Category: Empowered Nurses

During that part of my career when I walked the hospital hallways as a Registered Nurse, I would reach my assigned floor to receive report and couldn’t help but hear many colleagues as they complained about patients, the hospital and, in general, our profession.  Immediately I would feel like energy was being drained from my body and I had to […]

  Last week, the jury returned a verdict in the case of Maya Kowalski.  I have previously written about Maya Kowalski, who was a 10-year-old girl at the at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospitals in Tampa, Florida. Maya had suffered from Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and was receiving Ketamine treatments which reduces the sensation of pain even though they […]

  On August 7, 2023, in Dayton, Ohio, Tristin Kate Smith committed suicide! The worst part of this story is that Tristin, a 28-year-old ER nurse, accused her abuser, healthcare, as the reason for taking her own life.  She confided in detail in a note found on her computer by her father after her death about how she gave her […]

Lucy Letby, a 33-year-old NICU Nurse in the UK was recently found guilty of murdering 7 babies and trying to kill 6 others over a two-year period.  She killed or injured the infants by injecting air or milk directly into the stomachs of some, 2 were slain with insulin and others had their breathing apparatuses compromised.  And these are only […]

Maya Kowalski, daughter of Registered Nurse Beata Kowalski, was 9 years old in 2015 and suffering debilitating pain.  She was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (“CRPS”), resulting in symptoms such as stiffness, spasms, and limited mobility. Her mother was able to find a doctor who was able to properly diagnose her, and he prescribed ketamine treatments to block the […]

  I feel like I sound like a broken record continually harping on how many registered nurses are expected to leave their careers and how the path will affect mandatory state safe staffing.  Along with previous research, another survey on this subject has been published by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.  In it, 335,000 registered nurses and […]

  The main reason, or maybe the only reason hospitals exist is for nursing care.  As an intricate tapestry of healthcare, nurses are the threads that bind all of health care together.  They are compassionate caregivers and tireless advocates.  Yes, they are unsung heroes who day and night work diligently to ensure every patient’s well-being. Yet what if one day, […]

  Were you aware that the CEO of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was paid $7,700,000.00 in 2021?  And got a bonus of $5,600,000.00 to boot?  That’s more than the hospital had provided in all charity offerings over the previous three years! That package averaged to over a quarter million ($256,000.00) a week; almost $6,400.00 an hour! When I first heard […]

  The Biden Administration announced that it is awarding more than $100,000,000.00 to train more nurses in growing the nursing workforce. However, will adding more nurses solve the problems in nursing where nurses are leaving in droves? I don’t think so.  The problem is the context of nursing is practice and how nurses don’t feel valued and appreciated by administrations.  […]

      In Augusta, Maine, that state has promulgated legislation called the Maine Quality Care Act which sets enforceable nurse to patient ratios in many hospitals.  The bill unfortunately does not include long-term care facilities where it seems many of the problems occur. However, it will cover acute care and psych hospitals as well as freestanding emergency departments and […]