Category: Self-Care

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.  […]

A study was released last year that found nurses are 23% more likely to take their own lives than the general population.  Adding to that shocking statistic is that nurses are 4 times more likely to commit suicide than people working outside of the medical field.  This is all so tragic and sad. Nurses have access to lethal medications, which […]

I previously have written that in Texas nurses filed a complaint for not being paid for breaks that they were unable to take and how some hospitals use break or lunch nurses to fill in so that the others can take a break.  Click HERE The St. Charles Health System in Oregon utilizes the “buddy system.”  They require nurses to […]

  A completely unscientific review of the nurses who I have represented for licensing issues shows that the vast majority of them worked the night shift. The areas where some nurses seem to get in trouble are: (1)    sleeping on the job – because they haven’t adjusted to the night shift schedule; (2)    taking Ambien for sleep during the day […]

What is the first thing that a physician orders when you work night shift and have trouble sleeping during the day?  The physician orders Ambien! Maybe you’ve been working long hours; walking the hard floors of a hospital and it’s taking a toll on your back and other joints.  If you have pain, which cannot be controlled by non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, […]

Frequently I hear nurses saying that we don’t have enough staff to take care of the patients.  The patients are too sick.  We have too many patients.  There are not enough supplies to care for the patients and we don’t have enough time to do everything we need to care for the patients.  These conversations are based in scarcity and […]

Health care providers are some of the key people who should be able to identify domestic violence and provide the appropriate assistance and referrals.  But what if the domestic violence is happening to that health care provider?  What if one of our own nurses is the victim?  What if YOU are the victim? As nurses, like all health care providers, […]