can you imagine?

patient documentation

(Mis)adventures in nursing documentation

Recently, I found myself in a lighthearted social gathering of like-minded strangers sipping colorful drinks (it was after 4 PM). As expected, the conversation turned to, “What do…
AI in nursing

A staff nurse’s AI wish list

The adage “necessity is the mother of invention” has been propelling human progress (or folly, depending on one’s point of view) since the dawn of time. I’m sure…

American Nurse Heroes: A Love Letter to Nursing

Late last month, the documentary film American Nurse Heroes, produced by HealthCom Media and Al Roker Entertainment, in collaboration with the American Nurses Association (ANA), premiered on network…
Health literacy varies by patient

Being Sharp in Health Literacy

In 2008, I was working as a per diem staff nurse in a medical-surgical unit at what was then called New York Downtown Hospital. New Yorkers of a…
teach-patients

By your patients you’ll be taught

When I was 20, I got my first job as a public health nurse for the Philippine National Cross. For a monthly salary of $41 (in 1987 dollars),…
Trust in nurses

Examining Public Perception of Nurses

The public places their trust in nurses because they expect them to act truthfully, transparently, and with integrity. Imagine you’re a patient and your nurse is going to…
Nurse helping a patient eat

Food, glorious food… wasted

Everyone has heard this: There is so much food, in fact tons of it, wasted. Every day. In 2010, according to the US Department of Agriculture, an estimated…
nurse showing gratitude

Gratitude: It does the body (and soul) good

In late October, I attended the American Academy of Nursing’s Health Policy conference in Washington, DC. I also had the distinct honor of being inducted as a Fellow…
Nurse showing gratitude with her hands over her heart

How being grateful is good for healthcare

About a year ago, one of my graduating students gave me a fan with this Korean text 선생님 사랑해요, which translates to “I love you teacher.” I’m told…
nurse with dying patient

Humanism in Nursing

While cleaning up my electronic files recently, I came across a 2005 article from the Academic Medicine journal titled “A medical experience that taught me about humanism in medicine.”…
Keep calm

Keep Calm and Caring

Slogans are terse and memorable phrases typically associated with political campaigns and advertising. They’re the progeny of aphorism and axioms. Some of these catchphrases have become such a…
group

Meetings: Boon or boondoggle?

Benjamin Franklin once said: “nothing is certain except death and taxes.” If he were alive today, he would probably add: “… and going to meetings (or being forced…
Nurse multitasking

Multitasking: Gift or Nursing’s Curse?

A study that examined the cognitive mechanisms involved in task switching, particularly how executive control processes manage multiple tasks (think of the time you checked a text message…
can you imagine

My experience on American Nurse Heroes

In a clinical encounter, nurses get to interview a patient, asking them the most private of questions, and with the help of a stethoscope (literally and figuratively), listen…
Nurse

Nurses as Pilgrims

The travel writer Rick Steves describes three types of travelers: tourists, traveler, and pilgrims. I’d like to propose that those same terms can be used to describe nurses…
Ball Drop

Nurses, please don’t drop the ball

One of the most recognizable rituals in ringing in the new year, at least for New Yorkers, is the famous ball drop in Times Square. The collective countdown…
holidays and health

On Health and the Holidays

I first learned about Christmas disease while preparing for a presentation on lab values many years ago. At first glance, I thought it was some sort of a…
A benevolent Nurse comforting another nurse

On leaving and loving nursing

The nursing shortage is as old as the dawn of modern nursing itself. Of the 38 nurses under the supervision of Florence Nightingale and who arrived with her…
male nurse with patient

On Masculinity and Nursing

Not long ago, I was a panelist for an event entitled Building Ourselves: New Paradigms of Masculinity. As can be discerned from the event’s title, the panelists were…
Nurse making patient notes

On Nursing Documentation

A healthcare document records the following: A 70 y/o male, BIBA with a CC of SOB 3 days PTA asso. with Lt sided CP and AMS. No LBM,…
Placebo or nocebo

Placebo, nocebo, and nursing care

The term “placebo” entered the English medical lexicon from the Latin word “placeo,” which means “I please” or “I shall please.” Its current usage, which primarily refers to…
Student nurse holding textbooks

