Nurses and Facebook were in the news recently when a nurse spotted eye cancer on a child from a Facebook photo. Last month, Facebook photos caused a controversy after four Kansas nursing students were dismissed for posing for photos with a placenta and then posting them on Facebook. Doyle Byrnes is the nursing student at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, KS, who was dismissed from the college nursing program as a result of a November incident...  Read More »

An Orthodox Jewish nurse who wasn’t hired after saying she couldn’t work on the Sabbath has been granted $40,000 from New York City in a discrimination settlement, reports the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). In 2007, Alisa Dolinsky was offered a job by Color-Goldwater Specialty Hospital & Nursing Facility, New York City but after telling them that due to her religious practices she could not work on the Sabbath, they terminated her from the position. Observant...  Read More »

Inserting a bladder catheter, a nasogastric tube, and an IV stick are a few regular tasks that a nurse does on a day-to-day basis. But do nurses enjoy it? In a recent blog post, blogger The Nerdy Nurse shares that although these are regular nursing duties, she is feels a sense of pride and accomplishment after performing these tasks. “There is just something inside of me, a switch, if you will, that turns on and I get into nurse zone,” she writes. Some...  Read More »

Despite the struggling job market and economy meaning many new RNs have had difficulty finding jobs this year, a new report says nurses need not worry over the long term. Nursing came in as one of the best careers of 2011 in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Careers 2011. U.S. News reports nursing is a thriving career the need for nurses grows increases each year. The country is expected to add 582,000 registered nursing jobs by 2018. Nursing also presents...  Read More »

You’ve just completed an 12 hour shift and all you want to do is head home to relax. Just before your shift ends, however, a patient is admitted with internal bleeding. Nurse blogger The Nerdy Nurse recently posted on some of the reasons why she hates getting an admission at a shift change. Here’s a few of her reasons: Patients almost never have an accurate medication list or their medication bottles. The patient room is often filled with family members,...  Read More »

Each year, HealthLeaders Media names its HealthLeaders 20, 20 individuals who are profiled for changing the world of healthcare for the better. Those chosen range from the famous to the unknown, from physicians, to trauma surgeons, to professors, and to CEO’s. This year, one of these 20 inspirational people is someone who exposed a touchy subject that permeates through hospitals: bullying and hostility by nurses and physicians. Kathleen Bartholomew, RN, MN,...  Read More »

Nursing school enrollment increased. A preliminary survey released by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) shows that entry-level baccalaureate nursing programs increased enrollment by 6.1% from 2009 to 2010. The AACN notes this is the tenth straight year that enrollment in BSN programs has increased, but it noted that faculty shortages still prevent further increases. The survey used data from 648 nursing schools, out of a total of 807 schools...  Read More »

How do patients cope with difficult news? Some cry, some get angry, but some laugh. New York Times blogger Theresa Brown, RN, finds patients who cope with laughter fascinating. In her blog, she mentions numerous examples of past patients who deal with illness by cracking jokes and poking fun. One patient, after receiving bad news, often joked about her non-existent love life. “We don’t need Freud to point out the unconscious desire expressed by this spirited...  Read More »