Imagine being a premature baby. How does it feel to go from a safe, comfortable uterus to the bright, loud, and often painful world of a hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)? Neonatal nurses at Martin Memorial Health Center in Palm City, FL, got a chance to find out when they partook in a program called “Preemie for a Day.” The educational program let nurses experience what it was like to go from birth to admission into...  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 »

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 »

Everyday photographs of nurses doing their jobs and interacting with patients are being displayed January 24-January 28 in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC. The images portray nurses in their everyday work routine, illustrating the importance of nursing, reported Newswise. The photo exhibit, Faces of Caring: Nurses at Work, is an award-winning presentation from the American Journal of Nursing. The photographs...  Read More »

How do you perceive nurses? How do you think members of the general public perceive nurses? Much of the public’s perception comes from media portrayals of nurses and what they do. Across all media, nurses are portrayed in a variety of ways: some positive, some negative. Truth About Nursing, a nonprofit organization that seeks to educate the public about the role nurses play in healthcare, put out a list of the 10 best and worst portrayals...  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 »

Traveling healthcare is all the buzz these days. The New York University (NYU) College of Nursing has created a program called “Feeling Good in Your Neighborhood” featuring a mobile health van that is driven to schools in Brooklyn, NY, each day to provide primary healthcare to high school students from immigrant families. The van is funded by a $2.9 million grant given to NYU’s College of Nursing by the Federal Health Resources...  Read More »

A giant purple bus named “Buszilla” may sound frightening, but it’s the complete opposite; it saves lives. In Toledo, OH, Buszilla, a 72-passenger bus, brings healthcare providers to those who are either homeless or uninsured, according to CovChurch.org. The bus is operated by Lifeline Toledo, a mission organization to homeless and poor residents of Toledo. Each Saturday, volunteer nurses arrive on the bus ready to give routine health...  Read More »

My 94- year-old grandmother has been in the hospital for a variety of complications. During visits, I’ve been introduced to her physician and her nurse. The funny thing is, the physician was introduced as “Dr. Smith*,” whereas the nurse was introduced as “Nurse Emily*.” (*names changed) Christopher Johnson, MD, a pediatric intensive care physician, remarks on this same issue in a blog post on KevinMD.com. He discusses the issue...  Read More »

Nurses have to deal with all types of stress, whether it’s stress from dealing with difficult patients, nurse-to-nurse hostility, or the long hours. They are also frequently called upon to help relieve their patients’ stress and anxiety. An article in The Topeka Capital-Journal discussed this topic with registered nurse Sharon Anderson, who works in a breast diagnostic center. When patients come to see her, something is either wrong,...  Read More »