[Karen Cicero]

Hello, nurses! My name is Karen Cicero and I am a reporter for Self magazine, a large national publication geared to 25- to 45-year-old women. For an upcoming issue, we're working on a story entitled "What Nurses Know." We're looking for specific tips from nurses that would impact a patient's care, wallet or sanity––in essence, we want the kind of stuff doctors won't divulge (or don't know about); the advice you'd tell your Mom or your sister before going to the doctor or the hospital.
If you can help out our readers who don't have a family member in the nursing profession, it would be great. You can e-mail me back some info or simply your phone number so we could chat. You would have the choice on whether you wanted your name to appear in the magazine.
I'd also be interested in hearing about staffing issues that affect patient care. Thanks a bunch! --Karen Cicero

[IMNRN]

I can't wait to see the issue this will appear in, i wish there were more written about nursing and nurses. The best tidbit of advice I can give is regarding prescriptions. If possible have the doctor prescribe twice the dose and just take half of it. I wouldn't suggest this for dose sensitive medications but for most, you can really save tons of money especially if you are paying out of pocket for your prescriptions.
I don't want my name used for the article.
Good Luck