cinlou BSN, MSN, RN

Every time you try something new there will be jitters. It is normal to be nervous about new things, that is what can keep you a safe care giver. It sounds like you know what you want and need to do to get yourself back to school, now all you need to...

We have slid backwards in nursing, and because of this I think we need to go back to basics in nursing schools. We cannot continue to teach more management than basic skills. The new nurse needs the skills first. Once out of school the opportunity f...

Honesty is always the best policy when dealing with state boards of nurses. Having a letter of recommendation by your therapist/Dr. could potentially go a long way. I would anticipate that you would need to follow up with drug screens through the boa...

So, let me get this right? Presently you are working as a CNA, but you want to get your RN, and you are wondering if going back to phlebotomy would help you more than your CNA? If I have your question correct, this is my thought process, and from my...

If I look back to when I was precepting on a unit, I wanted my new grads to be able to go into a patient room and provide basic care and comfort, such as a full assessment and be able to do the skills needed, foley, IV, NG, etc. Then when there was t...

Does your physicians come in early for their rounding? One of the ways I worked around this when they dropped that on us, was to go through patient report with the physicians at the nursing station so off going and oncoming nurses knew what was going...

Option full time at home and pick up a part time bedside position to keep your hands in the activity so when you are ready to go back to hospital you will have the ability to get hired back having maintained your skills. Are three 12 hour shift avail...

As stated earlier there are many reasons why hiring you into an RN position on your unit may not be able to happen. As a previous manager I can also offer an opinion. Sometimes staying on the same unit when moving up can be more difficult because pee...

sounds like you took on your responsibility to the best you could to prevent that from happening. Unfortunately there is lack of education at home and in schools for prevention methods other than abortion. Don't get me wrong, I am not against aborti...

exactly, and thank you for the stats, but that is not what the people hear, they only hear the word abortion and think that is the only choice (my opinion)

Ahh, where are our Ethics Committees now? I personally do not agree with the tattle tail portion of the law. I came out of the late 70's and I was very naïve. I had no clue about the political back stories about Planned Parent hood, I thought it was...

perhaps people feel they do not have enough information to make informed consent. There continues to be a great deal of mixed messaging out there. It is my role as a nurse to provide the best information available and let the patient make their decis...

I was noticing the similarities in responses based on years as a nurse, and I find it very interesting. I went through many different diseases throughout my nursing career such as AIDS, H1N1, SARS and not once did we shut down the world, even though ...

Often times these patients have had bad experiences in the past and are afraid of being forgotten. If they are on the light often stop and ask the person what is not being met in their care. example: It appears that we are not meeting your needs, wha...

I know how intimidating it can be to be the new person/rookie. As nurses we watch over other nurses, aides, techs, medical students, residents and Dr's. to be sure our patient's are receiving the best care, and yes I have had to stop a resident and t...

I look at this no different than the elderly lady who didn't want me to take care of her because I was fat, she thought I would be lazy. I took care of her anyway. Or the patient who didn't want any male nurses. we said we would accommodate as best w...

Hunter, I have worked with many awesome second career nurses. I hear you want to give back. Have you thought about starting out doing some EMT to be sure this is the field you want to go towards. I teach nursing students and some find out in their fi...

try joining a float pool. Never stop, keep trying new things, don't let yourself go stagnant, be active in shared governance, do as much as you feel comfortable doing without it becoming too much. I found floating was awesome, the staff was excited ...

I'm old too. I always told my son that if he was being cussed at the best comeback from him would be coherent intelligent words, it makes the person stop and wonder what you just said. The English language and the semantics within have changed so muc...

When I was in Nursing school about 1978, there was no question about who to take care of. We were taught to keep our beliefs etc to ourselves it was not up to us as nurses to judge anyone, we were there to provide the care required. If there was an i...

I had too, been an LPN for about 10 years when I went back for my ADN. I had spent those years in mostly critical care before they removed LPN's from ICU. When I received my RN I was also considered a new grad. Even at that I still made more money, a...

I have had peers with same issue, one had and then lost it, and she said she did not miss it except when she ate. She did not feel it impaired her ability to be a good nurse, because she learned how to compensate for the loss. Some nurses can smell ...

I have worked on floors and in units with bad moral. If I couldn't influence change I left for my own sanity. Behavior roles down from the top. trying to run healthcare using business models does not help. Why are we not using nursing theory? I once ...

Op, I hear what you are saying. When I started nursing almost 40 years ago we were taught to not say anything keep it to ourselves. Do not judge others etc. We gradually gained credibility as nurses. I think some nurses come into the field for differ...

I am so blessed to have crossed over from the early days of white crisp uniform dresses, hose, caps etc. when what we did was the beginning of what much has become EBP, when Doctors use to do more and then nurses took over. When much of what we did w...