Category: Empowered Nurses

Guest Post by Alene Nitzky, Ph.D., RN, OCN Alene Nitzky is founder and owner of Sunspirit Wellness Services, LLC based in Fort Collins Colorado. She provides online health coaching and exercise training. She specializes in working with people who have been through cancer treatment, or are living with cancer or other chronic health conditions. Most people go into nursing with […]

Here is one of my favorite quotes by Carols Castaneda, “The trick is in what one emphasizes.  We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves happy.  The amount of work is the same.”  This is so true.  Many nurses ask me, “How do I know if I am on the right direction?”  I believe that if you have a […]

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The late comedian, writer and actor Steve Allen once had a group of individuals, each bilingual but no 2 with the same pair of languages, form a circle. In the televised event, he told a joke, in English, to the first one who then told it in a separate language that he and the third person shared. That person then […]

Have you ever been at the nurses’ station and the manager comes over and says “We need someone to stay over and do a double shift.” You want to run and hide, you have plans and you are flat out exhausted. You hope that one of your coworkers will say yes. The first one said “No I can’t, my daughter […]

Is a med error considered malpractice? “Malpractice” is a fancy word for negligence, but involves a professional. There are 4 elements of malpractice: Duty (the standard of care) Breach (you didn’t do what you were supposed to do or did something that you should not have done); Causation; and Harm. So, let’s put it in layman’s terms. You have a […]

Recently a study was performed which determined six individual factors that lead to human errors. Three factors were contributed to the caregiver, 1) fatigue, 2) emotional stress and 3) multitasking. If you think about situations in your work place, when you are tired or when you are stressed, or you’re trying to do too many things at once it can […]

Every January 1st, millions of people create New Year Resolutions.  And while some never act upon them, others lose interest shortly thereafter.  The reason why many people fail to accomplish their New Year Resolutions is because willpower will get you only so far.  You can’’t will your way to be successful, you can’’t will your way to be rich, you […]

Lorie answers questions for Caroline Porter Thomas’ EmpowerRN tribe

I know how difficult it can be to be understaffed on a busy medical surgical unit or for that matter, any unit and I know that hospitals and nursing homes discourage overtime.  Unfortunately, most state laws do not have any minimum staffing requirements.  You’re in between a rock and a hard place because you are required to accept the assignment […]