Compassion fatigue has been recognized as a phenomenon in clinicians for decades. Here an RN talks about how to manage compassion fatigue.
Mental Wellness and Self Care for Nurses
Self-care for nurses is a critical nursing skill that is difficult to master. Focusing on mental wellness is the only way to survive and thrive as a nurse in a sustainable way. Sometimes we all need a reminder of ways we can focus on caring for ourselves instead of always putting others first. These articles dig into topics around emotional wellness, boundaries, and building resilience as a nurse.
I Hate Being a Nurse – What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do
Have you said, I hate being a nurse? Use these tips to help prevent or move past nursing burnout so that you can get back to enjoying your job.
Symptom Media: Redefining Mental Health Education and CE Courses
Symptom Media began as a collaboration between mental health experts and filmmakers, focusing on visual education for mental health education.
Healthy Eating For Nurses
Working 12 hour shifts can really it difficult to stay on track with health and wellness, but healthy eating for nurses is a critical component of overall wellness. A reader asked what I do to focus on healthy eating while working long shifts: I’m about to start my grad year and was just wondering- what do you usually take for meals? I […]
When my patient’s son pulled up my Instagram account
Nurses on social media can be a wonderful thing. It can help build your brand, connect you with others, and even further your career. But depending on how you use social media, it could harm you. I was working in critical care. It was the day shift and I had just finished my morning med […]
Overcoming Anxiety – Top Tips for New Graduate Nurses
Beat the first year nurse anxiety. These top tips for new graduate nurses will help you learn how to become more confident.
10 Unwritten Rules for Nurses
You won’t learn this in nursing school, but your life will be so much better once you read (and follow) this list. These 10 unwritten rules for nurses might seem like common sense, but someone had to say them.
Nurses and Secondary Trauma
When I started nursing school, I had a fascination with being in the thick of the really intense medical situations that frequently accompany working in an acute care facility. The more intricate and gory the story or predicament, the better. I wanted to be in the middle of the action, part of the team. […]
When Your Patient Starts Crying
One of the first questions you may ask yourself in your nursing career is “What to do when a patient starts crying.” Everyone has their own forte’, and for some, providing emotional support to people in crisis can be an OMG WHAT DO I DO moment. It can be uncomfortable. It can be weird. It […]
Meal Planning Tips and Tricks for Nurses, Part II
Being a nurse, working shift work, it can be tough making sure you eat appropriately. A few years ago, my husband and I got into a pretty regular routine to offset the nutritional challenges that shift work presents. This is my second post regarding this topic. Please click here to read the first post explaining […]
Meal Planning Tips and Tricks for Nurses – Part I
Learning how to get my meals together was a challenge when I was adjusting to working three 12-hour shifts per week. I always waited until I was hungry, never had the food in the house to make something yummy and quick, and then would either go to the grocery store last minute and spend way […]
Nursing Time Management for When You’re Totally Overwhelmed
This post contains affiliate links It never fails. You start your day with the best nursing time management intentions. You started your assessments and meds on time (woo hoo!), and then all of a sudden three doctors round at once and expect you to implement their orders immediately. One patient needs to pee, one needs […]
Guest Post: Making a Start Towards Being a Healthier Nurse
This post is by Natalie Bridges, a fellow nurse blogger over at thirtyeightfive.com. She is also a critical care nurse! Woo-hoo! Natalie is a chef, nurse, and patient. She blogs about healthy eating and nursing and I love it. I asked her to write about working as a nurse and eating healthy. Enjoy! We all […]
Why I Can’t Cry With You
Since my post I Wish I Could Cry With You, But I Can’t went up, there has been quite a large response. I felt the need to write a follow-up post to further explain myself. I think that a lot of nurses really understood what I meant with my post, but those that either aren’t nurses or […]
I Wish I Could Cry With You, But I Can’t
This post contains affiliate links Author’s note: I believe many people misunderstood what I meant by I can’t cry with you. I think many assumed that I was trying to communicate that I am not allowed to cry, rather than I emotionally cannot handle your pain right now and therefore must distance myself. Please check out my follow-up […]
You’re a Life Saver. Literally
I don’t know if any of you nurses out there struggle with what I’ve been fighting over the last year or so. Whenever I’m in a large crowd and see elderly people or someone not looking so hot, I play the worst-case scenario out in my mind. They collapse. I run over. Start CPR. Yell […]
How to Deal With Gossipy Nurses
I recently got a job as a new grad in a peds hospital, I love my job but hate the people I work with, they all gossip and talk behind everyone’s back and I’m not sure how to deal with that. I don’t want to seem rude but don’t want to be part of that […]
For The Anxious Nurse
After being in the field for a while, I’ve noticed a common theme… anxious nurses. We see people die during a normal day at work. Our normal day is someone’s last. At any moment, someone’s heart can stop and we’re responsible for restarting it. Someone can stop breathing and we’ve got to know what to do […]
Dealing with Nurse Jerks and Bullies
Nursing can be a very humbling career path. In nursing school, you’re constantly told how to do things and being corrected, and not always in the most gracious ways. And then when you get your big fancy nursing job, you feel like you just went from 8th grade, where you’re on the top of the […]
When You Want to Quit
When you’re working on your pre-req’s and going through nursing school, in your first few years of nursing school, or just switched specialties, it gets really tough sometimes. So much information is being thrown at you that you have no idea what’s important and what’s not, and you begin to wonder if you’re just totally […]