… and, in fact, it’s not just nurses but everybody! I have several mentors and coaches who guide me in my law practice. Even though I’ve been a lawyer for 25 years, mentors always have new insights to help. Many nurses get caught up in the norms of their unit with the “we’ve-always-done-it-this-way” syndrome. If you are a new nurse, you may not know that this is not proper. You may get a bothersome gut feeling but you’re too timid or afraid to say something. You’re just going with the flow … [Read more...]

Normally I am neither one to get on a bandwagon nor to comment on anything negative. Though I hesitated to write this article, I found myself so moved by the response of nurses to a recent broadcast of the television discussion program called “The View” that I felt compelled to write this. I watched last week’s broadcast of the Miss USA Pageant when Miss Colorado, Kelley Johnson, performed a moving monologue about her nursing experiences with one particular Alzheimer’s patient. It made me so … [Read more...]

Since when have hospitals become so concerned with patient satisfaction that we now are giving concierge-type care instead of doing what’s necessary to save people’s lives? We have gone from a society of small community hospitals where the focus was on truly taking care of the patients to huge corporations where the focus is more on making sure patients are happy rather than providing quality care. Many of our actions are focused on whether others will like us or what they will think of us. … [Read more...]

As a nurse, our identity is so tied with our profession. If there is any question about how we are doing our job, we take it personally. If you have been written up or have been disciplined as a nurse, I would encourage you to look at things differently. View it as a learning opportunity. If you recall, I’m sure you will find times in your life which were difficult or hard but you managed to come through them. My guess is that you came through for the better. I also have had very … [Read more...]