Topics About 'Self Reflection'.

At work, I was participating in an accreditation survey. This is a nerve-wracking experience where a seasoned surgeon spends the day reviewing the program. My colleague received notification that the surgeon was coming from Puerto Rico, her reaction ...

a great opportunity for an internship to become an OR nurse had been offered to me, but after this diagnosis, everything was put on hold. A disease that affects 1 in 8 with today's statistics, is a very scary thing. This article is to "lighten t...

I could say I pursued nursing because I wanted to follow the footsteps of my mother who is RN, but that is the usual every other day story you normally hear. This was one of the reasons why I decided to become a nurse, however, one of my other reason...

His journey began two years prior. He received the diagnosis of colon cancer and began chemotherapy. All of the nurses at the treatment center would fight over who got to take care of him. I cannot think of a person who did not love this man or at th...

I became a single parent in 1989 I finally left an abusive marriage, I was now going to move on with my life and follow my dreams. I always wanted to be a nurse as we often referred to ourselves in 1989, we were also called RGN's in the UK which mean...

When I was a young girl growing up in America's Mid West, my mother loved nursing and thought that her daughter should follow in her footsteps. It was her dream that helping people was a great profession and she wanted me to become a nurse when I gre...

I used to work at a theme park, and the 2 weeks around spring break were unofficially known as "marathon" because we went from weekends only to daily operation. But since most of the high schoolers only have one week off, and a lot of summer people h...

Lets be honest here. Nurses love to whinge. And to be fair, we do have a lot to whinge about. Pay, for example. It took me four years of university to gain a nursing degree. In that same time I could have qualified in law, architecture or pharmacy, a...

Dear floor, ED and ICU nurses, Please forgive me. I know he's dying. I get it. I do. We were told five years. Five years on an outlier and he would be gone. We were told transplant was an option but with the dismal survival rates, we opted for rehab....

Today I remembered a 4 yr old... lifeless, so pale, except for the bruises which covered his body. I remember so vividly the parent who angrily confessed that "the boy just refused to walk right"...so he beat him to death. I thought about the terror ...

Imagine being seated on a comfortable sofa in a warm, well-appointed office designed to make you feel at home, fidgeting nervously and struggling to find a neutral position as the man across the table from you delivers his findings in a kind, but reg...

When I started that day it seemed the paramount thing to me just to get rid of the dress bypassing my state board exams. My clinical rotations had become routine stuff after two years. My mentor hardly bothered to check on me anymore. I thought I was...

Even cafeteria duty which used to be a punishment. Listening in on pre-pubescent conversations to get a hint of what the next generation is thinking. Standing in the corner looking bored so they don't know I'm taking it all in. I miss teaching. Seein...

........Some years ago when I was still working Med/Surg, I had a patient who could be described diplomatically only as "fluffy". In actuality, she was a diabetic who weighed more than 400 lbs. A pleasant sort, she struck up conversation with me as I...

It was a warm fall morning. The alarm clock jarred me from my dreams at 4'oclock. I jump to turn it off so it does not wake my baby who is snoring in her crib. I almost want to pinch my husband in a jealous rage that he is sleeping so peacefully. I s...

It was such a cold day in December and I could not find the church, the biggest Catholic Church in the downtown area I'd lived in for the last fifteen years. What was I doing? Already had to beg my supervisor in the Medicine ICU for the morning off t...

I'm a mother/baby nurse and proud to be one. Compared to lots of units, we mother/baby folks might be considered lucky to have such 'cake' jobs, and some days I'd agree. Other days I leave work exhausted, with sore feet, sore back, dry mouth, empty s...

In my job as a postpartum nurse, I take care of moms and newborns. This is a happy place to work. The rooms are filled with proud parents, beautiful infants, and picture-snapping relatives. Cute Onesies lie on the table, and helium balloons decorated...

I was middle-aged when I decided to become Catholic. My mother was raised in a fundamentalist church -- one of those churches where Sunday services last all day and there's a lot of (literal) Bible thumping involved. (I'll never forget the Sunday my ...

First, I'm an RN in Med/Surg/Onc/Tele with 2 years experience. I take care of post ops everyday, but I was still very scared going to OR as I've never had anything done myself. I went and signed in, and the clerk was helpful as I was in the wrong sec...

You don't know how long you've hovered on the edge of consciousness, but as your eyes drift open, the dull ache in your head roars to life as a tympani thunders behind your eyes at the glare of surgical lights, making your cloudy vision pulse at the ...

According the the unwritten social contract, "each individual in a society has an underlying obligation, to the best of his ability, and before all else, to take care of his own basic needs, both immediate and for the foreseeable future, before atten...

Nurses are usually first to diminish their own contributions and quickly dismiss any outside accolades from those not in the business of healthcare. "Isn't it hard? Nurses are angels. My father had wonderful nurses when he died. I can't imagine how y...

Although I came into this profession relatively late in life, I have been around healthcare long enough now to yearn for the "good old days", when nursing homes looked like hospitals and hospitals (and other care facilities) had squeaky-clean, shiny ...

Why did you become a nurse? This is a common question that is asked of nurses. Here is my story of why I became a nurse and how I discovered my dream job. In 1995, I attended an educational course sponsored by the Ophthalmic Nurses Society (ASORN). A...