RealityRN.com: just right for students and new nurses

I wish there was something like RealityRN.com available back when I was a new nurse. In addition to reading the site’s great articles on career management, participants can post their own stories or questions about nursing and get feedback from one another in a safe, friendly environment. There are also useful videos and humorous postings. (The very good video series on how to deal with preceptors would have helped me back in 1996. I just recommended them to a friend of mine who was fired from her first nursing position due to a conflict with a preceptor.) While the site is geared toward new nurses and students, experienced nurses will find it interesting too and can use it as a venue to mentor novices who are struggling with their new roles.

Christine Moffa, MS, RN, is AJN’s clinical editor. She will be giving periodic updates and recommendations, so check back.

 

"Nurse Moffa," AJN's clinical editor, with pals Rico and Giusepina “Nurse Moffa,” AJN’s clinical editor, with pals Rico and Giusepina

 


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2020-02-07T11:22:11-05:00March 24th, 2009|students|0 Comments
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“Nurses don’t teach. They educate!” OK, but…. (A style update from the Word Curmudgeon)

I had a few comments but no death threats after my first post, about “nurse writers.” That fact gives me the courage to tackle another grammatical pet peeve of mine. Let me admit, up front, that probably no one else in the world cares about this, and no one else appears to have written about it. This could mean either that I’m really astute or completely wrong.

Education is central to what nurses do. Nurses educate. They work hard, as we do here at AJN, to elevate the image of nursing and nurses in the public eye (as well as the eyes of the medical community, policymakers, and politicians).

It’s understandable, then, that when nurses want to talk or write about something as central to nursing as patient education, they would choose the verb “educate” rather than “teach.”

[…]

2020-02-07T11:22:39-05:00March 23rd, 2009|nursing perspective|1 Comment
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The Invisible Experts: What Nurses Know About Aging and Chronic Illnesses Like Diabetes

Is it any coincidence that AJN recently heard from editorial board member Michael Desjardins and contributing editor Jane Seley about ways physicians and the mainstream media remain blind to the cutting-edge work being done by nurses in developing new models of care for the elderly and the chronically ill, including those with diabetes? This is a narrative that has to change if our health care system is going to face the challenges coming its way. […]

2016-11-21T13:37:50-05:00March 20th, 2009|career, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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Head Nurse! AJN’s Editorial Director Goes Back to Bellevue

I worked in Bellevue Hospital’s emergency department in NYC back in the 1970s.  It’s where I “cut my teeth” in nursing and it has always been a source of pride.  Bellevue ED nurses were considered to be top-notch, able to handle any situation that came through the door. We stood our ground with overbearing physicians and administrators; Lori Chiarelli, my Head Nurse, set a high bar. I visited there last week and met with Marion Machado, the Head Nurse of the Emergency Ward (EW). (I like that they still use the Head Nurse title—there’s no doubt as to who is in charge.)

Marion Machado, Head Nurse, Bellevue Emergency Ward Marion Machado, Head Nurse, Bellevue Emergency Ward

Machado is a no-nonsense, roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-it-done kind of person with a quick smile and sarcastic wit (a perfect ED nurse). She was wearing blue scrubs and a stethoscope around her neck; we sat at the work station in the middle of the EW, a large room with 10 beds around the perimeter.  As we talked, her eyes moved constantly, scanning monitors and people and occasionally shouting instructions to staff. She returned to the conversation at hand without missing a beat. […]

2020-02-07T11:23:28-05:00March 16th, 2009|Nursing|1 Comment
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