In our ED, it’s not uncommon for us to see inmates from the local adult detention center. They are always accompanied by deputies, meaning they need a more private room because of the size of their entourage and propensity for associated drama — either the patients themselves being unruly, or the irresistible urge other patients or family members...

As a school nurse, I am in the unique position of acting as both a teacher and a nurse. Sure, nurses do patient teaching all the time, but somehow there is a difference when you realize that you're no longer just teaching Mrs. Smith how to change her colostomy and you're now teaching ideals and concepts that you hope will carry a child through...

When the ambulance rolled up to the ER I could see the EMTs doing chest compressions on my dad. I remembered a guy his size who had coded when I was working on the floor- that guy did not make it. I started to shake and sob loudly. The ER nurse came over- I told her I would not interfere but I did not want to scare people in the waiting room-...

“Oh, that hurts so much!” My grandma’s eyes are screwed shut and her breath is coming short and quick. I am trying to peel back the tape holding the bloody gauze to her leg. The nurse that comes to her house twice a day to check on her and change the dressing was in a hurry and used a very sticky tape directly on my grandma’s papery skin. ...

A sense of humor runs in my family. My great grandfather was well known as a great story teller -- almost everyone in the county knew Willy and could repeat some of his best stories. When I was in high school, I was always running into oldsters who would say “Ruby Vee? You’re George’s daughter, aren’t you? I went to high school with your great...

I wish I had a dollar for every post I've read claiming that "nurses are so mean," "nurses are nasty to each other," "nurses eat their young" or "my preceptor is picking on me for no good reason." And then if you add in all the nurses who are "fired for NO reason" or is hated by their co-workers because they're so much younger and more beautiful...

st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) } WING USA Friends, I’m forwarding now the SPH Update from 2-28-10, with Marsha Medlin’s CHAPS on the Hill report, which is posted just below the announcement and link to actress Sally Kellerman’s endorsement of SPH legislationat www.wingusa.org … WING USA Safe Patient Handling Update February 28,...

st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) } WING USA Friends, I’m forwarding now the SPH Update from 2-28-10, with Marsha Medlin’s CHAPS on the Hill report, which is posted just below the announcement and link to actress Sally Kellerman’s endorsement of SPH legislationat www.wingusa.org … WING USA Safe Patient Handling Update February 28,...

I returned to nursing after having been at home with my children for a number of years. At first, I was apprehensive and uncomfortable. But I had a great team of nurses and a wonderful preceptor and eventually my "deer in the headlights" look gave way to an underlying confidence. I had learned to enter into countless new situations believing that...

I woke up excited and nervous about clinicals. I put on my school issued scrubs, with girdle underneath, and tied the waist tight. I am 5 ft 3 and 290 pounds, and a girdle is necessary in order to keep my pants from going straight up my butt. I tied them extra tight because I did not want them slipping down off my ass like they did during bed...

This year marks my twentieth year as a nurse. Hard to believe. I wonder how many patients I have cared for in twenty years? It boggles my mind. I am certainly not the same nurse I used to be. Long gone is that young naive girl that graduated LVN school in 1990. She was a little scared and insecure with her abilities to perform her newly-...

NURSES AND LAWSUITS: A MEDICO-LEGAL PERSPECTIVE As nurses initiate their professional obligations, their legal responsibilities also begin. As they start their journey, they also start learning from themselves and from other people. Their license bears out that they are capable and qualified under the law to practice their...

When I was a little girl, I always knew I wanted to be a mother. After my first child was born, I knew I wanted to be a nurse. I never knew how intimately these two experiences would impact each other. Two more children came along, and I stayed home with the three of them until they all began school. I love being a mom! I was with them for...

This is something that I wrotte for a class while I was in Nursing School. I came across it again and decided to post it and see what the reaction would be. Fire away, all responses or opionons will be welcomed, none will be taken personally. American culture has become less and less formal in recent years. In most businesses employees...

I still remember my first clinical patient well. I was a brand new nursing student, never having touched a patient before starting school, and now she was in my care. She was elderly, although I don't remember her exact age. She had a past medical history list longer than my care plans, everything that could go wrong for this woman had. End stage...

Dear clinical student, I am your soon-to-be instructor. Know that I love this profession and have dedicated my life to it and to my patients. I consider this profession to be a calling. I did not come to this profession for money, for prestige, or for the title. I came to it for the love of caring for people at their worse. Along the way I...

I had been in the dental field for years and had slowly moved my way up by learning each job until I was proficient and then seeking more of a challenge. I did this for 9 years until I found myself with a Bachelor’s in Healthcare Management and the Office Manager for a multi-dentist practice that I had rescued from the verge of bankruptcy....

It wasn’t until I put scrubs on for the first time in more than a decade that I remembered. Up to that point, although I’d committed myself to going to nursing school, had signed all of the necessary papers, had bought all of my books and supplies, I still had reservations. Given my past experience, this was a reasonable response. I had...

Been there, done that. After approximately 30 years in nursing, I thought I knew it all. Then the unthinkable happened. I was my husbands horse with friends. We were galloping on a dry lake bed. I went to bump my horse back ( i.e. slow him) and he went from a full gallop to a dead stop in seconds. Kinetic energy carried me forward into the...

This is it. This is what I have been waiting and preparing for during the past five years. This is the day I've dreamed of since I was a small child. This is what I know I have been called to do and am finally going to do. Today is my first day of nursing school. God willing, 16 months from now I will be an RN, and in two...