As many nurses are graduating and taking the NCLEX, one question is on many of their minds: How easy will it be to get a job? The standard expectation has been that, as a nurse, you will be in demand and that finding a perfect job should not be a struggle. Recently, however, many experts are questioning whether there still is a nursing shortage due to the difficulty new grads are having with finding work. Rebecca Hendren of HealthLeaders...  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 »

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...  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...  Read More »

Texas Health Resources has launched a program that aims to prepare high school students for nursing careers, reports KDAF news. Fourteen Dallas-Fort Worth-area hospitals are operated by Texas Health Resources, which offers the program to 25 high school graduates. The program, called the Prodigy Program, hopes to create interest in nursing early, and help fill a shortage of nurses. It also ensures that those nurses are cheaper to higher....  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 »

The California Institute for Nursing & Health Care conducted a survey of employers of nurses from March to May of 2009. The results: 40% of new nursing graduates may not find employment in California hospitals, as only 65% of hospitals indicated they were hiring new graduates, and many said they were decreasing the amount of new hires. In June, a series of meetings were held to discuss these finding and find possible solutions. The survey...  Read More »

Clinicals are one of the most important parts of your nursing education. With everything that may be on your mind at the time, it’s important to remember proper communication and etiquette during each one. To practice good etiquette and common courtesy during each of your clinical rotations: Introduce yourself to the nurses on duty Ask if you can help out in any way Respect their territory and time Always be polite At the end, thank...  Read More »

Feeling overwhelmed with a case of the Mondays? Need a little laugh and a little stress relief? Check out this hilarious video of Gene Cotton singing “I Am a Nurse” at the recent National Student Nurses’ Association Convention in Nashville, TN. Are you headed to Phoenix for the NSNA MidYear Conference? Kathleen Bartholomew, RC, RN, MN, best-selling HCPro author, is slated to be the keynote speaker.   Read More »

She began taking college classes at 12. Carrying a 4.0 GPA, she earned her high school diploma and associate degree at 15. And last Wednesday, Danielle McBurnett, a Chandler, AZ, resident, became the youngest student in the history of Arizona State University to receive a bachelor’s of science in nursing. McBurnett was home schooled early on in her life and decided she wanted to become a nurse at the age of 10, according to The Arizona...  Read More »