Susan Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior advisor for nursing at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is spending her summer vacation doing something extraordinary. She is not spending her days soaking up the sun, or taking a cruise to Alaska. Instead she is traveling in Europe, learning about the life and work of Florence Nightingale. Throughout Hassmiller’s journey across Europe, she is blogging about her experience. Her trips marks the 100th anniversary...  Read More »

Nominations are open for the HCPro 2010 Nursing Image Awards, which honor nurses whose leadership, teamwork, or clinical expertise embodies an image of nursing excellence and contributes to improving patient care, quality outcomes, nurse satisfaction, and the healthcare environment. HCPro is searching for nurse leaders and staff who have helped elevate the image of nursing. Awards will be presented to an individual or team of nurses and to a nursing leader...  Read More »

For years, nurses have been battling how the nursing profession and nurses are portrayed in the media. Having to go against the nursing stereotypes on display in programs such as “Grey’s Anatomy” and “House, M.D.” makes the job that much harder, as patients and families are familiar with the popular television shows. Now, nurses will have to add another television show to the list that puts their image in jeopardy. MysticArt Pictures...  Read More »

No matter how long you are in the nursing profession, you will always have to deal with patients and the patient’s family members. When a patient is hospitalized, it can be a very difficult time for their family, causing them to become more sensitive then normal. It is important to remember how you treat the patient and their family. Here are a few scenarios that can aggravate the patient and their family, and suggestions to help avoid these situations. 1....  Read More »

Not being a nurse, I’ve never really thought about what happens when patients are admitted to the hospital and they are smokers. However, this is something that nurses and healthcare providers have to deal with all the time, and a recent survey says that many are not offering patients any help with quitting. The survey, published in the July issue of Nicotine & Tobacco Research, finds that nurses and healthcare professionals often do not provide...  Read More »

North Carolina nursing students from Duke University, Western Carolina University, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte entered a competition earlier this year to produce informative patient education videos. “Get the Picture Patient Video Competition”—conducted by the Innovative Nursing Education Technologies (iNet) organization—required nursing students to create a 10-minute or less and upload the film to YouTube. Each group picked...  Read More »

In a continuing effort to recognize nurses, the Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA) is requesting high quality photos that depict nurses’ work and the relationships they form with patients and families. The winning photograph will be featured in an AARP print and/or web publication. CCNA hopes to gather images of nurses across all healthcare settings in professional practice and leadership roles, as well as in recruitment and retention activities,...  Read More »

The phrase “like-mother-like-daughter” definitely pertains to Barbara Toney and Rachel Craft, who this month became the first mother and daughter pair to graduate from the Ohio University Southern (OUS) school of nursing. After receiving advice from the Lawrence County Workforce Development Resource Center, Toney and Craft decided nursing would be a good fit for the both of them. Craft, being recently married, believed the schedule to be a great...  Read More »