When you left nursing school and went out into the nursing world, was there anything you experienced that the professors didn’t tell you about? In any profession, experiencing things firsthand is always different than what you learned about in a classroom. In the nursing world, experience is key. Nursing blogger The Nerdy Nurse isn’t ashamed to admit what she wasn’t taught in nursing school. In her blog post “Things they don’t...  Read More »

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...  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...  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...  Read More »

Nursing school is tough, and just finding the time for all the classes can be a challenge in itself. Add to that how tough it is to get into nursing school, considering the shortage of nurse faculty, and online nursing programs may seem like a viable solution. Western Governors University in Texas has just enrolled its first dozen or so students, according to the local Fox affiliate in Houston. The theory is taught online, but students must...  Read More »

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 »