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Recently I was on an airplane when a passenger became very ill and went to the restroom.  A flight attendant asked if there was any health professional available to provide help. My first thought was “Oh, no.  I haven’t practiced in years!  Do I really want to get involved?  And, if I do, can I get sued if I try […]

As a nurse or other health care professional, we have a special relationship with our patients.  People expect a nurse to act in the patient’s best interest and to respect their dignity. It is extremely important for a health care professional to maintain a therapeutic relationship with the patient.  A therapeutic relationship is one where the nurse can apply her […]

Did you know that if you have professional licenses in more than one State and an action is taken against your license in one of the two, it is most likely that an action will be taken against your license in the other State as well? Did you also know that if you have a license that is no longer […]

… and, in fact, it’s not just nurses but everybody!  I have several mentors and coaches who guide me in my law practice.  Even though I’ve been a lawyer for 25 years, mentors always have new insights to help. Many nurses get caught up in the norms of their unit with the “we’ve-always-done-it-this-way” syndrome.  If you are a new nurse, […]

Normally I am neither one to get on a bandwagon nor to comment on anything negative.  Though I hesitated to write this article, I found myself so moved by the response of nurses to a recent broadcast of the television discussion program called “The View” that I felt compelled to write this. I watched last week’s broadcast of the Miss […]

Since when have hospitals become so concerned with patient satisfaction that we now are giving concierge-type care instead of doing what’s necessary to save people’s lives?  We have gone from a society of small community hospitals where the focus was on truly taking care of the patients to huge corporations where the focus is more on making sure patients are […]

It is with a bit of embarrassment that I share this story with you but in my opinion the teaching points are important. Those who have read my books have heard of the man who coded early in my nursing career.  While the more experienced nurses went to his aid, I was asked to watch the other patients on the […]

As a nurse, our identity is so tied with our profession.  If there is any question about how we are doing our job, we take it personally.  If you have been written up or have been disciplined as a nurse, I would encourage you to look at things differently.  View it as a learning opportunity. If you recall, I’m sure […]

I guess I’m a little bit of a techie and just got a Fitbit which monitors my steps and activities. I enjoy watching my number of steps throughout the day. When I was a nurse, I would spend my time walking down large halls to see my patients and back to the nurse’s station to chart. Once I became an […]

It is really sad to listen to the stories I hear from some of my clients about communications in nursing. Nurses talk behind each other’s back, complain about each other and, sometimes, have no hesitation in putting down others, right in front of each other. It’s sort of like middle school. I know I used to be quiet and keep […]