Nursing Blogs

from VivaLasViejas - 10) I get to work in the most comfortable clothing on the planet. When I was a nurse manager, I was going through the worst of my perimenopause.....in polyester and double knits, no less. Now I wear soft cotton scrubs, which are essentially pajamas with lots of pockets. Good times! 9) Sheer variety. There are so many types of nursing that it...

from madwife2002 - During these hard financial times, I have heard management repeatedly tell staff 'you are lucky to have a job'. Now whilst we appreciate we are indeed fortunate to have employment being told this repeatedly to control a bad working environment is in my opinion bullying, in truth they are getting away with during this period of hardship amongst our...

from VickyRN - You have been assigned a student who is a paraplegic and in a wheelchair to your clinical group. You wonder about her physical competency to perform required psychomotor tasks. Three students in your busy classroom need special testing accommodations due to diagnosed learning disabilities. How do you, the nurse educator, handle these challenges? ...

from Elvish - A thread in the Ob/Gyn nursing forum got me thinking about this. Family centered maternity care (FCMC) is a buzzword that's no doubt quite familiar to many in maternal/child nursing circles. In my almost-eight years as a nurse - not long in comparison to many of my colleagues - I have seen several hospitals in my area make the switch from all...

from Elvish - I'm excited about blogging from the trenches of mother/baby. "Why 'trenches?'" you might ask. From the outside it seems as though mother/baby nurses have a cake job and in comparison to some jobs, we just might. But this is nowhere near 'easy.' Spending twelve hours caring for new families, getting/keeping breastfeeding going well, showing new,...

from VickyRN - This is a fun “bingo” type exercise I developed for my nursing class several years ago. The idea is not original – I had heard about this before – but the attached documents are my adaptation of the idea. Active learning exercises such as “ABG Tic Tac Toe” can be used in class, as a fun activity after lecture, in small groups, or by...

from madwife2002 - Many people have a misunderstanding that if the government funds health care then THEY control our health care - a concept which in all reality is impossible. What they do provide is funding for hospitals and any facility that delivers health care. It's up to the facilities to decide how to spend the funds allocated to them. They will run...

from VickyRN - There is a huge difference in teaching 30 students, as opposed to 140 students. Large classrooms can be noisy, crowded, and full of distractions. The students can be disrespectful and out of control, with pockets of students texting, carrying on private conversations, and coming and going at will. Sound familiar? Learning strategies that work well...

from VickyRN - The Certified Nurse Educator Examination is a credentialing tool for masters- and doctorally-prepared nurse educators. The NLN created this specialty certification in 2005 and it has grown steadily in popularity ever since. Nearly 1600 nurse educators currently possess the coveted CNE credential. I took the CNE examination in January, 2006. It...

from madwife2002 - I found this interesting article on the internet which I would like to share with the readers of my blog, and which I am sure many will find interesting, thought provoking and extreemly relevent to my current theme. This is written by a young aspiring politcian in the UK.

from Angie O'Plasty, RN - Proper positioning of a patient in pain has nearly become a lost art with the advent of patient-controlled analgesia and the focus on pain as the 5th vital sign. However, proper positioning, used as an adjunct to appropriate analgesics, can often help elderly patients find an acceptable level of pain relief. Most nurses and CNAs have been...

from madwife2002 - So here I was in the USA and I had a major problem being understood. I had no problem understand american English because we all watch american movies and TV shows, but the basic american does not watch British TV programmes and apart from Harry Potter not a lot of British films. In a effort to elaborate about barriers to communication I wanter to...

from traumaRUs - What certifications are needed/desired in the ED? This is a question that comes up often. I work as an APN in a community hospital ED and we were discussing this last night. All of the ED RNs are required to have BLS, ACLS and a peds certification. Trauma certification, i.e., TNCC or TNS (Trauma Nurse Specialist – an IL-only certification)...