Category: Workplace Issues

At a time when our country is struggling to recruit and retain enough nurses to care for patients, another troubling issue deserves our attention: experienced, dedicated nurses facing detention and possible deportation. This is not about being a Republican or a Democrat. It is about recognizing the contributions of nurses who have built their lives here, cared for our patients, […]

As nurses, we work incredibly hard for our money. We spend long hours on our feet, miss holidays with our families, work weekends, and carry the tremendous responsibility of caring for human lives. We deserve to be compensated well for the education, expertise, and compassion we bring to our profession. So, when I see articles about which states pay nurses […]

Imagine graduating from nursing school after years of studying, clinical rotations, care plans, exams, sleepless nights and sacrifices. You finally make it across the finish line. You are excited to begin your career, earn a paycheck and take care of patients. There is just one problem. You cannot work because you are waiting for your nursing license. Unfortunately, that is […]

  As nurses, we have all had those moments when something just did not feel right. The medication did not look like what we usually give. The patient’s condition did not match the diagnosis. The lab result seemed completely inconsistent with everything else we were seeing. Maybe an order made us stop and think, “Wait a minute. Is this really […]

Welcome back to Part 2 of our nursing myth-busting series. As nurses, we learn an incredible amount in nursing school, orientation, continuing education, and years of clinical practice. But we also learn from each other. Unfortunately, sometimes the “rules” passed around the nurses’ station are not rules at all. They are nursing urban legends. And when your license is on […]

“You haven’t taken report yet, so you can leave.” “The doctor ordered it, so you’re covered.” “If you documented it, you’re protected.” Have you ever heard one of these statements at the nurses’ station? Nursing has its own version of urban legends. They get passed from nurse to nurse, shift to shift, and sometimes generation to generation. Eventually, we hear […]

There is a statistic every nurse, healthcare leader, legislator, and patient should know: hospital workers are seven times more likely to be injured on the job by violence than workers in the general U.S. workforce. The statistic is based on Bureau of Labor Statistics injury data and was recently highlighted in Medical Daily. (Medical Daily) Seven times! We would never […]

There is something wonderful about a lazy river. You get in, grab a tube, lean back, and let the current carry you. You do not have to decide where you are going. You do not have to work very hard. You just float. And before you know it, you are right back where you started. I think that is what […]

  One of the most important lessons nurses can take from the Lindsay Clancy case is the extraordinary importance of documentation. As nurses, we sometimes think of documentation as the part of the job that comes after the “real” nursing is finished. But documentation is part of patient care. The medical record may eventually become the only way someone who was not […]

  For years, nurse practitioners practicing in collaborative practice states have questioned whether mandatory physician collaboration agreements truly exist to protect patients or whether they have become an expensive barrier to providing care. A recently filed lawsuit in Texas has brought that question into the national spotlight. Supported by the Pacific Legal Foundation, the lawsuit challenges Texas laws that require […]