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Substance abuse is one of the most important issues in nursing because access is so easy. Even with Pyxis machines that distribute medications with a thumb print, there still are ways that a determined nurse can divert medication. According to the Indiana State Nurses Assistance Program [ISNAP]: Impaired nurses demonstrate mood swings and irritability. He/she may seem depressed for no […]

Legal Issues No nurse practitioner wants to face a medical malpractice action. According to the National Practitioner Databank, damages were paid by or on behalf of 290 nurse practitioners in medical malpractice cases in the year 2012 alone. The best way to prevent a medical malpractice action is to be proactive. Here are five tips to avoid malpractice claims. 1. […]

Lately I have been receiving a lot of calls from nurses who either had a criminal problem in their past and are afraid that they won’t be able to get their nursing license or have had a criminal matter after they had obtained their license. None of these nurses ever thought that they would have a criminal matter but somehow […]

I have heard from many nurses that where they are working is understaffed which is not safe for the patients. Those nurses put in a lot of overtime because they are concerned that if they didn’t, there would be fewer staff available to care for the patients. They also expressed concerns that if the facility is able to get staff […]

I remember when I was practicing nursing; it seemed that the rest of the world was on the weekday 9:00 to 5:00 schedule. However, I worked the 3:00 to 11:30 p.m. shift, five days a week and tried to make as much overtime as I could so I could pay back my student loans. My social life took a backseat. […]

What would you do if your supervisor asked you to do something that you think may be questionable? Would you follow the order or would you question it? Let me give you some examples to consider: You work homecare and you never see your supervisor. She tells you to sign her name on your time card so you can get […]

Did you know that your State Board of Nursing not only regulates nursing licenses but also nursing schools as well? I have had the opportunity over the past several months to sit in on the Indiana State of Nursing and listen to their discussions about different schools. Before going on, let me tell you that your Board of Nursing is […]

A nurse, Maria, was working in the ICU. There were 8 patients with 4 nurses. The acuity was very high and for everything that needed to be done for each patient, they needed more staff. One patient coded and 2 nurses were assisting with the code while the other 2 nurses were caring for the remaining 7 patients. One of […]

The definition of “insanity” is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting to get a different result. Sometimes I feel like a hamster on a wheel – I try to escape the wheel but it keeps going round and round. I also am thinking that if I keep going on this wheel, I’m going to get somewhere, […]

What differentiates humans from animals is our ability to think. Animals are programmed perfectly. Their instincts guide them to food and steers them away from danger. As humans, we are unfortunately not programmed so perfectly. Our mind takes over and we think ourselves out of things that we should be doing for our highest good. So, as humans, we are […]