursing for the money." Of course, no one left. Then at midterm, many [...]

Related: Caregivers, Caring, Patient Advocate, Patients, Time

It was my mom's birthday yesterday. She said I gave her the best present she's ever gotten: me for a day.

We hung out in her apartment organizing old family pictures, reminiscing about people and places in our past. We met my brother for lunch and did some more "Do you remember when...?" Funny thing is, my mother, who has Alzheimer's, can't remember most things. Yet [...]