Nuggets for June 23

Today's installment features a few important (and sometimes funny) aspects of nursing.

First of all, there's a nursing shortage. Surprise, surprise. I know a few of you are rolling your eyes as you're looking at the latest newbie RN on your floor. Nurse.com has a great article about the Versant RN residency program which is being used in various hospitals throughout the US. According to the article, RN residency programs are keeping new RN turnover levels lower than the national average.

Residency program prepares new Texas RNs (from http://www.nurse.com/)

Next, it's not the newest post she has out there, but PixelRN has a great one about nursing and the Maternal Suckling Thing. The moral of the story: Don't worry, some people just don't get nursing in today's modern hospitals. Hopefully, Flo's not spinning over this one!

After that biology lesson, head on over to Podunk Memorial for an Ode to a Node. I don't read many ECGs, but it makes me want to get the book referenced in this post.

Finally, let's look at an oldie but goodie that bears repeating. I really enjoy reading Taralynn Mackay's blogs, Information for nurses and A Nurse Attorney's Thoughts. Both blogs spotlight legal interest stories that are appropriate for nurses. Just because someone tells you, "Oh, you're a nurse, don't worry." you should. As grown-ups and nurses, our job is to know what is going on in the world and what's going on with our patients.

This post, appropriately called Why you don't want a stupid nurse really made me think. I was flabbergasted in May when I attended a symposium for new grads in an accelerated program when one of my younger, louder classmates, commented that I was stupid because I thought it was important to recognize failure to rescue. "We don't do that every day. You don't need to worry about that." Well, yes, we do Ms. Jen, yes, we do.

And that is all for today, so enjoy your goodies, folks. More later!

Nuggets for April 8

Here are a few of my favorites from my recent ventures out on the 'net.

Nursing 101 (from ERNursey)
ERNursey, thank you for this post.

Don't buy liability insurance (from My 2 cents)
This is one of my favorite blogs, discussing a very important issue that, for some reason, people tend to gloss over.

Give it time (from tex at weirdnursingtales)
A good, short piece on ED nurses. I'm not there yet, either, Tex, but boy, my BS radar is gettin' pretty sharp!

Chez Recovery and Beyond (from pixelrn)
Boy, Beth, I sure feel for you...been to the IT promised land, escaped to nursing school, and now I'm wondering if I should ever go back. It's just TOO tempting!

Keeping priorities straight, even at the end (from nytimes.com)
The NY Times article about Carnegie-Mellon prof, Randy Pausch and his last lecture.