Book of Nurses: Jennelle
Jannelle has been nursing since she was 17 and has been qualified since she was 23. She worked in emergency departments in England and NZ before returning to Australia.
She was initially working in an ED in Alice Springs, where she progressed to a senior role, but due to bullying decided she wanted to try something different , and so “went out bush”.
This story happened 1 month later.
Janelle is now back working in Alice Springs, where she is looking forward to undertaking a forensic nursing diploma course.
Reflection on one day as a nurse.
At approximately 2015 on July 1st I received a call from the polic...
Source: impactEDnurse - September 8, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: ectopics Source Type: blogs
Book of Nurses: Tamara.
Tamara works in the Emergency Department at Caloundra Hospital on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.
I never wanted to be a nurse.
I always wanted to be a mother.
When my waters broke, I was ready. My bag was packed. My carefully crafted Birth Plan laid out all the options. Only, it hadn’t taken death into account. Death of my dreams, my hopes, my very definition of “mother”, and most of all the death of my son’s independence…. the birth of his disability.
After life was carefully coaxed back into his heart, his lungs, his brain, his cells, we sat down with the paediatrician. The special care unit had ...
Source: impactEDnurse - September 6, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: ectopics Source Type: blogs
Book of Nurses: xxx
This story is from a nurse who wishes to remain anonymous for reasons soon obvious. They contacted me and asked me to post their cautionary tale to the book of nurses. In many ways, it is an important one.
My tale of woe.
I’m doing this for 2 reason 1st hopefully to cleanse myself and to scream…. “you shits”.
I have been nursing for over ½ my life, a late starter, marriage fell apart and thought if I have to earn to look after my kids I might as well do something rewarding, nursing seemed to be the deal.
I’m now at the end of my career, unfortunately not by choice, which is why this ...
Source: impactEDnurse - September 4, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: ectopics Source Type: blogs
Book of Nurses: Collette.
Collette lives in Adelaide, and has been nursing since 1986.
She trained in the hospital system, working through the time of “nursing changing from a vocation to a profession”.
She has worked in Emergency departments, trauma units, operating theaters, anaesthetics and recovery.
And – She is currently a patient.
In the last 10 weeks I have been a patient in 2 public hospitals I have been employed, one I currently work at.
I have spent 6 weeks in a private hospital.
As a nurse I have been saddened by the many of the nurses in the private hospital. And a few in the public hospital.
My admitting doctor men...
Source: impactEDnurse - September 3, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: ectopics Source Type: blogs
Book of Nurses: Sarah
Sarah Gehrke is an Infusion Nurse in an integrative medicine clinic located in Beverly Hills.
This is her philosophy of nursing.
Philosophy of Nursing
Nursing is a work of art. The art of nursing is a skill learned by study, practice, and observation of patients and their families. To paint a personal picture of the philosophy of nursing, ethics and human creativity combined with critical thinking act as mediums to translate beliefs and values. The core medium, ethics, is based on ideas of what is right and what is wrong. The central medium is human creativity. This medium provides nurses the ability to create and focus on...
Source: impactEDnurse - September 3, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: ectopics Source Type: blogs
Book of Nurses 2013: Lorie
Lorie Brown runs a Web site called Empowered Nurses where she aims to help nurses protect their licenses, so they can do their jobs with confidence, focus on serving their patients, and regain the joy in the profession they love. She also provides nurses a forum to exchange ideas and change the practice of nursing for the better.
When I graduated from nursing school and took my California Boards, I was invited to interviews at seven different hospitals, each with a different job offer. At each, I would be allowed to pick where and on what unit I wanted to work. I chose to work on a medical/surgical unit in Santa Monica, C...
Source: impactEDnurse - September 2, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: ectopics Source Type: blogs
Book of Nurses 2013: Oona.
Well hello there – another chapter closing in the life of Oona deserves an update and so without further adieu -
So I’ve gotten rid of my second husband: really we should be allowed to shoot them when the sex stops being good .
I am working away saving lives on a daily basis and I LOVE IT. Maybe it has something to do with the 4 girls in Daddy’s family being nurses, but I’ve taken to it like a duck to water. It was about time I got out of offices because the politics was about to kill me and the stint as a motorcycle postie make me realize that there are a lot of options out there.
I work in Theatre...
Source: impactEDnurse - September 2, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: ectopics Source Type: blogs
Book of Nurses 2013: Catherine.
Catherine is a community nurse working with young people in a high school setting in a primary health role. She is one of only 5 School Youth Health Nurses in Canberra, Australia.
30 yrs ago I pinned on my brand spanking new nurses watch and began the career of a lifetime. It is an old fashioned one that you have to wind every day.
I always knew I wanted to be a nurse – don’t really know why but have always loved the smell of hospitals ( weird huh ).
