‘No, but my husband is’: Nurse Humorist’s Life Hasn’t Been Easy

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There was the guy who stepped on a rusty nail and requested “a technical shot,” the girl who complained, “I’m hurting in my semi privates,” and the patient who boasted, “I’m so crazy I’m tripolar.”

While there’s a lot of “nurse humor” out there, much of it fairly outrageous or disgusting—and very necessary, as a way of letting off steam—we get the feeling from Terry Foster‘s popularity that his jokes, anecdotes, and delivery may actually be a few cuts above. Christine Moffa, AJN‘s clinical editor, concurs: “I’ve seen him perform . . . . He’s very funny. Tears-streaming-down funny.” Foster’s also been through some rough times, including a brain tumor and the death of his young wife.

Has anything even remotely funny (that you can share without breaking patient confidentiality!) happened to you lately on the job? How important is a good sense of humor in the nursing profession?

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2016-11-21T13:29:37-05:00May 11th, 2009|nursing perspective|1 Comment
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New Nurses Blogging: The Dedicated, the Feisty, the Sleep-Deprived

Hospital by boliston / Adrian Boliston, via Flickr.

When I went looking for blogs by student nurses recently, I found plenty—but most appeared to be deserted, as if their authors had literally packed up and moved away after graduation. That’s understandable—and kind of a shame. Things can get interesting fast when one finds oneself suddenly working with real people in an ED or an ICU. Lucky for us, a few newly minted nurses are blogging on just that. (To comply with HIPAA regulations, most bloggers report that they alter patient details and scenarios.)

At Call Bells Make Me Nervous, Maha, “a shiny new nurse” (degree unspecified), blogs […]

2016-11-21T13:30:03-05:00May 8th, 2009|career, healthcare social media, nursing perspective, students|1 Comment
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National School Nurse Day—The Timing Couldn’t Be Better

Mary Pappas, BSN, RN, school nurse at St. Francis Preparatory School in NYC, told AJN, "School nurses have been e-mailing me from around the country," since she helped to identify the first H1N1 cases. Photos courtesy of Michael Graziano.

As nurses nationwide celebrate National School Nurse Day AJN decided to check back in with Mary Pappas after our discussion with her last week. She’s the New York City Catholic school nurse who on April 23 alerted public health officials to what would be identified as the first U.S. cases of influenza A (H1N1)—swine flu. img_4700

Students have returned to St. Francis Preparatory School, and things are “calming down,” she said. “We’re still busy because we have to do a screening process. It’s busy work, but no one’s sick.” She has been working closely with the New York State Department of Health.

Yesterday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that, because the U.S. cases seen so far have been mild, “School closure is not advised for a suspected or confirmed case of novel influenza A (H1N1).” It seems an appropriate moment to acknowledge the work that Pappas and the 45,000 school nurses are doing on the front lines of assessment nationwide. AJN will continue to follow the work of school nurses in coming weeks and months.—Joy Jacobson, AJN managing editor

(For a more […]

2016-11-21T13:30:17-05:00May 6th, 2009|Nursing|1 Comment
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The Little Humiliations of National Nurses Week

By Stephen Cummings, via Flickr.

“When is ‘Kid’s Day’?” That’s what I asked my mother on Mother’s Day one year, after she’d finished opening her gifts from the five of us. And—like many who’ve asked before—I was told, “Every day is Kid’s Day.” This led me to realize that people who have days or weeks dedicated to them must have it pretty bad the rest of the year. Professions with prestige and power don’t have a day or a week. So how can nurses be seen as equal professionals if we have Nurses Week? […]

2016-11-21T13:30:26-05:00May 6th, 2009|career, nursing perspective|6 Comments
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“Maybe I Couldn’t Have Done That”: (Almost) Memories of Being a Nurse in Vietnam

Vietnam Women's Memorial, Washington, DC. Courtesy of Kay Schwebke.

I attended nursing school between 1967 and 1971, when the war in Vietnam was raging. I spent a good part of 1968 at the Manhattan Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital, where I did much of my medical–surgical clinical rotation. Two days a week, I provided care for injured soldiers who were my own age. In the evening, I watched newscasts filled with images of freshly wounded soldiers and napalmed villagers and dutifully listened to the nightly body count, feeling not much better when “we” had fewer than “them.” […]

2016-11-21T13:30:37-05:00May 5th, 2009|nursing history|1 Comment
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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