Is ICARE just letters?

For some people, it is. If you do a little research, ICARE shows up on Google about 535,000 times.

If you're a nurse educator, ICARE is a model for education design.

If you're a business person, it's a way of delivering excellent service based on the Ken Blanchard model.

If you're a cancer researcher, iCARE is a model for building risk models.

In some health care organizations, like VA, it defines a code of conduct.

I care about those who have served.

I care about my fellow employees.

I care about choosing “the harder right instead of the easier wrong.”

I care about performing my duties to the very best of my abilities


It's too bad that at the Hotel, some of our patients have told us:
"I'm not telling your manager anything. He/she is lazy and doesn't care."
"I asked that nurse to do something a different way, and he/she didn't."


However, my rehab nurse heart just skips a beat, when my patient recently said, "I've learned more today in the little time I spent with you today, than I've learned all month." Why? Because I took a few minutes to not just educate this patient about the specialty services of the SU (my job), but of the rehab unit as a whole.  I cared.


When do we realize, that as nurses, "I care" isn't just an acronym. It's a verb. It's actions: not just doing, but listening, being present, and doing right, even when it's hard. Even when you're busy, passing pills, doing dressings. Share the rehab wisdom you've developed (or for newbies, are developing)


ICARE is not I Come And Receive Everything. If you're a paycheck nurse, maybe you need another gig.


I care because I am a nurse and a human being with a conscience. It's my job and my philosophy (thank you grad school and Jean Watson).


Don't let the turkeys get you down today. Keep caring!


Enjoy your weekend wherever you are! 

RehabRN book club: Summer 16 edition

The reading clubs (yes, even for adults) are back at RehabLand's library system and Bubba and I are reading away. Dahey always does (he could spend every waking minute reading if left to his own devices...) but never competes in the contest.

While my boys have methods to selecting the books they get, I don't really have one, outside of the fact that I like new books. Ones with catchy titles and authors I recognize also helps. Lately, I've taken to just picking up a book while I wait for Bubba, randomly opening the book, and reading a few pages while I wait.

If I like the book, I check it out.

The two books on my reading list right now are those kinds of books.

The first one I'm reading is Beyond the tiger mom: East-West parenting for the global age by Maya Thiagarajan. I liked it because Ms. Thiagarajan is a teacher. She's got street cred. She's not just avowing a philosophy to make us working mothers look like slackers. To top it off, she has some great ideas for interventions you can try at home with your kids.

My favorite quote in the book is not just applicable to education, it's also applicable to my job as a nurse:

"Don't worry so much about making everything "fun"...I personally believe "fun" is the wrong word to use. Learning should be challenging, meaningful, rigorous, engrossing, interesting, and satisfying." (p.132)

You could easily switch learning to work and it would still make sense.

The next book on my list right now is We have the technology: How biohackers, foodies, physicians, and scientists are transforming human perception, one sense at a time by Kara Platoni. I'm only a couple of pages into this book but it's looking promising.

More updates to come. Hope you enjoy whatever's on your reading list. Feel free to discuss.

Never fear...

Still here. Just having writer's block.

Only temporary, and partly fueled by excess pollen in RehabLand leading to an obvious nursing diagnosis of disturbed sensory perception. My nasal passages are definitely disturbed.

Time for more saline spray...

More to come.