Hard to Resist, They Come With Health Benefits

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

ForestWe used to have a dog, a black Lab named Sam. We thought he was especially smart, though a bit of a character. He was a wonderful pet and when he died, we were heartbroken.

We didn’t want another dog right away, but it took a while to stop looking for him to greet us each time we walked in. And he wasn’t there to eat the pizza crusts or a Chinese fortune cookie (he’d sit patiently to hear one of us read his fortune to him—and yes, our kids thought we were crazy).

But as my friend Helga said, “The longer you go without a dog, the easier it is not to have one.” Eventually we got used to being in a non-pet household—we could make spur-of-the-moment decisions about going to dinner right from work or away for a weekend without a second thought of “What about Sam?” There was no need to negotiate who would do the morning walk or the evening walk when it was raining or bitterly cold out.

(How many nurses working full time have dogs, I wonder? Given the responsibilities, owning one can be a scheduling challenge, or a budget challenge for those who hire dog walkers. But then, seeing a dog at the end of the day may also be a nice change from seeing patients and colleagues, […]

2016-11-21T13:05:07-05:00March 28th, 2014|Nursing|0 Comments
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Don’t Write Off Community College to Start a Nursing Career

By Karen Roush, MSN, RN, FNP-C, AJN clinical managing editor

KarenRoushMy daughter is about to start her nursing career. She’s got all her prereqs out of the way and she’s waiting to hear from the half-dozen colleges she applied to. Among them is the community college where I started my career 35 years ago. That’s right—a community college that confers an associate degree.

I hope she gets in.

Community colleges are seen by many as the bottom of the ladder of desired schools of nursing. Not only do they offer only a two-year degree, but they’re not seen as being as selective as four-year colleges and they don’t have the big name professors.

But community colleges can and do produce great nurses. Programs are rigorous, so a more liberal admission standard at the onset doesn’t necessarily change the caliber of student who graduates at the end. And once they graduate, they must meet the same standards as students from four-year schools to attain licensure as an RN—everyone takes the same NCLEX. At the time of my graduation, my school had a 98% pass rate, one of the highest in the country.

Community colleges even have some advantages over a lot of four-year programs. They may not have the big names—but really, how many of those big name professors […]

2016-11-21T13:05:07-05:00March 26th, 2014|career, nursing perspective, students|12 Comments
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Three Nurses and a Doctor Go Sailing – Some Notes on Communication Style

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN, writes a monthly post for this blog and works as an infusion nurse in outpatient oncology.

Untitled from the series, Pareidolia. Charcoal and graphite on paper, 12" x 9," by julianna paradisi Untitled from the series, Pareidolia. Charcoal and graphite on paper,
12″ x 9,” by julianna paradisi

There’s an old joke about the personality differences among nurses of different specialties. It goes like this:

A medical–surgical nurse, an ICU nurse, an ER nurse, and a doctor go sailing. The doctor stands at the bow of the boat and shouts to the nurses, “Trim the sail!”

The med–surg nurse asks, “How do you want it?”

The ICU nurse replies, “I’ll trim, okay. But I’m doing it my way.”

The ER nurse shouts back at the doctor, “Trim the sail yourself!”

ICU style. The joke is a generalization, of course. However, I was a pediatric intensive care nurse once upon a time, and I have to admit that the ICU nurse characterization resonates with my own experience. Like the nurse in the joke, I always have an opinion, and rarely mind sharing it. In the ICU, if another nurse, a physician, a pharmacist, or respiratory therapist didn’t agree, conversation ensued. My colleague, equally opinionated, would state her or his position. Data was consulted, and […]

2016-11-21T13:05:08-05:00March 24th, 2014|career, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Working Out the Bugs: Old and Alone in the City

Amanda Anderson, BSN, RN, CCRN, works in critical care in New York City and is enrolled in the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing/Baruch College of Public Affairs dual master’s degree program in nursing administration and public administration. She tweets at @12hourRN.

Old Woman Dozing/Nicolas Maes Old Woman Dozing/Nicolas Maes

At work the other day, after almost seven years as a nurse, I had an experience that completely floored me. While connecting a bag of cefepime to my tiny, elderly, blind patient’s IV, I spotted a cockroach making its way across her pillow. And then another on her lap. And then they were on the wall behind the bed, coming out of the closet where her belongings were stored. Another nurse had just handed her the pocketbook she’d requested, and the host of insects that apparently called it home were now scurrying quickly around the room, and around me.

I consider myself a fairly brave woman. I can kill a bug if I need to, I see rats quite frequently, and come on, I’m a nurse—there have been some pretty gory things to pass these eyeballs and touch these fingers. But this was different; it was not the hospital grossness that I am a seasoned veteran of. This was a glimpse into my patient’s dirty home. I ran like a little child.

When the situation had calmed down, […]

2016-11-21T13:05:09-05:00March 19th, 2014|nursing perspective|3 Comments
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Some Florida Inspiration for Nurse Admins and Execs

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Zander Zander

A pep talk on being open to possibility. While it was cold late last week in Orlando, Florida (ok, maybe not so bad at 64 degrees and sunny blue skies, but cold by their standards) the audience at the opening session of the annual meeting of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) was definitely warmed up after listening to the engaging keynote speaker, Benjamin Zander.

Zander is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and a professor at the New England Conservatory of Music. You may be thinking he was probably a bit stuffy and formal, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Zander is, at 75, a dynamo, strolling up and down aisles, exhorting the audience to be likewise expressive, waving arms, smiling and connecting.

His message was to be open to the notion that everything is subject to change depending on how one frames it. He challenged the 1500 listeners to “stand in the realm of possibility.” His message is that everything—the rules, perceptions, games we play—are invented and can be changed. He maintains that every situation can be dealt with three ways: resignation, anger, or recognizing the possibility. […]

2018-03-28T10:26:54-04:00March 17th, 2014|career, nursing perspective|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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