By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor/blog editor
via Wikimedia Commons
Let’s skip the latest research findings, policy disputes, the unpleasant wait for the Supreme Court to decide the fate of health care reform. Here’s what we’re finding on the nursing blogs these days, a sample of recent posts you might find of interest:
The Nerdy Nurse offers “7 Tips to Be a Successful Clinical Informatics Nurse.” The post isn’t terribly technical; instead, it’s for nurses who might be thinking of going into this line of nursing, and to that end it highlights some strengths to emphasize in an interview.
At madness: tales of an emergency room nurse, a recent post called “There’s a Human Being Under There” sketches out a bit of what’s involved in inducing “therapeutic hypothermia” (for more detail, preview the July AJN CE “Therapeutic Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest”), but then steps back far enough to remember that all of these processes involve an actual person.
Those Emergency Blues takes an undogmatic look at so-called “generation gaps” among nurses. Instead of throwing stones, dividing the world into ‘us’ and ‘them,’ this post takes a more sensible, fair-minded, probing approach:
Ultimately what I am trying to get at is while I am sure generation gaps exist on units, I do not believe it is entirely as a result of degree vs diploma more than it might be just personality related. Differing maturity levels, different interests, and people at different points in their lives not to mention the obvious that we are all individuals. I enjoy working with the tough take no nonsense 15 year nurse as much as I like working with the 35 year veteran nurse who still gives every patient a bed bath and the novice 2 year nurse who wants to learn about every patient condition possible. A few of my closest coworkers have nearly 10+ years on me with a couple who could even be my parent. . . . Gaps exist only if we let them and really, we are not here to make friends. When we do that’s great, however, we have a job to do.
“Modernizing Nurse Practitioner Regulations” at the blog A Nurse Practitioner’s View considers the recent progress toward passing the NP Modernization Act, which will “eliminate statutory collaboration between a physician and nurse practitioner in New York State.” The bill is opposed by some medical groups, but the author points out that a push from the Institute of Medicine Future of Nursing report has been crucial in moving this bill along.
In related scope of practice news: the California Supreme Court has ruled that specially trained unsupervised nurses can give anesthetics without a physician’s supervision.
Lastly, a plug to nurses who might live in or near New York City and who want to do more writing about their experiences, to develop a more sustainable writing practice. There’s a writing weekend for nurses cosponsored by the Center for Health Media and Policy at Hunter College and the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing coming up July 20–22, and it’s taught by some fantastic people. Also, we’d be remiss not to mention an upcoming weekend writing workshop (August 11–12) taught by AJN‘s clinical managing editor (and a marvelous scholar and poet) Karen Roush in Briarcliff, NY.
Yes, Absolutely it is a great platform to explore nurses stories and their valuable work. Let the world experience the true value of nurses. Thanks for post.
I liked the page on NPs and found most of the info accurate and concise. I refer prospective students to this page when they ask about what an NP is. In reading some of the comments, I disagree with “gtadoc”, nurse practitioners are independent healthcare providers, and many have a scope of practice which is easily equal to that of a given physician. Physicians did not invent healthcare, nurses have been doing it just as long. In fact, we must ask ourselves if nursing, primarily a women’s profession, would have progressed a bit faster if there had not been a large gender gap in our culture. Nurse practitioner’s practice is expanding all the time, and often there are some physicians who feel threatened. Luckily, there are enough patients for all of us. At any rate, thanks for the page!
A great honor to be mentioned here. Thank you.
It’s great to see a writing workshop for nurses. I have always believed we nurses have wonderful stories to tell. We need to inform the general public about who we are and what we do.
Reblogged this on nursesprnwest.