My mum gave me two bits of advice- always wear support stockings and have proper, good fitting shoes. In those days, sheer relief pantyhose and Halls Orthopaedic s...
Source: impactEDnurse - August 31, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: ectopics Source Type: blogs
Book of Nurses 2013: Dale.
So a bit about me, I’m a 33 year old (well 33 in October) male undergrad AIN at Wollongong Hospital in a Chronic Cardiac and Respiratory Ward, I’m also in my final semester at Uni and honestly slightly worried about graduating a being a RN, which I have been told is normal. Enough about me now, I’ll tell you how I came to be a 33 year old undergrad…
I kinda fell into nursing, I have had many different jobs and none that really made me feel rewarded. I have worked in Fast Food, Horticulture, Hospitality. Horticulture was my first passion, but alas plants and I don’t mix… Plant allergies.....
Source: impactEDnurse - August 31, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: ectopics Source Type: blogs
the Book of NURSES 2013.
Last year I ran a little project called “The Book of Nurses” in which I encouraged readers to answer a few questions about their experiences as nurses and showcased each nurse as an individual post.
You can browse through them here.
The response was fantastic.
There were a total of 40 nurses (and 1 dog) that made a contribution.
From Texas to Tasmania, from undergrad to way-way-overgrad.
We were given surprisingly deep glimpse at the lives of some remarkable people.
Book of Nurses 2013.
This year I would love to repeat the project.
Only this year I am asking you to dig a little deeper and to share a story:
Share 1 sto...
Source: impactEDnurse - August 31, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: the nurses desk: Source Type: blogs
Workloads. Doctors vs Nurses.
This is not intended to be a gripe or a swipe at doctors. I love doctors (well most of them).
A few of them, I am in complete awe of.
So, I don’t really know what this is. All I know is that I was thinking about it during a very, very busy shift.
Perhaps, it is simply a reflection on the respective PHYSICAL tasks (or the physical workload) a single nurse vs a single doctor perform on a typical emergency department patient.
Note: I will be the first to stand up and shout out that overall doctors work their arses off.
Long hours. Mental fatigue. Poor peer support networks. Intense responsibility. And when th...
Source: impactEDnurse - August 28, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: ectopics Source Type: blogs
Wear your nurse from the inside out.
Nurse.
“What do you want to walk around wearing a T shirt that says nurse for?”
“People will just start telling you their medical problems!”
“Don’t you think that’s just a little unprofessional?”
“But what if there is an emergency? You will just have to get involved”
When we are not at work we sorta think we should hide it away.
We sorta think Nurse peels off with our scrubs and sits in the laundry basket, to be cleaned and pressed before we nurse up for the next shift.
But we all know that is not the way it is.
Like it or not, Nurse is 24/7.
With our profession s...
Source: impactEDnurse - August 26, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: the nurses desk: Source Type: blogs
What is the worth of a nurse?
Really.
Im not talking metaphorically here, Im talking….put your money where your mouth is.
Sharn McNeill is an inspirational emergency department nurse from St George ED.
She was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of motor neurone disease known as ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). A disease disease which usually has a life expectancy of three to five years from diagnosis.
Sharn is attempting to raise money to undertake a cutting-edge stem cell treatment in the United States.
Cost: $500,000.
So. What is the worth of this nurse?
I always try to quickly get to a place of acceptance and gratitude. I feel blessed...
Source: impactEDnurse - August 25, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: ectopics Source Type: blogs
the ThunderBox Papers: Glasgow Coma Scale.
The ThunderBox Papers are a set of short pithy one page information sheets.
The idea is that you stick one on your toilet door for one week and commit to learning the information during each visit.
A Thunderbox refers to an old Australian ‘out-house’ or outside toilet. These toilets were often nothing more than a small drafty wooden shed containing a seat over a deep hole in the ground.
Toilet paper consisted of old pages from newspapers or magazines threaded together with string and hung on a hook.
I will post a Thunderbox Paper here every week or so. Stick it in your toilet at work (or home) and use yo...
Source: impactEDnurse - August 18, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: the nurses desk: Source Type: blogs
Sure we document…but do we communicate?
Nursing documentation is seldom read, until the the shit hits the fan…..and then it is read through with a fine tooth comb.
At least this is my experience. Doctors seldom read our progress notes1, and even us nurses tend to read the doctors notes far more than we read our own colleagues documentations.
But when something goes wrong it is inevitably the nursing notes that come under scrutiny.
It is our documentation that is expected to provide the most meaningful measure of the standards of care delivery for the patient.
So as nurses, we tend to try to reflect both some sort of narrative of the patients journey through th...
Source: impactEDnurse - August 16, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: the nurses desk: Source Type: blogs
