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As the editor of this blog, I’m often amazed by the originality, honesty, and quality of the writing that comes to us from people who are, in many cases, not writers by trade. AJN Off the Charts publishes articles about professional issues, health policy and research, and clinical topics, as well as many nurse and patient stories. Here are ten popular posts from 2016 that you might have missed. Some of the authors of the posts listed here are regular contributors, some are AJN editors, some are first-time contributors; some are established scholars, some are new to the nursing profession.

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The 10 most-read posts we published in 2016.*

What a Nurse Really Wants
“I just want some support. I just want to take care of my patients, and maybe get a lunch break on any given day. I just want to be heard.”

CDC Opioid-Prescribing Guideline for Chronic Pain: Concerns and Contexts
“These new guidelines cast a very wide net. Many patients with chronic pain will find themselves facing new hurdles to adequate relief.”

Nurses and Latent TB Infection
“In my experience, active infection in a health care worker who has not recently traveled to a TB-endemic area is almost always the result of reactivated latent infection.”

The View from the Other Side: When the Daughter Is a Nurse
“I didn’t want to be a nurse; I just wanted to be the daughter.”

Sent Back: Imagining the Real Costs of a Family’s End-of-Life Decisions
“I hear voice number one begin talking quietly, ‘I’m so sorry. Your daughter tried to stop everything and let you have peace, but your son isn’t ready to let you go.'”

Their Story: Each Patient Is Someone’s Family Member
“These small things I learn about my patients allow me to care for them more fully and remind me that they are not just a room number.”

The Call to Service Is Personal: From Vietnam Vet to Red Cross Volunteer
“I was dirty, had broken eardrums, a shattered left wrist, and a right arm largely blown away, and was without glasses so I could barely see. Out of that blur came a woman whose face I can’t remember—but I can remember the Red Cross pin on her lapel.”

Cold Calls: Tips for Nurses When the Patient Just Got the Bad News
“Each patient is unique and no single approach is right for everyone. However, there are general principles to provide guidance.”

Patients Change Us: A Formative Nursing Experience
“Each day, as I tended to his body, I talked to him. I would tell him what I was doing, explain whether or not it might hurt, and talk him through each procedure.”

The Quandary of Scheduling Vacation Time for Nurses
“Summer is a traditional time for vacations, but often not for nurses, for multiple reasons.”

And here are 10 older posts that continued to be found and read this year:

Marijuana Legalization and Potential Workplace Pitfalls for Nurses Who Partake
“Surveys suggest that most people support decriminalization of recreational marijuana; however, the enforcement of safe workplace standards where it is legal is still in development.”

Parting Thoughts: 10 Lessons Learned from Florence Nightingale’s Life
“5. Know your strengths and know your weaknesses. If you don’t know what they are, ask someone.”

Fecal Impaction and Dementia: Knowing What to Look for Could Save Lives
“I’ll always be grateful to the nurse who correctly diagnosed my grandmother’s problem before it was too late.”

The Real Reason Why Older Nurses Don’t Retire
“It’s weird to attend a retirement party for a coworker and then see her or him again the next day at work, helping out with a special project for their manager.”

Superlatives: An Alternate List for Nurses Week
“I’m often caught off guard by how perceptive my team is. The subtle interactions among us frequently surprise me, but they shouldn’t.”

The Heart of a Nurse
“Our ability to show compassion is perhaps our best nursing skill, better than our proficiency with machines, computers, and even procedures.”

Nursing Perspective: Why I Work in Corrections
“It takes a certain set of skills, a fairly specific personality type, and a high tolerance for the bizarre: corrections is its very own specialty for a reason.”

As Another June Is Forgotten, Some Notes on Nurses and Normandy
“I’m always amazed and humbled when I read about what so many nurses accomplished, and without a lot of fanfare.”

Why Aren’t There More Men in Nursing?
“Stop and think: do you act differently or treat male colleagues differently than women colleagues? Are your expectations different because of their sex?”

One Instructor’s Updated Nightingale Pledge
“Today’s students are different in so many ways from the student who represented nursing in 1893 when the first Nightingale Pledge was written.”

*Editor’s note: left off this list were posts devoted to summarizing or discussing articles published in AJN, with one or two exceptions.