perspectives

8 lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

Clinical nurse specialists share experiences on how the pandemic and social distancing are highlighting the CNS role. The “new normal” resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the…
first year RNs

Be your own nurse: Advice from first year RNs

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with RNs finishing a year-long nurse residency in oncology. I asked them what advice they had for a group of clinical…
time

COVID-19 Survival Tip #1: Time to disconnect

We live in a world where many people are attached to their electronic devices. Like a fetus attached to their mother via an umbilical cord, these individuals believe…
Nursing student grieving after the death of a patient

Dealing with Death as a Nursing Student

Death is common in the hospital but nursing students are rarely prepared to deal with it. Although death is a natural part of life, it’s typically not talked…
Heal Well

Food for thought: Heal well

As nurses, we often say to our patients, “Good luck at home” or “Take care and good luck.” Luck—it’s a funny word. If our patients had luck, would…
nurse talking with patient

Improve the patient experience: STAT

As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, the damage it has left in its path will take years to clean up. Just like with any other catastrophic disaster,…

Navigating loss induced by COVID-19

The COVID-19 global pandemic has disrupted virtually every facet of society, infecting millions of people and instilling lingering fear about what is yet to come. Lockdown procedures and…
medication titration

Nurses need to take the lead on medication titration

For decades, critical care nurses have practiced and shared their knowledge related to titration of continuous I.V. medications. These lifesaving medications primarily affect cardiac function and blood pressure,…
school nurses

Nurses struggling on the frontline of COVID-19

Innovation is important in maintaining an open-minded perspective on the frontline of healthcare, particularly in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a practicing ICU nurse, I know…

Nurses, please don’t withdraw care

When I started practicing as a nurse in an intensive care unit (ICU), everything I saw and heard seemed so unfamiliar. Like on a long immersion in a…

Proud to be chosen

What do you want to be when you grow up? How many times have you heard this question? How many times have you asked this question? As much…
nurses-under-pressure, healthcare, registered nurse, nursing, nursing journal

Sense of Duty

Immanuel Kant believed that no action was moral unless performed out of a sense of duty or obligation. Even the word duty suggests that one must follow a…
toxic-work-relationships

Septic relationships

In the emergency department, we’re well trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of serious infections—infections that start from an infinitesimally small and undetectable microorganism and grow into…
nurse in distress

She Went to Work

“As a Psych Mental Health RN and leader, the loss of life to workplace violence has taken my breath away yet again,” said Dr. Karen Adams DNP, RN, Nurse Manager…

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…
end-of-life

The Conversation Project

Have you ever needed to have a difficult conversation with someone about something very important but avoided it because of the delicate nature of the subject? An example…
opioid

The opioid epidemic—a crisis within a crisis

Opioid overdose deaths are skyrocketing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Author Jennie Burke movingly wrote of her brother’s death from a heroin overdose in May 2020, noting that he…

The soul of a nurse

In the beginning What is that first spark of desire in the mind of an ordinary person to become a nurse and where does it come from? Could…
survivors

To COVID-19 War Nurses

From this Iraq war nurse to all of you COVID-19 war nurses: I see you. I see your utter exhaustion from long days and extra shifts. I see…
nurse reflections

What Did I Get Myself Into?

Nurse reflections on a hectic start to a career. Hello friends, New grad RN here to chime in and say, what did I get myself into? Allow me…

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