Category: Self-Care

Can you believe that mandatory minimum staffing in nursing homes is now a law in New York?  Interestingly, last year Governor Cuomo was exposed for requiring nursing homes to accept COVID-19 positive patients when New York hospitals were overflowing and then not being truthful about the number of deaths of nursing home residents.  However, New York recently passed laws and Governor Cuomo […]

  I am pleased and proud that nurses in my San Diego community have banded together and have taken their passions and advocacies to the streets and were recognized by the American Nurses Association of California with their 2021 President’s award. So, what is inspiring about these nurses? In May 2020, a group of registered nurses volunteered to treat people […]

A recent Ohio University study revealed a correlation between stress and medical errors.  Even before the pandemic, in a study of critical care nurses nationwide, 40% reported depressive symptoms, more than 50% experienced anxiety and over 60% rated their physical health as low. This is so sad that we have such a number of depressed, anxious, and unhealthy nurses in […]

With Nurses Week and Nurses Month coming up, what in the world do we get our nurse friends, colleagues and family members to commemorate the occasion? According to Gary Chapman in his book 5 Love Languages, there are 5 love languages: words of affirmation, acts of service, quality time, gifts and physical touch.  Nurses can be any of these love […]

The number of nurses in acute care is dropping as they are leaving the profession in droves. It is scary to think that we’ve had a nurse shortage even before the CV-19 pandemic erupted but we now are seeing nurses walking away from their careers in even larger numbers.  Today’s nurses have never faced such devastation, disease, and death in […]

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 […]

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 COVID-19 Global Pandemic has everyone, including Nurses, fearful. I want you to remember that it is ok to feel the fear and that you can manage your mind to manage the fear. I am creating a video series “COVID-19 Survival Guide for Nurses and Health Care Practitioners”, as a way to say Thank You and provide you with tools […]

I recently finished an 8-week class on mindfulness-based stress reduction.  I chose to take the class because my sister had attended it and came out like a different person.  She is much more relaxed and focused in her life. The purpose of mindfulness based stress reduction is to be mindful in everything that we do.  Including eating!  There were formal […]

Surely this can’t be happening to me.  I love what I do.  Yet the signs were so insidious and I thought, as most nurses do, that I could do it all.  In the beginning, I stopped doing yoga, then meditation and then eating properly.  My self-care went down the drain.  I was irritable with my children and frustrated with myself.  […]