Category: Empowered Nurses

When COVID-19 first erupted, nurses showed up to the University of Illinois Chicago Hospital to care for affected members of the community in their great time of need.  The nurses risked their lives and those of their families to be at their job while the rest of us were in lock down. A week ago, when the union contract at […]

Employment law was constructed out of a master/servant relationship.  There are very few instances where you can sue for wrongful termination.  Those are limited to discrimination against sex, age, race, and religion.  However, under the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), sexual harassment in the workplace is a form of sexual discrimination which is protected. Unfortunately, sexual harassment against nurses is […]

Every morning I wake up feeling like I am in a dream.  My life as I had known it is now completely different and I can no longer do most of the things I used to enjoy doing. I can’t imagine what it must be like for nurses on the front lines to go to work every day to take […]

Erin Marie Olszewski is an Army combat veteran who served our country on the front lines in Iraq during Desert Storm.   Earlier this year, as a nurse, she traveled from her Florida home to work at Elmhurst Hospital in New York to work on the COVID unit. Having worked in an ICU COVID unit in the Sunshine State, she was […]

Can you imagine being in nursing school while a pandemic flourishes all around you?  I remember how scared I was when I first graduated, wondering if I was going to remember anything, if I was going to get it right and/or whether a patient was going to die.  To also worry about the effects of an ongoing virus outbreak would […]

As our society continues to become more technologically oriented, there is less and less time to have interaction with others, especially during this trying time.  In addition, in nursing, we rely so heavily on technology and are usually “knee deep” in watching monitors, taking vitals, performing assessments, doing treatments, passing out meds and charting on the computer that we can’t […]

Years ago, when I first realized that I wanted to be a nurse, my parents thought that was great and told me, “Oh, you will always have a job.” At the outset of my career, I had 7 interviews and 7 job offers.  Unfortunately, with COVID, that is not the case at this time.  As hospitals continue to lose revenue, […]

This is National Nurses Week although the World Health Organization has declared 2020 as the Year of the Nurse.  The American Nurses Association has made this the month to celebrate nurses with May being nurses’ month. Regardless, every day should be Nurses Day and nurses should be celebrated for all they do. This pandemic has spotlighted nursing and has thrust […]

Whether or not we are on the front lines, many are experiencing what used to be called “shell shock” or “combat fatigue.”  The American Psychological Association calls it post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) “that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, rape or other violent […]

The New York State Health Department and 2 hospitals were served with 3 lawsuits alleging they failed to protect healthcare workers and the public. The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) is a union and advocates for nurses for safe staffing, professional pay and benefits and a voice in patient care. The lawsuits claim that the Department of Health and […]