In protest to the firing of 18 registered nurses who stayed home during the Washington, D.C. area snowstorms in February, Washington Hospital Center nurses have decided on a one-day work stoppage, reports Cheryl Clark for HealthLeaders Media. The decision was made after online voting was made available between July 29 and July 31 to the hospital’s 1,600 nurses. About 42% of nurses voted. Out of that 42%, 80% voted for the stoppage....  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...  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...  Read More »

Many nurses already know that as the ones with the most direct contact with the patient, they have a great opportunity to improve patient safety. However, nurses often have a difficult time enforcing and implementing new patient safety initiatives while taking care of their patients and taking care of documentation-especially if those initiatives are constantly changing. A great HealthLeaders Media piece explores what The University of Kansas...  Read More »

This may be preaching to the choir, but I thought our readers would be interested: Jennifer Johnson, who will be a guest blogger on the topic of nurse practitioner schools among other hot topics in nursing on The Leaders’ Lounge, a nursing blog for Strategiesfornursemanagers.com, posted about why people decide to become nurses. Her first couple of reasons include: 1. To meet a critical need. There is a great need for qualified nursing...  Read More »

Seasoned nurses looking to become nurse educators now have a new program to help them transition, reports Nurse.com. Sigma Theta Tau International created the program, entitled Nurse Faculty Mentored Leadership Development, with the help of a $200,000 grant from Elsevier. The program will focus on placing novice nurse educators with long-term mentors to create higher job satisfaction and retention. “We have an amazing shortage of nurse...  Read More »

Three major nurses’ organizations will be combining to form a new organization newly named National Nurses United, reports the San Francisco Business Times. The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, the United American Nurses, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association are merging to form a membership that will be 150,000 strong. A founding convention will be held in December in Scottsdale, AZ, according...  Read More »

Today’s healthcare workforce is unique. In addition to working with peers from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, you’re also working among four different generations of people. This alone can be a stressor, because each generation has varying values and work principles. Knowledge of and appreciation for each generation can help to bridge the gap, so let’s take a quick glance at the core values that comprise the...  Read More »

“Dear Deanna: My Nurse Manager is so unapproachable that she scares me. We never know what she is thinking or if she even likes the nurses that work our unit. What can we do?” Being a Nurse Manager is not the easiest position in our profession. You must first remember that your Nurse Manager is trying to make two groups of individuals happy. First there is the staff that she manages and then there are the administrators to which...  Read More »