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“I’m just a nurse.” I cannot tell you how many times I have heard nurses say those words. Sometimes they say it when they are thinking about starting a business. Sometimes it comes out when they are deciding what to charge, introducing themselves to a potential client, promoting their services, or doing something outside their comfort zone. “I’m just a […]

Something happens at work. You are terminated. You are convicted of a crime. Another state takes disciplinary action against your nursing license. Then comes the question that can make even the most seasoned nurse’s heart rate jump: Do I have to report this to the Board of Nursing? The answer is not always yes. One of the biggest mistakes nurses […]

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 […]

The Lindsay Clancy tragedy is one of those stories that is almost impossible to comprehend. Three beautiful children, Cora, Dawson and Callan, lost their lives. Their mother, a labor and delivery nurse, had been struggling with serious mental health symptoms and had repeatedly sought help before that terrible day. Nothing can diminish the magnitude of what happened or the heartbreaking […]

  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 […]

Nurses hear the same explanation year after year: there just isn’t enough money. Hospital leaders point to shrinking reimbursements, rising operating costs, and tight budgets as reasons they cannot increase nurses’ salaries. Yet many of these same hospital systems pay their CEOs and executive leadership teams millions of dollars in salaries, bonuses, and other compensation. It raises a simple but […]