Questions and Myths Regarding Your Nursing Career

Whether you are a nursing student or a new grad, you probably have many questions surrounding your future as a nurse. Let’s look at a few of the more common questions and myths that keep coming up.
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What to Do When the Doctor Throws the Nurse Under the Bus by Lying

I received a pt with an order to transfuse if hemoglobin drops below 8. When the blood was drawn for the pt, the hemoglobin was 7.3 so I was preparing to start a blood transfusion when I noted there was no consent for a blood transfusion in the patient's chart. As it was dinner-time already, I called the hospitalist and asked him to do the patient's consent. He refused.
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So disappointed in hospital RNs and MDs

I'm an RN, now FNP x 5 years with over 15 years of ER/CCU and ICU experience. Is it old fashioned to expect RNs to do a full assessment at the beginning of their shift?
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The Nurse's Guide to Observing Chanukkah

I grew up in a very Jewish neighborhood in Pittsburgh. It was nothing for me to see Orthodox Jews walking to Temple on Saturday morning, wearing the long locks and black suits. Even as someone who grew up so closely with that culture, I still didn’t understand the ins and outs of what it meant to be Jewish. Sure, we included Jewish friends in our Catholic Christmas merry making, but I never really understood what the winter holidays meant to my friends.
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Ready to let go. But not right NOW.

I recently spent 45 minutes talking about death, and hospice, with my husband’s sister in Maryland. Her mother — a delightfully quirky 91-year-old activist who still spends her days faxing her congressmen — just signed on with the local hospice.
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It's that time of year...Christmas stories

Christmas is coming. Half of us will be schlepping the halls. This time of year always brings back one particular Christmas on duty. First rounds , I am assessing a patient whose name was Jesus, a Mexican-American patient with a common first name for that culture. His wife...
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The Health Insurance Marketplace: What We Learned and How We Can Educate Our Patients

In the concluding article of my journey navigating the Health Insurance Marketplace, questions are answered and the discussion continues about how as nurses we are able to help our patients navigate the Marketplace.
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[Toon] Do you ever feel like you have broken out in a happy rash?

There are times when we all experience mild allergic reactions when our bodies come in contact with new substances such as food, chemicals, etc. Some people even experience contact dermatitis as a reaction to new detergents or fabrics. As nurses, we get so comfortable in our scrubs...they are like a second skin.
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