Read alert: The decline of reading

A student just 2 weeks from graduation once asked me, “Where is the gallbladder?” With candid unconcern, the student admitted that she had never read a nursing textbook…
Filipino nurse

Seeing Nurse Unseen and why we tell nursing stories

October marks Filipino American History Month. This month, the documentary Nurse Unseen is being screened in major U.S. cities, highlighting Filipino nurses’ ongoing contributions. The film explores the…
test taking tips

Select all that apply: patient care beyond the test

Multiple choice tests are among nursing education’s most recognizable stressors (or stigmata), up there with nursing care plans, and incessant group projects. Some see exams as the enduring…
nurse prayer, healthcare, registered nurse, nursing, nursing journal

Should we pray about it?

Many years ago, I read about an intriguing randomized controlled trial out of Harvard Medical School, looking into the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer in cardiac bypass patients.…
summer

Summertime… and the patient is uneasy?

A nurse ponders the “July Effect.” American Nurse Journal values your feedback! Follow this link to answer a few short questions about this article: what you learned, how it…
Florence Nightingale

Taking the lead from Florence Nightingale

The details of Florence Nightingale’s work are no secret to any nursing professional. It would be unnecessary to recount the well-known details of her legendary, albeit brief, efforts…

The Bedpan and its Significance

During the holiday doldrums I came across a 2015 Smithsonian magazine article entitled “The strange saga of George Washington’s bedpan.” The article was a sort of a biography…
Nurse using stethoscope

The case of the vanishing stethoscope

A 2001 study assessed the cardiac auscultation skills of 314 internal medicine residents from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The results revealed consistently low proficiency,…
safety-culture

The Culture of Safety: Huddle and Muddle

The notion of culture of safety implies not merely the absence harm, injury or preventable death, but also the unmeasurable feeling that one is in good hands, even…
men in nursing

The Growing Narratives of Men in Nursing

Male nurses, at any given point in their interaction with patients, family, colleagues, and strangers, have most likely answered many mundane and sometimes sublime questions about “How did…

Think thank

Every fourth Thursday of November, millions of Americans gather for dinner to commemorate the celebratory meal that took place in 1621 between the Pilgrims and members of the…
patient refusal

Video: A closer look at patient refusal

In the August issue of American Nurse Journal, Fidel Lim, DNP, CCRN, the author of our Can You Imagine? Nurse Influencer blog collaborated with Gary Sanin Camelo, MPA,…
attention, nursing, nursing journal, healthcare, American Nurse

We’re distracted. You can Google it.

Within the Tate Galleries in London hangs one of history’s most evocative paintings depicting patient care—the 1887 painting by Sir Luke Fildes, entitled The Doctor. Considered to be…
protest over nursing salaries

What’s your reason for nursing?

An often-repeated anecdote about how Florence Nightingale decided nursing was to be her life’s work is an incident that occurred in 1837. In her diary entry on February…
When the Teacher Becomes the Lesson

When the Teacher Becomes the Lesson

Whether they are aware of it or not, I think health professions educators like myself teach with the notion that some of our students today will be the…

Why human flourishing matters in nursing

I had the honor of serving on the expert panel entrusted with the 2025 revision of the Code of Ethics for Nurses. Amid a vast constellation of concerns,…
Professor Lim with his student, Sam Lee, holding a sign that says "thank you teacher" in Korean

Why I choose to be grateful

Around Thanksgiving, I bring blank thank-you cards to class and distribute them to my students. I ask them to take 5 minutes to handwrite a thank-you note to…
nurses walking through hospital

Why I go to the office

In these waning days of the pandemic, one of the hottest discussions is whether office workers should physically go back to the office and end the work-from-home alternative.…
patient documentation

(Mis)adventures in nursing documentation

Recently, I found myself in a lighthearted social gathering of like-minded strangers sipping colorful drinks (it was after 4 PM). As expected, the conversation…
AI in nursing

A staff nurse’s AI wish list

The adage “necessity is the mother of invention” has been propelling human progress (or folly, depending on one’s point of view) since the dawn…
Health literacy varies by patient

Being Sharp in Health Literacy

In 2008, I was working as a per diem staff nurse in a medical-surgical unit at what was then called New York Downtown Hospital.…
Trust in nurses

