Hard and Soft Skills

Two types of skill sets exist in nursing and in other professions: hard skills and soft skills. The hard skills are the hands-on procedural skills that a typical bedside nurse must use to perform the job effectively, while soft skills are the intangible interpersonal skills one needs to facilitate communication and navigate the workplace successfully.

I attended an all-staff meeting that was being facilitated by the hospital administrator, chief nursing officer... I will never forget a statement the administrator made.

"We are now hiring nurses for personalities. We no longer hire nurses for their skills," he said. Read More

Define Nurse

The word "nurse" has a different definition to each person. In this article, I researched where the word "nurse" came from and went in-depth to what the word "nurse" meant to me. Read More

[Toon] Travel Nurses - Share your stories

Share your insights about Travel Nurses! Tell us about them. Which are the best companies to use? How is your schedule? How competitive is travel nursing? How is the pay compared to staff nurses? Do you have any stories to share regarding your "travels"? Read More

Code rolee

As a new nurse sometimes I don't know what to do in a code situation. I find myself just standing there and everyone else participates. What can I do to get more hands on and act like I know what I am doing? Read More

Looking to get into critical care nursing

I have been a nurse going on 2 years now, working on a MS/Pulmonary unit. I'm trying to transition into critical care, but my facility has not had any positions available in critical care for years now. I have also been looking into internship programs, but I have been unsuccessful as well. I'm really hoping to become a Nurse Anesthetist, and I know this is my next step….. What can I do to gain that experience that I need? Read More

I am not a storyteller

There are days in nursing that seem to drag on...and there are days that fly by. Patients and families grow to be part of your life, an extended family, and they make those days. This is a story of an exceptional day in my life as a pediatric oncology nurse. This day changed me forever.

I am not a storyteller. I am not a person whose story needs to be heard. But I have met those whose story is worth telling. And so I will set forth to the best of my ability to share their story. Read More

Central Line Air Embolism

I was recently reading about central lines and how the patient should be lying down while we remove them to prevent air embolism. Most of my patients have Hickmans and ports, but we do remove PICCs every once and a while. I'm just curious... How does sitting upright cause an air embolism versus lying down? Do patients with midlines need to be lying down also? Read More

What's New on allnurses

We know that change is difficult. But, to NOT change is fatal. Technology is changing so fast that we have to keep up or fall behind. Our mobile growth is growing by leaps and bounds.

Below is an outline of some of the changes we made on allnurses as of this date. A new mobile app and mobile style will accompany these changes in the next few weeks. Our goal is to create a unifying experience across different types of devices. ie. computers, tablets, phones, etc. Read More

Can you take a patient's medication without their consent?

Can an RN legally take a patient's tylenol#3 without their consent? Lets say you have a mentally ill patient who was formerly conserved but not anymore. His judgement may not be sound but he is technically competent (but questionable). If the nurse is afraid that in his attempts to get high, he overdoses or gets liver failure, can the nurse take the patients medication? Read More

Travelers in your NICU?

I am considering starting a travel career in the NICU and am looking for experiences staff had with travelers. Does your NICU use travel nurses? If so what are their assignments typically like, how are they perceived/treated? Read More

A Spoonful of Sugar

This is an interesting debate. One that can have multiple pros and cons. In essence, can one be a nurse and view it as just another day, a job, a paycheck, a means to an alternate end? Can we care for patients without really caring about them?

Can a nurse just do what they need to, cut bait, and move on? Do facilities care about the numbers, or do they care about the patients? Do facilities want a nurse to take on greater and greater assignments of higher and higher acuity and do it all with a smile and kind words? Read More