madwife2002's Nursing Blog
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Nurses talk to Nurses, Doctors talk to Doctors
By madwife2002 - Nurses talk to Nurses and Doctors talk to Doctors, is this a general understanding of the circle of life within your health care facility? Or is it true to think that Doctors can express their discontent of a nurse but it is not considered acceptable for this to be reciprocated. Unbelievable within the 21st century America that nurses are unable to talk to doctors about the way they behave or their attitude. Is this because we are a female dominated profession or because we are considered... Read More →
Not another silly article on Hand Hygiene!
By madwife2002 - I know we have numerous articles and threads on Infection Control and hand washing but it appears to me that the minority of healthcare workers actually are not washing their hands as often as they should. A sad fact is although we maybe washing our hands, there are other people out there who do not wash their hands. Now in my mind’s eye, I can see you all gasp and feel indignant at my written words but stop for a minute and consider this statement; Do you always and I mean always... Read More →
How to work your notice, gracefully
By madwife2002 - So you have decided to leave your current job, you’ve had enough of working hard, no teamwork, you don’t like your boss, co-worker, management, the drive is too long, the acuity is too high, you never get a break and you hate bedside nursing. Yes there are numerous reasons why you want to leave and get a new job, I could go on for pages for the reasons nurses are leaving their job but this article is about how to manage yourself while you are working out your notice. Whatever the reason I... Read More →
The faces behind the scene at allnurses.com!
By madwife2002 - The faces behind the scene - do you ever wonder what the staff are like who moderate allnurses? Did you know we have at least a 100 plus years of nursing experience to bring to the table and that we all work full time in our nursing jobs! All of us are extremely proud to work for allnurses.com, and often spend hours of our spare time moderating to keep this site up and running. There is a whole other world behind the scenes where we can discuss and make decisions on who, what, where and how.... Read More →
Is your colleague a mind reader? Or just plain lazy
By madwife2002 - Everybody around me at work reacts to situations by becoming angry, retaliatory, vindictive and mean. Nobody I work with and I mean nobody I work with looks at the whole picture with their work colleague they automatically presume that their co-worker is out to get them! I cannot count how many times over the past three years that one of my employees has accused their colleague of being lazy, not helping them and has watched them struggle with a heavy work load. Now while there are... Read More →
Are we forcing team work but shying away from relationships
By madwife2002 - How to balance work and home life has been a challenge. As a nurse, I do not know how I have done it through the past 24 years. I have encountered many obstacles and challenges along the way and it doesn’t get any easier even with all the practice I have had. The hours as a nurse are often long and not conducive with the ‘normal’ person who often works 9-5 with clear defined breaks and every weekend off. When I was younger I only hung out with other health care professionals or other... Read More →
Let's talk about Depression
By madwife2002 - Depression touches most people’s lives at some point; like all illnesses it has no consideration for age, race, gender or status in life. Depression can creep up slowly or hit you straight in the face when you least expect it. For many people, especially those who have always considered themselves strong and able to manage without support or help, it is a shock often taking a long time before they identify themselves as being depressed. It is comparable to the grieving process and there... Read More →
Do you cut corners in your daily nursing practice?
By madwife2002 - Do you cut corners in your daily nursing practice? Or do you do everything according to the ‘book’. Do you police yourself in your everyday care of a patient, what do I mean by police yourself? I mean always follow the correct procedures no matter how busy you are, and when tempted to deviate never vary because you know it is wrong and that errors do often occur. When you are in a patient room alone, by this I mean no other staff member watching you or a patient who is oblivious. Do you... Read More →
Stamp out Gossip today
By madwife2002 - Discrimination, sexism and bullying in the work place appear to be on the increase which concerns me a great deal. It comes under many guises and is not always easy to see. It is like a virus and it multiplies and gets out of control before you notice what it is. I feel very passionate about a person being discriminated against for one reason or another. Some discrimination is subtle and some is in your face. It all starts off with Gossip! What starts off with one person complaining... Read More →
What kind of animal are you?
By madwife2002 - In an Interview recently, I was asked a strange question, "If you were an animal what kind of animal would you be?" Initially I laughed out loud as I thought it was a trick question or a joke but it was a serious question. My answer surprised them; they said they had never heard that answer before. My answer was 'I would be a chicken' and my rationale was that there is a pecking order, but they look after each other and work together as a team, they fight over the scraps but protect... Read More →
Protect yourself, Protect your license, and most of all Protect your patient
By madwife2002 - Did you know that the only way to protect yourself in a court of law is to follow your company’s policies and procedures, to the letter! If it is in the Policy and Procedure (P & P) manual, then it is written in stone for your workplace. If you chose to not follow the P & P and something goes wrong then you are not covered by the facility where you work. P & P are available to support, guide, and protect your practice. They are also there to protect the hospital or facility you work at... Read More →
Tips for Nurses Relocating to Another State
By madwife2002 - Moving from one state to another can be as easy as ABC, providing you plan and make it a nice smooth transition. There are certain variables which you are able to control and there are certain ones you can’t. It is certainly easier to transition if you have a job to go to. After you have decided to move states, you have picked where you want to live, the first step should be to secure your nursing license for that state. It is important to remember that many jobs will not look at... Read More →
Emails can get you into trouble
By madwife2002 - Did you know that there is such a thing as email etiquette - for Work? I don't know about you, but I have tripped into many pitfalls with my emails! Emails can have a tone, attitude, rudeness, and they can be offensive! Many of us use email as a quick way of communicating something simple to another person without considering that written word often has more of an impact than anything else in society! How many times have you read an email, which annoyed you initially, making you... Read More →
5 Diamond Patient Safety Project
By madwife2002 - Has your facility recently started your 5 diamond projects for ESRD NETWORKS? For those of you who have never heard of it, it is like a 5 star rating for hotels. You achieve a star for each of the projects you implement into your facility. The aim is to improve patient safety, get recognition from the renal community and pts will be able to use the 5 diamond rating to chose dialysis facilities which are achieving excellent standards of pt care. As people we like ratings! We like to... Read More →
If you didn't document, you didn't do it!
By madwife2002 - Documentation and the average nurse is a hot topic, so you have to start as you mean to go on! Documentation in nursing varies a great deal, what you should document, what you do document and what you don’t document. Documentation is a minefield. We have to tread very carefully because one wrong step and it could all blow up in our face. Have you noticed in the health care field, it is nearly always the nurse that the buck stops at? Question is this because we have the most to do... Read More →
