Category: Empowered Nurses

As many of you know, I have been working a lot on my personal growth for some time. I recently discovered something about myself that I want to share with you in hopes that it may help some of you as well. It’s hard for me to believe that I never put this together until after many decades of soul-searching […]

A recent publication reported the story of a nurse who was still working in an emergency department after 23 years of dedicated service. During that time, she frequently experienced being spat upon, bitten, punched, slapped, cursed and even splashed in the face with bodily fluids. One of her latest encounters was the worst. Her patient was a man who had […]

Do you have an attitude of gratitude? Our society as a whole is so focused on things that go wrong rather than appreciating all the things that go right. When I was practicing nursing, I worked agency and would work at any hospital or unit where there was a need. Immediately, when I walked on to the unit, I could […]

Recently I read an article about a nurse who was the beneficiary of a deceased couple’s estate. I may not be recalling the facts exactly but the lesson of my message is what’s important. The nurse provided for an elderly husband and wife for years up to the point where the home care could no longer provide for their needs. […]

Have you ever headed somewhere and took a shortcut only to wind up taking more time than had you taken the original route? Well, the same is true in nursing. Some nurses take shortcuts to expedite their work load. Shortcuts can include pre-documenting, medication administration, setting up medications early or even ordering items well before the physician arrives because you […]

The National Practitioner Databank is a repository for the names of certain individuals who have had an adverse action against their license or medical malpractice verdict or settlement. Congress enacted legislation to create the Databank because of increasing occurrences of medical malpractice litigation and the need to improve quality medical care. One of the factors that pushed for the need […]

As I begin to write this article, some of things that I will say in it are tongue in cheek but, in all seriousness, everything here is true. FAILING TO KEEP BOARD APPRISED OF YOUR CURRENT ADDRESS: I am surprised how many nurses forget to give the Licensing Board their current address, especially if the address is for licenses in […]

A sad situation occurred in South Carolina where a nurse misread a physician’s order resulting in the over medication of a child causing his death. It is so sad that this happened. The family now has gone to the State legislature and asked that a law be passed which would require the South Carolina State Board of Nursing to revoke […]

I was fortunate enough to review the book Your Next Shift by Elizabeth Scala before it was released to the public. Now, I have the opportunity to share with you in more detail my thoughts about her book as it is now available. http://bit.ly/ESCALA.  Elizabeth was a psychiatric nurse who, like many of us, experienced stress and burnout on the […]

I am constantly amazed at the number of nurses I meet who do not know their facilities policies and procedures. The policies and procedures are your “bible” in the nursing profession. You are required to know and follow these policies and procedures. Just because people always do things a certain way does not necessarily mean that it’s proper. The policies […]