Real-world nurses bring competency, professionalism, and passion to the hospital everyday. But according to a new study, it wasn’t until recently that onscreen nurses exhibited these qualities. David Stanley, MSc, RN, RM, lecturer at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Curtin University of Technology, in Perth, Australia, studied 280 films featuring nurses produced throughout the U.S., U.K., Western Europe, Canada, Japan, and Australia between 1900...  Read More »

Sandra Mattingly, RN, has been given a second chance to put her nursing skills to use. This time around, she is bringing an additional skill to the bedside: song. “We have all of the clinical skills and the modern technology. Nurses need to see eye to eye with their patients and relate the heart, not just the procedure,” says Mattingly. “That’s what’s missing in nursing today.” Known as the “singing nurse” at...  Read More »

Many nurses enter the field because they want to make a difference and they know the care they provide can make significant changes in their patients’ lives. But many nurses are learning the differences they make can extend beyond healthcare facilities, and across state lines, countries, and continents. These differences can be eye opening—like the ones made by nurses volunteering with the global, nonprofit organization, Unite For Sight. “The...  Read More »

Staff at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, IL, always put the patient care experience first, but they wanted to do more. They wanted to spend more time, pay more attention, and have time for more care. At Loyola, they call this “magis.” Magis is a Latin term meaning “to do more,” which is a perfect description of the new patient care model they developed to reflect the organization’s values. “We needed to manage...  Read More »

The bond between a mother and a child is like no other. Sometimes it takes a nurse to strengthen it. “[Nurses] can actually improve the lives of the children, the mothers, and our communities,” says Brenda Graves, RN, BSN, CLC, supervisor of the Fort Collins, CO-based wing of the nurse-run non-profit Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program. The NFP program partners low-income, first-time mothers with nurses who visit the mothers in their own homes....  Read More »

Healthcare facilities invest large amounts of money on external recruitment agencies to bring nurses through their doors. But for some facilities, the most effective recruitment strategies begin right at home. “Instead of investing $100,000 in an agency that would recruit five nurses over the year, we opted to do something different,” says Robert L. Dent, RN, MBA, NEA-BC, FACHE, vice president of nursing at Midland Memorial Hospital in Midland,...  Read More »

Former pilot Gary L. Sculli, RN, MSN, ATP, no longer works in the skies. But some might say he now leads his nursing unit to even greater heights. Aviation safety concepts Sculli learned during his previous career are changing the way his staff members practice nursing at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, TN. Now nurse manager of a 40-bed unit, he has transferred his knowledge and experiences in the air to the bedside in the quest to improve safety in patient...  Read More »

The first four months of a new graduate nurse’s job can be stressful, to say the least. Trying to fit into a new facility, trying to remember everything from nursing school, and trying to stay awake during those long shifts are all tall tasks in themselves. A little help, a gift, would be nice. At the Seton Family of Hospitals in Central Texas, that gift now comes in the form of the Versant RN Residency Program. “Hospitals all over the country are...  Read More »

Nurses across the country care for their patients at all types of facilities. But would they want to be cared for at their own? According to a recent study conducted by the American Nurses Association (ANA), more than half of the nurses surveyed said they wouldn’t feel comfortable having someone they are close to receive care at their place of work. That was just one of many eye-catching results garnered from a study, which drew responses from more than...  Read More »