Category: Workplace Issues

I remember the time when hospitals were owned by communities or religious organizations with the sole purpose of providing health care to community members in need. But now hospitals have evolved into multi-system corporate conglomerates where their main focus is to make a profit. A recent article in Beckers Clinical Leadership titled “NP Staffing Models: A Double Edged Sword For […]

Recently, a shocking story from Kentucky highlighted the importance of caution and communication in healthcare. A man was mistakenly declared brain-dead and nearly had his organs harvested before his family’s vigilance saved his life. As nurses, we are often the ones closest to our patients and their families, and there are valuable lessons we can take from this case to […]

  The healthcare industry is facing a perplexing and unfortunate contradiction: hospitals are laying off nurses even as a nationwide nursing shortage continues to worsen. For those of us who live and breathe nursing, this seems illogical—how can hospitals justify layoffs when they struggle to staff their units adequately? Let’s dive into why this is happening and what it means […]

Since the onset of the pandemic, the pay rates for travel nurses have doubled.  However, federal money for COVID-19 has dried up because there are far fewer hospitalizations for the disease.  As a result, the need for travel nurses has decreased by one third. In addition, some travel nurses are starting new contracts to only find out that the arrangement […]

Lorie Brown, Nurse Attorney, discusses the Top 5 Lessons Learned from RaDonda Vaught’s Situation. The lessons include how to protect your freedom and nursing license as well as insurance for nurses.

It is no surprise that if you have been to a gas station lately, the price for a gallon of gasoline has skyrocketed.  Of course, you noticed that your groceries are also costing more. According to the Social Security Administration, they gave all its recipients (70 million people) a record breaking 5.9% increase. When I look at employment records for […]

Lorie Brown, RN, MN, JD, discusses the amount of stress that nurses are under and ways to relieve some of the stress in order to protect your nursing license. Lorie also talks about the importance of relieving stress and taking time for yourself so you can be there for your patients and not make mistakes. She also talks about different […]

Florence Rigney, who goes by “SeeSee”, started her career as a nurse in the same era that penicillin was being developed. Graduating from nursing school in 1946, if you do the math, you’ll realize that she has been a nurse for 75 years, three-fourths of a century! And all but those first 5 years were at MultiCare Tacoma General in […]

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 […]

  Not too long ago I wrote about a nurse, Cliff Willmeng, R.N., who was terminated from his emergency room position for refusing to wear his own personal scrubs while working. Instead, he insisted on wearing hospital issued scrubs which he could leave at the facility to disinfect and clean rather than risking his family’s health by bringing home possibly […]