Nursing Network for Nurses and Nursing Students - Latest Articles Page 6

You Can't Go Home Again

By VivaLasViejas - It was just an ancient nursing home, with Vander lifts parked in the too-narrow hallways and the hustle and bustle of staff members on their way to answer the constant shrieks of tab alarms. Located on top of what must be the biggest ant hill this side of the Rockies, it was utilitarian and built for efficiency, not looks, although the powers that be kept trying to improve it by installing hardwood floors and elegant lighting systems in the hallways. I tried telling them once that it was pretty much like putting a Ferrari engine in a Honda, but of course that suggestion fell on deaf ears. ... Read More →

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Tying Patient Satisfaction to Medicare Reimbursement is Problematic

By TheCommuter - Patient satisfaction surveys have been receiving an amplified amount of attention at hospitals and other types of healthcare facilities, especially since the results of these reviews now have a significant effect on Medicare reimbursement. Valuable information can be gleaned from the comments and feedback that patients provide when they fill out and return the surveys to the facilities where they previously received care. In addition, patient feedback is a remarkably important tool that helps the healthcare facility to harvest data, discover perceptions of the care being rendered, and... Read More →

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Problems a CNA May Face

By kacie.knyvett - Though I may not consider myself as highly experienced certified nursing assistant, but my three-years of working have taught me a lot about the other side of this occupation. In this short span of career, I have faced many problems. Maybe, there are some more to come for me to handle it. For now, just out of the sense of camaraderie, I though about sharing my experiences on problems I faced initially, and how I got over it. Any new job be it first or the last is always exciting, and it comes with a lot of skepticism. You are excited and raring to go as well as nervous thinking how the... Read More →

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You See, It's Like This........

By VivaLasViejas - "Hey, you should've been there when I finally let Arwen have it," Sarah (not her real name) tells me as we sit down in the nondescript break room of our assisted living facility to sip go-go juice and discuss our weekends. She's telling me this because I think her live-in dipwad---excuse me, significant other---is a horse's patootie who sponges off her and treats her like last week's garbage. "You'd have been proud of me...I threw all his junk out the window, then I told him where to go and how to entertain himself when he got there!" The mental imagery of shy, five-foot-nothing Sarah... Read More →

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The Wicked Politics of Clinical Practicum in Nursing School

By TheCommuter - Nursing school is not always fair. And, in my honest opinion, the most unfair aspect of the nursing school experience is the clinical practicum portion, also known as ‘clinical rotations.’ Here is why. The grades that students earn in the classroom-based theoretical nursing courses are, in most cases, usually objective. Even though the professor who teaches the advanced medical/surgical nursing course might hold personal grudges against a couple of students, the multiple choice exams and quizzes help to even the playing field by giving all pupils a fair chance to demonstrate their... Read More →

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Legal Food For Thought During the First Year of Nursing (and Beyond)

By TheCommuter - The first year of nursing is, in countless cases, also one of the most challenging years of a nurse's career because many different events are taking place. First of all, a significant number of newer nurses are acquiring the procedural skills that they did not fully cover in their nursing school clinical rotations, especially if one is immediately transitioning into a highly specialized area as a first healthcare job. Secondly, aspects of the 'real world' of nursing may clash with the idealized 'textbook version' of nursing. Third, it simply takes time for a newer nurse with less than... Read More →

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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 personally believe there is a way to give your notice in and leave gracefully. Don’t shut the door... Read More →

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Focus on the Positive

By TheCommuter - People in society generally focus on the negative gloom and doom, even in the presence of positivity, good news or favorable statistics. In fact, professionals in the field of psychology have coined the term ‘negative bias’ to describe the trend by which people concentrate more on negative experiences while paying less attention to positive or neutral experiences. For instance, a highly skilled clinical instructor may generate a small handful of positive references from students when she demonstrates how to start a peripheral IV on a patient during clinical rotations in a local acute... Read More →

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Why Do People Bully Me?

By TheCommuter - Unfortunately, bullying is an unpleasant fact of working life for far too many employees in our society. And surveys have discovered that the two workplaces that suffer the most from bullying bosses are healthcare and education (Parsons, 2005). With more than 3.5 million members and counting, nurses comprise the largest category of healthcare workers in the United States. Since nursing makes up the single largest group of healthcare professionals in this country, the profession has been negatively impacted by bullying. Countless nurses recount their personal tales of woe and workplace... Read More →

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Male Nurses on the rise and they make more money

By brian - Male Nurses Becoming More Commonplace, Census Bureau Reports The nursing profession remains overwhelmingly female, but the representation of men has increased as the demand for nurses has grown over the last several decades, according to a U.S. Census Bureau study released today. The new study shows the proportion of male registered nurses has more than tripled since 1970, from 2.7 percent to 9.6 percent, and the proportion of male licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses has more than doubled from 3.9 percent to 8.1 percent.1 The study, Men in Nursing Occupations, presents... Read More →

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Balancing on the Borderline

By MusicalCoffee - Let me just say that I am 24 years of age, which is relatively young. I first noticed something was wrong with me when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I suffered alone, though, because I had no idea what it was and my parents didn't think anything of it. Long story short, I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, borderline personality disorder, and anxiety disorder at age 16. That's a lot of disorder for a 16 year old and I was terrified. I had no idea what any of that meant and I was more than a little concerned. Once explained, the problem was that I didn't want to stay on... Read More →

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The Hardest Day, The Happiest Day

By anon456 - President's day. I had worked the night before and was just getting up in time for the kids to get out of school. I got the phone call that changed my life forever. I answered it to hear hysterical crying. At first i could not understand what she was saying, just crying. Then my step mother was able to form enough words to say, "Your Daddy is on the ambulance to the hospital. He did not have a heartbeat when they found him!" It took a few tries for her to be able to say the name of the hospital. Dad had severe asthma and a heart condition. Lately he had been feeling worse and talking about... Read More →

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The Stranger Within: One Year Later

By VivaLasViejas - It's always been a source of wonder and amusement to me that during my frequent searches for an item I've misplaced, I always seem to find something else that brings back a memory or two. And, like many of the elderly Moms and Pops at the assisted living community where I work, I often get so lost in the new distraction that I completely forget what I was doing before. It happened again earlier this evening as I was going through some of my old blog entries here on AN and ran across a piece I barely even remember writing, called "The Stranger Within: Living With Mental Illness". At the... Read More →

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Today's Hospice. It's not what you think

By katie'sangel - As patient advocates, we need to understand the appropriate use of hosppice. Families and patients are suffering needlessly without it. Recent research by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization shows over 1/2 the deaths in American in 2009 occurred without the support of hospice. It is my goal as a hospice nurse and patient advocate to better educate medical professionals to the appropriate use of this valuable medical service. Five common myths surround the subject of hospice and inhibit its appropriate use. Myth #1 Hospice is only for patients that are very... Read More →

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The stigma of mental illness and suicide

By Liddle Noodnik - There has been quite a lot of conversation about Mindy McCready's suicide and mental illness,and it amazes me the different opinions people have about suicide and mental illness. I thought that I should "come out of the closet" once again about this issue, and talk about my own experiences with it. The article below was written by a man who has the illness and his experiences and thoughts. I thought it would ba good springboard for what I am going to write, below: A Tragic story that applies to millions I had a serious suicide attempt in 1985, and I had no thought whatsoever of what... Read More →

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