:yeah:In homage to an Allnurses member who wrote a wonderful article entitled "Nurses Are So Mean", I'd like to provide excerpts from my personal blog which I wrote not to long ago. I give enormous kudos and applause to the writer of this article, and I sincerely agree. It seriously is about taking the time to evaluate your self and your actions,...

Warning: Please be advised that while the tone of this particular article is a bit biting and sarcastic, (I had a little fun poking and painting a picture of a manager I think we have all at least once encountered), professionalism, warmth, honesty, respect and open communication are keys to a successful relationship with your manager. Off we go....

Am I Babysitting or Supervising? Working in rural areas has it challenges, especially when working in a long term care facility in the middle of no where. I was a new RN grad and full of enthusiasm, even though I was in my late thirties. As I scanned the local job listings and word of mouth jobs, I came across an ad for a Unit Manager in...

In September 1993, I began a full-time position as a Skilled Nurse doing visits and shifts for a Home Health care agency. I had sporadically worked some midnight shifts for this agency six months prior to joining full-time. Meanwhile, I had been working 12 hour midnight shifts full-time at a small local hospital on the Med/Surg unit and in the ER....

Well, you all know that’s not really possible. You either pass on the first time, or you don’t. But I sure feel like that’s how it was. My boyfriend and me met 4 years ago, through my brother. What are the chances that we were both busy doing nursing pre-reqs? He finished his, and applied at the local Community College. They lost his...

My Inside Does Not Match My Outside My eight hour shift at the nursing home has ended, so off I walk to my pickup truck for the monotonous ride home. Driving into my yard it takes every bit of energy to carry myself into the house. Hobbling along I manage to clear the doorstep and flop into my recliner...

Working on an subacute floor proved I had more in me than I ever thought possible. After all most comments made were negative comments such as "you will never pass A&P", but I did. I also heard, "I don't trust you giving out meds." This comment was made by the Head of Nursing program at the community college I attended who had never seen me give...

A transition in focus: From individualized bedside nursing care to global healthcare and how America made it possible for me. Choosing nursing as an undergraduate degree was largely to heed my father’s wisdom. It was later on that I learned the vocation nursing truly is. Nursing provided a knowledge that was rewardingly and unmistakably...

One of my very first patients off orientation as a new graduate nurse was named Ida (name changed for obvious privacy reasons). Ida was a morbidly obese lady in her early 70s. Ida came to us from an understaffed and unsafe local nursing home. She had type II diabetes and as a result had necrotic toes on her feet. Infections were common in her...

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...