Respect your bladder

An article on the most important lesson I learned during my first year as a nurse. Physical distress can augment our stress levels and a full and overfull bladder is often ignored by nurses as being prioritizable into their workload. As we are always looking for ways to improve nursing care, I found it is okay to take time to use the bathroom so we are not stressed out, pee laden nurses making bad decisions because our bodies are eliciting a stress response to us ignoring our physical needs. Its okay to pee at work. In fact, quality nursing care depends on it. Read More

Transplant RN Job Opportunity

I have been offered a transplant RN position taking care of pre and post op kidney transplant patients. I know that I want to work in a surgical ICU eventually. Is this a good position in order to work towards this goal? Can someone provide insight on transplant floors? Any information provided would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Read More

How to pay back your student loans

Students are borrowing more today then they were years ago. Scholarships and grants are not keeping up with the costs of getting a nursing degree. Here are some tips on paying down your debt...

1. Pay off private loans first 2. Consolidate your loans 3. Pay student loans online - you may get a 0.25% deduction on your interest rate Read More

Your duties in addition to seeing patients

What other responsibilities do you have in addition to seeing patients?

I recently started my first job as an NP. It is currently part time but I would like it to expand into full time. I am in clinic 3 days a week, for about 18-20 hours total. I also get paid for 3-4 hours weekly of "computer time," doing things like updating his website, putting together patient education materials, etc. We may soon be adding another day to the clinic schedule once I am seeing more patients independently.

This is my first job and I am also the first NP to be hired by this MD, so we are figuring this out together. He knows I want full time and that it's in his interest to have one stable FT NP than a string of PTers who come and go. Read More

Rehab needs to get a clue

We have rehab people walk down the hall and say to the nurse , who is in the middle of a med pass, that the lady in room 15 has leg pain. They then stroll away without even making sure the nurse has heard. THEN they complain that the nurse did nothing with the information.

Really? Do any of them have a clue about the concentration needed to pass meds to 20 residents who take an average of 15 meds each?? One break in that concentration and a huge med error could occur. Our rehab manager seems to enjoy trying to throw the nurse under the bus. He only backs down when I intervene. I think I've had enough of this. Read More

Fresh Heart Training

I am new to CVICU and have been taking step down patients, trying to get my feet wet. It is coming up on 6 months, and I am supposed to start taking fresh hearts soon. I have tried studying meds, machines, interpretations, etc. I feel overwhelmed. I would like to know how you guys got your training. Were you just thrown in and told "ask me if you have questions" or was there a formal training opportunity. Read More

I'm just not that into you

"Old nurses are just so mean!"
"Young grads are really mean!"
"The doctors are mean!"
"My co-workers are mean!"
"The patients are demanding and mean!"

How many times have we heard these very words? How many times have we experienced one (or all) of the above? Are people really mean, or is our ability to communicate interpersonally broken down to the point that every interaction ends with someone who is mean?

I believe mean can be subjective. My huge disclaimer is the fact that YES, some people are just miserable. That if the miserable person you deal with (or dare I say deals with you) is in your personal life, please get help for that. The purpose of this article is to talk about work related "mean-ness" and how interpersonal skills can help one cope. Read More...

Where do you prefer an IV?

If you are a patient, where would you prefer an IV to be placed? Personally, I can keep my arm straight if it's my off side, and I am not a fan of hand vein IVs for myself, so an AC for me please. Read More

Personality At Work vs. At Home

I'm transitioning back into a clinical role after some time off and am realizing how different I am when I'm practicing as a nurse vs. in my mundane "off" time. At home, I'm cluttered, scatter-brained, meek, passive and always looking for someone to tell me that what I'm doing is right.

At work, I use clinical judgment and critical thinking, I'm organized, I anticipate needs, and I'm more patient than I ever thought was possible. I'm also more relaxed and at ease in conversation.

Obviously, I put on my "game face" for work and it works (and should!), but who else experiences this phenomenon? Are you a different person at work than if I were to bump into you at the grocery store? Read More!

Less Common Nursing Interview Questions

Due to the current economic situation, many local employment markets across the United States contain a multitude of job seekers in competition for a very limited number of positions. To weed out the excessive number of qualified candidates, human resources personnel and hiring managers are scrutinizing applicants more closely and asking tougher interview questions than ever before.

Without further delay, here is a list of tough interview questions that you might be asked. Some of these questions are very odd and unconventional, but they all have a specific purpose. Read More

The way we ask for someone's pain level?

I'm trying to look for a way to ask them on their pain level without planting into their minds the idea that they're actually feeling pain. Of course we can plan a response from their report, but we might be addressing pain that is actually not present in that moment.

Can we ask a general question of "how are you feeling right now?", instead of "are you feeling any pain right now?" Should we be direct or indirect in these kind of situations? Is that possible? Read More

Grateful for grateful patients....Tears and Thank yous.

It's been an interesting couple of weeks in the old ER, rotten shifts and yet strangely awash with genuinely sick and unnervingly pleasant patients. I've had a tear in my eye more than once because a few words of kindness from patients have been thrown my way... Maybe I'm going soft in my old age. Tell me some of your stories, here are a few of mine. Read More