allnurses.com 2013 New Year Article Contest

2013 is upon us and we are eager to get the ball rolling. For the New Year Article Contest, 4 winners will be chosen with a total cash value of $600. We have selected 9 subjects for you to choose from and they are Read More!

Habits you picked up from work...

What are some of the habits that you pick up from work? Read More

Encouragement for New Grads with no experience

Application after application was rejected without an interview and even though rejection hurt.. persistence and humor would make up for it. I even had a good laugh when immediately upon applying online to a RN position "reject" popped up (now that is what you call fast!). I kept applying; making myself available for any shift on any unit. I sent out batches of resumes at one time and when no response came, I'd tweak my resume/cover letters, and would send out more. Each time I tweaked my resume I got at least one call. The three interviews I had were for positions I really didn't want but was willing to take for the sake of working. Read More

Take this job and shove it, I ain't working here no more!

I called in to work today and resigned without giving notice. Part of me feels guilty, but another part of me knows it was justified. The job was killing me, emotionally, mentally, and physically. I have plans now to write to my state's Senators and Congressmen regarding having a minimum patient nurse ration implemented statewide.

I have drafted letters to both the nursing administration office of my old job and to the hospital's CEO outlining my story. I hope that through telling my story I might be able to help improve conditions for those fellow nurses I leave behind whom I have come to love and care deeply about. Read More

Facebook notification

I had a nurse send me a FB message that a pt was trying to get ahold of her dr, so she contacted one of my office nurses on FB to see what to do ,who in turn contacted me on FB by instant message I'm not friends with patients and find this unacceptable. Read More

What's it really like to be a nurse?

I have considered/felt called to nursing for many years. I feel I just wasn't ready until now; I feel like it takes tremendous strength to be a nurse, and confidence, and calm, and emotional resilience, and I don't think I had enough of those things until now. I would like to pursue this dream, but I can't tell if I'm crazy.

Have I really grown enough to have the qualities a good nurse has? And do I have unrealistic ideas about what nursing really is? Is the modern health system so difficult that there isn't much space for tenderness and real human connection? Am I strong enough to learn to hold patients' suffering without suffering myself? And how about the abuses I believe nurses sometimes suffer - at the hands of patients, of families, of the medical hierarchy; are those stresses so big I couldn't handle them, or could I learn how? So my question is this - what's it really like to be a nurse? Read More

Concealed Carry...as a nurse?

With the current news over gun control and gun rights legislation being pushed through Congress as a result of the tragedies of Aurora, CO, Newtown, CT and the others like them, the thought of concealed carry among healthcare workers has got my attention peaked. Recently, another allnurses member started a thread about what nurses can do as a result of these horrific events.

This post is not meant to reflect my personal stance on this issue, although I can inform that I am not a CCL holder, nor is it meant to be a bashing session from either side, but I am interested in seeing how many individuals have their concealed carry license, and if they carry while they are at work? What is your take on this issue? Read More

Dangerous patients

Just looking for some help to find written law for a situation. I work in LTC. We have a new resident who on their first day on the hall attacked one of our nurses by strangling them and telling them they were going to kill them. They also took their stethescope and threw it into the nurses' chest. Our facility got an order for an IM med, which the resident could not be given.

Eventually, EMS was called and the resident was sent for a psych eval at hospital. The hospital sent them back just a few hours later. So, two questions--if someone attempts to strangle someone and says they are going to kill them-isn't that one of the qualifications for a mandatory 72 hour psych hold? Read More

Do you ever correct people about medical stuff?

I'm not talking about patient education, I'm just talking about general conversation. I hear people get things wrong medically all the time, but I rarely correct people. For example, a relative said the other day that she thought her mother just had a kidney infection but then "We found out it was E. Coli!" I didn't have the heart to tell her we all have E. coli in our guts and most kidney infections are E. coli. Read More

Women in Combat Arm's Units

This group has a very unique perspective in that the majority of military nurses are women and also that, well your women. Males nurses as well have a unique perspective in that you already service members. Very curious on any strong thoughts on the pro's and con's of this new regulation that is being put in place. Thoughts? Read More

Infected Needlestick

Yesterday morning around 6 am, I was giving a SQ heparin shot in a patient's belly. The patient was really thin so I had to try to grab a lot and I remembered telling myself to make sure I do not get stuck! Well I successfully administered the shot but the patient moved so when the needle was coming out he bled a little from the site and with the movement I poked myself on the left hand through my latex glove. I was frozen for about 15 sec cause I could not believe it!! Read More