An ambulance service in North Carolina has launched a new program that lets people who call 911 with minor concerns speak to a nurse before deciding whether to be transported to a hospital by ambulance. Nurses at Carolinas Medical Center and Presbyterian Hospital, in Charlotte, NC, are on hand to speak to people who call 911 with minor problems such as nausea, nosebleeds, or constipation, if they prefer not to be immediately transported...  Read More »

Virtual technology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, is allowing nurses to interact as avatars with each other and with patients using the website Second Life. Vanderbilt was given $1.6 million by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to create and launch the project through the agency’s Nurse Education Technologies program, reports The Tennessean. Right now, the project is only a pilot while the university conducts...  Read More »

When a patient walks through those hospital doors, just how many people are there to assist him or her? Nursing blogger, The Nerdy Nurse, recently discussed this topic in a post “How many people are involved in patient care?” When her preceptor was showing her an infection control report, author realized just how many people take part in the care of a new patient. She thinks most noses don’t think about how much goes on behind the...  Read More »

Forget top 40 hits or country music, radio has some new voices: registered nurses. Nurse Talk has hit the air in the San Francisco Bay Area and Boston Metro Area. The show was created by Casey Hobbs, RN, a 30-year veteran of nursing, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Hobbs’ goal is to make the nursing profession more visible. Segments of the show include advice for other nurses, healthcare news, and phobias of the week. The show occasionally...  Read More »

As a nurse, have you ever been praised for your work with a patient? The Boston Globe is holding a Salute to Nurses award program for people to nominate local nurses who have exceeded their usual duties and provided noteworthy care. The nurses’ stories will be told through stories, photos, and videos. The awards will be announced in early May. Check out the site to read some of the heartfelt stories from previous years’ winners. Does...  Read More »

What would you do if you saw lasagna, pizza, cupcakes, or chocolates spread out on a table on your floor? You’d eat it, right? Theresa Brown, RN, explains just how much nurses love to eat in The New York Times Well blog Patients and their families often bring their nurses gifts of some type of food. With stress eating a common problem, Brown explains that it’s easy for nurses to eat their feelings. However, the food also represents a...  Read More »

Many nurses are concerned about the portrayal of their profession in the media and the public’s understanding of nursing’s role. The media portrays nurses in a variety of ways, sometimes positive, often negative. On television, shows like Nurse Jackie and HawthoRNe often feature positive portrayals, while shows like HOUSE and ER show physicians doing nurses’ jobs or just don’t show nurses at all. The public’s perception of nurses...  Read More »

Researchers from Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, are looking to use robotic “nurses” in operating rooms by using a hand gesture recognition system. The hand gesture recognition system uses a camera and a formula that finds the location of the surgeon’s head and triggers where the robot’s hands will go, reported Daily Tech. Researchers hope that the new technology will decrease the length of surgeries. Juan Pablo Wachs, an...  Read More »

A New York Times blogger by the name of Dana Jennings loves nurses. He loves all kinds of nurses, and he likes them more than any other medical personnel. In his post titled “In Praise of Nurses,” Jennings recalls the reasons why he prefers nurses over physicians. An excerpt from his blog juxtaposes the differences: Nurses are warm, whereas doctors are cool. Nurses act like real people;            doctors often act like aristocrats....  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 »