By Wendy Leebov I’ve been doing a lot of communication skill training recently and I’m repeatedly impressed by the impact that nonverbal dynamics have between staff and customers on rapport, trust, and mutual respect. I’ve been privileged to observe many people’s nonverbal behavior as they try their hand at various everyday scenarios. And here’s what I see: Some people say the right thing, but their nonverbal...  Read More »

Nurses are well aware of the stress that comes with the job. Taking care of numerous patients atl varying levels of sickness, and dealing with many competing priorities, is enough to make anyone stressed out. Now, with the help of the BREATHE technique, nurses and patients can lower their blood pressure, heart rate, and experience a decrease in stress. The BREATHE technique was developed by John M. Kennedy, medical director of preventative...  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 »

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...  Read More »

If you’re visiting this site, chances are you’re a nurse who has had his or her share of stress. Well, it may be time to focus on incorporating anti-stress methods into daily life. In her blog about workplace reviews, New York Times blogger Tara Parker-Pope mentioned a 15-year study of 12,000 nurses that found nurses struggling with “excessive work pressures” had double the risk of heart attack. So stay healthy and...  Read More »

About a month ago, I wrote about the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) AACN Nurse Residency Program,TM which dramatically decreased turnover rates for nurses in their first year on the job. The blog post prompted Daniel McCarthy, a retired airline pilot and flight instructor, as well as an aircraft mechanic, to write a comment. At 53, McCarthy went to nursing school and later became a nurse. Despite his experience in the tough field...  Read More »

A growing popularity of book clubs is hitting the medical field. This ABC News report explores why literature is beneficial for physicians, nurses, and any other caretaker. Reading literature written from a patient’s point of view, such as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the memoir of the late French Elle Editor-in-Chief Jean-Dominique Bauby (who essentially wrote the book through blinking after a stroke left him almost completely...  Read More »

West Boca (FL) Medical Center’s Jill Wiser, RN, had a unique view of the utility of medicine vial caps, syringe holders, and paint samples. Wiser turned the materials into five mosaic-like abstract pieces of art that are now on display at the medical center, reports Nurse.com. The pieces are made by assembling the caps on a piece of canvas about 3 feet wide. The nurse’s station, CNO office, and nursery are all decorated with...  Read More »

An interesting piece written by Rebecca Hendren for HealthLeaders Media bridges nurse retention and sleeping. The article highlights a new graduate nurse retention program in Lynchburg, VA, that offers a formal sleep education class that explains how to get better sleep and why sleep is important. The program was created after the nurse retention coordinator, Cheryl Burnette, began to see a potential tie between nurse retention of new graduates...  Read More »

Nurses certainly do have a special job—and this is just one story that proves it. Years ago, Claire Thompson, a tiny baby in Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit in Albany, GA, was cared for by neonatal nurse Mattie Willis. (View the video by WALB News, the local NBC news affiliate.) Today, they work side by side. Willis is now a 30-year veteran on the neonatal unit, and says she remembers Thompson as a...  Read More »