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 […]
personal experience
A Nurse Practitioner’s Medical Mission to Africa
This week I am featuring an interview with my sister in-law, Elizabeth Fields. She recently went to Bora, Ethiopia with the medical mission group Health Gives Hope. Last week, I interviewed their founders, one of whom is actually a Nurse Practitioner! Click here to check out the previous post. To give you a little background about […]
Guest Blog Post: A Mother’s Goodbye
Just like I’ve done one hundred times before, I recently held a young patient’s hand while we withdrew life support and they passed away. We have to stay in the rooms throughout the passing in order to administer the pain medication and anti-anxiety medication, and to ensure they are comfortable and calm in their final […]
An Ode to My Steering Wheel
Many things are synonymous with nursing… stethoscopes, nursing caps and pins, a solid pair of Danskos…but one of nursing’s unsung hero’s is our steering wheel. A day at work that has me on the verge of tears all day has me yearning for that moment when I can stumble to my car, close the door, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Hilarious Patient Quotes from Direct Care Workers
Just ask any doctor, nurse, CNA, EMT, paramedic, PA, or NP for their most hilarious patient quotes and a wonderful conversation will ensue. Here are some of my favorites from my Facebook page and Twitter. (Names were removed in the spirit of the most notorious animal in the world, the HIPAA-potamus. Abbreviations were written out for the […]
Holistic Nursing Care
Thank you for your blog, and the words you use to instruct and encourage new nurses. I love reading what you have to say, and I have already used your advice when paging a physician during night shift! Definitely helped me prepare and keep my confidence. My question is this: how do you balance your […]
A Nurse’s Confession: Sometimes I Hate My Job
But not in the way you’d think. It’s not the hours or the pay or the poops. It’s how keenly and constantly aware I am of our precious and fragile lives. Today while I was driving, I came up behind a car with an “organ donors save lives” bumper sticker and I immediately thought, that […]
Insider Info: What Your Nurse Wants You to Know
Is mom getting admitted to the hospital frequently? Did your grandma just have a stroke and now your life is half-home and half-hospital? Many families experience this and they are more than willing to do anything to make it easier for everyone involved – they just need to know what to do! I’ve been […]
Our Nursing Reality – Part II
Back in November, I posed a question to my nursey Twitter buds: If you were on a reality show.. what moment in your nursing career would you want the world to see? #nursingreality The response was jaw dropping. Every single tweet I read moved me to tears… either from laughing so hard or being so […]
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 […]
Our Nursing Reality – Part I
When I was writing my last post about MTV’s Scrubbing In, I started to think about my nursing career and if I had the opportunity to show the world what I do as a nurse, what moments I would want them to see. What would I want my patients and their families, employer, prospective employers, […]