Finding Ways to Be Thankful

As we near Thanksgiving, I increasingly find myself looking for positive things—things to help diminish the sadness over the mounting COVID-19 deaths…

So begins my editorial in the November issue of AJN.

As a former ED nurse, I recall working many Thanksgivings. Though I missed holiday dinners with my family, the stark reality of what my patients and their families were dealing with always put things into perspective.

This year, though I won’t be working, I will still be missing my family on Thanksgiving. My husband and I usually host a large dinner, which we’ve cancelled this year in following recommendations to avoid such gatherings. I know many others are doing the same. […]

2020-11-25T10:09:39-05:00November 25th, 2020|Nursing, wellness|0 Comments
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Time to Take a Walk

via Wikimedia Commons

“We are bombarded with political ads on television, radio, and social media, and receive an onslaught of annoying robocalls on our phones. And no doubt after the elections are over, we’ll be subjected to endless analyses of the results. I find this constant ‘news awareness’ stressful.”

I wrote these words two years ago for the editorial, “Finding a Peaceful Place,” in the December 2018 issue. I could have written them today, or actually, any day these past few months.

The simple medicine of taking a walk, in the forest or not.

But I also wrote about a way that I find helps me tune out and relieve stress—the simple act of taking a walk. This year, because of the pandemic, my walks have mostly been confined to a few miles around my suburban neighborhood; I don’t think it qualifies as ‘forest bathing,’ but it still refreshes me. Seeing the pure joy of my dog to be out and about is a delight. […]

2020-11-04T09:29:27-05:00November 4th, 2020|personal health practices, Public health, wellness|0 Comments
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Time Matters, Priorities Change: A Nurse and Cancer Survivor on Living with the Pandemic

Everything is different, and the same.

Michael Himbeault/Wikimedia Commons

It’s going to be a while before things get to normal, if they ever do. It’s more like the future will become the normal.

The only thing in my experience I can liken it to is my cancer survivorship: you start living your life again, but everything is different. Priorities change. Your sense of safety never fully returns, yet because of this you become more purposeful in living: time matters. It’s as though you go on living, but learn a new way to do it.

There’s actually a sense of freedom accompanying the realization that nothing/no one lasts forever.

Finding a middle ground.

After I completed treatment, I watched the Jeff Bridges film Fearless (1993). His character is a survivor of a horrendous airliner crash, and he develops a sense of invincibility as a way of coping. I understood his character really well. You either hide in fear, or you go forward as if you are invincible. Eventually, you discover a middle ground. […]

2020-05-27T10:26:29-04:00May 27th, 2020|infectious diseases, Nursing, patient experience, Public health, wellness|0 Comments
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Practicing the ABCDEs of Self-Care in Pandemic Times

While talk of the surge in COVID-19 cases continues, what has been less audible in the national discourse is the surge in mental health distress that will be with us long after the pandemic is gone. Many of us who have enjoyed relative psychological well-being are feeling inundated with near-pathological levels of anxiety, uncertainty, anticipatory grief, and real or secondary trauma.

Here are ABCDEs of self-care to keep yourself and loved ones emotionally—and physically—well.

ABCDEs of Self-Care

About

Stay informed as you need to regarding the pandemic, but then promptly pull yourself away and unplug. Initiate what we call a “sensory diet” to limit anxiety-provoking exposure to TV and radio news, social media, print materials, etc., beyond what you must know for yourself, your family, and/or your job. Fearful news can be addictive. Don’t overindulge!

Body

Many people, when asked how they can best care for themselves to stay well, say something on the order of “handwashing, masks, social distancing….” Sure, all that! But we also need to respect the healthy things our mother tried to teach us. How about exercise and fresh air (even if it’s just a three-minute brisk walk around the block), adequate sleep and decent nutrition? Honoring our bodies now will help us stay healthy and […]

2021-01-21T11:10:16-05:00April 13th, 2020|infectious diseases, mental illness, Nursing, wellness|0 Comments
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Understaffing: A Policy Oblivious to the Unforeseen Swerves of Life and Nursing Shifts

The Roads of Life and Nursing 2019 by Julianna Paradisi

Neither life nor nursing shifts develop in a linear fashion. Both roads are full of unforeseen swerves. I was reminded of this over the weekend while sitting with a relative in an emergency department. Our weekend plans had been put on hold to accommodate this unforeseen swerve in health.

An ED staff under stress.

I couldn’t help but notice the emergency department staff were experiencing their own set of unforeseen curves this particular shift. Although it was early in the evening, to my experienced nurse’s eye they were already exhausted.

When we arrived, the triage nurse was being verbally accosted by two people who’d walked in off of the street, ranting and high, until a trio of security officers intervened. Another nurse hustled between triage and the bay area. A photograph of her young daughter on the reverse side of her ID badge dangled from the lanyard around her neck. Everyone looked tired.

The tricky ambiguities around nurses calling in sick.

Once my relative was confirmed as stable, I revealed to the other nurses that I was a nurse and said I’d noticed how busy they were that shift. The […]

2020-01-09T10:53:17-05:00January 9th, 2020|Nursing, nursing career, wellness|2 Comments
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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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