Examining Public Perception of Nurses

The public places their trust in nurses because they expect them to act truthfully, transparently, and with integrity. Imagine you’re a patient and your…
Nurse helping a patient eat

Food, glorious food… wasted

Everyone has heard this: There is so much food, in fact tons of it, wasted. Every day. In 2010, according to the US Department…
nurse with dying patient

Humanism in Nursing

While cleaning up my electronic files recently, I came across a 2005 article from the Academic Medicine journal titled “A medical experience that taught me…
Keep calm

Keep Calm and Caring

Slogans are terse and memorable phrases typically associated with political campaigns and advertising. They’re the progeny of aphorism and axioms. Some of these catchphrases…
group

Meetings: Boon or boondoggle?

Benjamin Franklin once said: “nothing is certain except death and taxes.” If he were alive today, he would probably add: “… and going to…
Nurse multitasking

Multitasking: Gift or Nursing’s Curse?

A study that examined the cognitive mechanisms involved in task switching, particularly how executive control processes manage multiple tasks (think of the time you…
Nurse

Nurses as Pilgrims

The travel writer Rick Steves describes three types of travelers: tourists, traveler, and pilgrims. I’d like to propose that those same terms can be…
holidays and health

On Health and the Holidays

I first learned about Christmas disease while preparing for a presentation on lab values many years ago. At first glance, I thought it was…
A benevolent Nurse comforting another nurse

On leaving and loving nursing

The nursing shortage is as old as the dawn of modern nursing itself. Of the 38 nurses under the supervision of Florence Nightingale and…
male nurse with patient

On Masculinity and Nursing

Not long ago, I was a panelist for an event entitled Building Ourselves: New Paradigms of Masculinity. As can be discerned from the event’s…
Nurse making patient notes

On Nursing Documentation

A healthcare document records the following: A 70 y/o male, BIBA with a CC of SOB 3 days PTA asso. with Lt sided CP…
Placebo or nocebo

Placebo, nocebo, and nursing care

The term “placebo” entered the English medical lexicon from the Latin word “placeo,” which means “I please” or “I shall please.” Its current usage,…
Student nurse holding textbooks

Read alert: The decline of reading

A student just 2 weeks from graduation once asked me, “Where is the gallbladder?” With candid unconcern, the student admitted that she had never…
nurse prayer, healthcare, registered nurse, nursing, nursing journal

Should we pray about it?

Many years ago, I read about an intriguing randomized controlled trial out of Harvard Medical School, looking into the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer…
summer

Summertime… and the patient is uneasy?

A nurse ponders the “July Effect.” American Nurse Journal values your feedback! Follow this link to answer a few short questions about this article: what…

The Bedpan and its Significance

During the holiday doldrums I came across a 2015 Smithsonian magazine article entitled “The strange saga of George Washington’s bedpan.” The article was a…
Nurse using stethoscope

The case of the vanishing stethoscope

A 2001 study assessed the cardiac auscultation skills of 314 internal medicine residents from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The results…
men in nursing

The Growing Narratives of Men in Nursing

Male nurses, at any given point in their interaction with patients, family, colleagues, and strangers, have most likely answered many mundane and sometimes sublime…

Think thank

Every fourth Thursday of November, millions of Americans gather for dinner to commemorate the celebratory meal that took place in 1621 between the Pilgrims…
attention, nursing, nursing journal, healthcare, American Nurse

We’re distracted. You can Google it.

Within the Tate Galleries in London hangs one of history’s most evocative paintings depicting patient care—the 1887 painting by Sir Luke Fildes, entitled The…
protest over nursing salaries

What’s your reason for nursing?

An often-repeated anecdote about how Florence Nightingale decided nursing was to be her life’s work is an incident that occurred in 1837. In her…
Professor Lim with his student, Sam Lee, holding a sign that says "thank you teacher" in Korean

Why I choose to be grateful

Around Thanksgiving, I bring blank thank-you cards to class and distribute them to my students. I ask them to take 5 minutes to handwrite…
nurses walking through hospital

Why I go to the office

In these waning days of the pandemic, one of the hottest discussions is whether office workers should physically go back to the office and…

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