EBinsfieldRN

I can't imagine that nursing school has gotten easier since I graduated, so I can't help but wonder how all these classmates and instructors have enough free time to focus on making others miserable. I have no additional words of wisdom, but I wish you the very best and hope that you're able to graduate and move on to a place where other people are professional and decent.

Find LinkedIn groups in your specialty or clinical interest. Network with members, respond to posts. LinkedIn is a viable resource for just about any career in any industry. The old adage “you get out of it what you put it to it” rings true here. The more you interact on LI, the more visibility you’ll get. And more often than not, that visibility turns into potential job opportunities. Sure, you’ll get messages from recruiters that likely aren’t of interest to you, but eventually you’re likely to make contact with principals at entities with whom you’d be interested to work. I think of it as an investment of time/effort that often pays off. And you’ll make plenty of worthwhile connections.

Hear, hear!! CNAs are a crucial member of their healthcare team, and often the eyes/ears that first detect the subtle changes in a patient's condition. Some of the very best nurses I've known and worked with during my nursing career began theirs as CNAs. They are fully deserving of professional respect.

Great list! My husband works from home as well, so we had to stop sharing an office. I've converted another room into my own dedicated space. I use a laptop stand to raise my computer to a more ergonomic height and second freestanding monitor to maximize available screens. I've long since switched to an ergonomic mouse as well. I also use a Google phone number separate from my personal cell number to keep things clearly defined.

What a lovely piece! I worked for five years inpatient and one year home Hospice. It was my first love in Nursing and it remains one of my most rewarding experiences. You capture the complex feelings about what we do so very well!

Good for you for bouncing back so strongly! Med Surg was a great choice for cutting those baby teeth. Glad to hear that you're thriving!

Great article. I've been away from the floor for some time now, but I definitely recall suggesting via subtle assessment points. I also recall using the tactic in home health and home hospice. Some docs would rely on us as partners in their patients' care and others clearly had the hierarchy in mind. You had to know your docs when contacting them for guidance. Something came to mind as I read, however, since I left the floor before the number of men in our profession skyrocketed. I'd be curious to know whether they experience less of this (any sort of pushback/discipline from docs) than we female nurses do. Might be an interesting topic for a future article!