Related: Balance, Feelings, Job Search, Nursing Jobs, Service Nursing

After being laid-off twice since graduating last year, I finally got a job offer as an Acute Care Traveling Apheresis RN (I'll cover 74 hosp in a 75-mile radius). This job sounds awesome--lots of autonomy; I won't be stuck in one place for 8+ hours, 1:1 patient contact; cutting-edge technology in a highly specialized field (which will soon boom b/c of the stem cell stuff [...]

Related: Career, Nursing Jobs, Service Nursing

A few years ago a physician with whom I’ve worked approached me about using my skills on a service trip to Africa. I jumped at the chance, despite the $2800 price tag. After sending out 100 support letters to friends and family, urging them to help the people of Africa through me, I raised a little over $1000. Luckily, the deficit was met through my [...]

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: Attitude, Bureaucracy, Career, Conflict, Mindset, Nursing Jobs, Patient Advocate, Public Health Nursing, Service Nursing, Teamwork

Part one of a two-part exclusive interview with Sally Lemke, winner of the 2007 Super Star in Community Nursing award.

It’s a conundrum: How could the recipient of the VNA Foundation’s “SuperStar in Community Nursing Award”—a $25,000 prize—get the axe a mere few days later?

Sally Lemke, who was a nurse practitioner in Chicago’s Cook County healthcare system, became a local celebrity when this unthinkable scenario played [...]