Welcome to Health Care POV | sign in | join
ADVANCE for Nurses is thrilled to welcome you to Nurse POV Blogs, part of the Nurse POV: Online Community. Our new blogs offers posts covering timely questions, advice and opinions about the nursing field; connecting professionals nationwide. We have provided tags to assist in locating topics of interest, a profile page to make uniquely your own and a list of our most active discussions to keep you abreast of the latest discussions. We look forward to hearing more about the nursing field from your Point of View (POV).
LATEST POSTS FROM EACH BLOG
July 2, 2009 12:27 PM by Adrianne OBrien of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

Episode three of HawthoRNe (confession: I skipped episode two) brought some meatier storylines than the pilot episode, but also a continuation of the silly stuff and stereotypes.

A bright spot continues to be Jada Pinkett Smith's performance. Her Christina Hawthorne, CNO of the fictional Richmond Trinity Hospital, is committed. Cool. She has the ear and the respect of both her nursing staff and Tom Wakefield, ...


1 comments  
July 1, 2009 2:35 PM by Bridgette Williams of Transition to RN

"How do I chart that?" Has this question come up after caring for a challenging patient or after a crisis has occurred? Documentation in a patient's record is difficult for many nurses because information has to be both condense and clear. Recently, I attended a seminar about legal consequences of poor documentation. To my surprise, poor handwriting was not always the culprit.

One of most important lessons learned ...


 
June 30, 2009 1:51 PM by Ainsley Maloney of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

On Nurse Jackie we've spent many an episode watching Edie Falco snort, crush and pop prescription painkillers, yet as soon as her daughter Grace's teacher suggests the 10-year-old start a low-dose medicine for her anxiety disorder, Jackie is aghast.

"It's amazing to me. You think a kid has a problem ...


 
June 26, 2009 10:25 AM by Valerie Newitt of InteRNational

Mwen se infimye ou ("I am your nurse," Haitian Creole)

Canadian Kyra Abbott, BScN, RN, grew up in the small town of Perth, Ontario, and now makes her home in the city of Ottawa. And while this Magna CumLaude graduate of the University of Ottawa could have opted for any number of relatively comfortable nursing opportunities, she chose to spend more than 4 years living and working in Haiti.


2 comments  

June 25, 2009 2:56 PM by Kathleen Bensing of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

Hopefully, many of you tuned into ABC last evening to view Prescription for America. Scheduled to be a 1-hour exchange of ideas about healthcare reform with President Obama and healthcare stakeholders, the meeting lasted 30 minutes longer, extending into ABC's Nightline, from 11:30 p.m. to 12 a.m.

If you did not get to see the program, I urge you to ...


2 comments  
June 24, 2009 5:45 PM by Luke Cowles of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

Most of us probably know by now that no less than three primetime shows are featuring nurses in primary roles. 

After decades of St. Elsewhere, Quincy, House Calls and most recently ER and Grey's Anatomy; it's about time a healthcare drama was put forward with a nurse's point to view. 

That should be reason enough for nurses to stand up and cheer.  Finally, ...


4 comments  
June 23, 2009 3:08 PM by Ainsley Maloney of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

Here are highlights from Episode 3 of Nurse Jackie that aired last night on Showtime:

  • We saw a great cameo appearance by movie and TV legend Eli Wallach as Mr. Zimberg. The man is 93 years old and still acting, and is better known for his roles in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, ...

 
June 23, 2009 1:57 PM by Stacey Miller of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

To ensure nurses' voices are heard during the debate on healthcare reform, the America Nurses Association (ANA) and other organizations that comprise Health Care for America Now will hold a rally in Washington, DC, June 25.

Nurses will meet at 11:30 a.m. in Upper Senate Park, Constitutional Avenue and Delaware Street NE, to lobby Congress ...


 
June 22, 2009 2:01 PM by Lorettajo Kapinos of Tales From an ED Nurse


People visit the ER for many different reasons.  Sometimes it's for vague, non-specific symptoms that require little testing.  But in many cases, they end up suffering the "million dollar work-up" with no definitive answers.  I find this part of ER nursing very frustrating.  I know I am not alone.

Just ...

 
June 22, 2009 9:50 AM by Stacey Miller of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

Anyone who lives in an area where a major road construction project has been planned has probably experienced this. You go to a meeting at the local high school or community center where Department of Transportation engineers explain the proposed location of each route, compare the costs of constructing each route and, of most concern to the community, whether any route will cut through homeowners' properties and ...


3 comments  

There's been some interesting dialog in the news lately about the problems the VA had this week with the improper cleaning of colonoscopes and the major repercussions. How many of you have been surprised (or not) by what's happened and the resulting media response?

I ...


 
June 17, 2009 12:26 PM by Adrianne OBrien of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

I tuned in to TNT for the series premiere of Hawthorne last night and came away a little disappointed.

Christina Hawthorne, played by Jada Pinkett Smith, is the CNO of the fictional Richmond Trinity Hospital. She's smart, tenacious and compassionate. She's respectable.

Other characters, not so much. Stereotypes abound. Nurse Ray Stein questions Dr. Marshall's insulin order for a patient with diabetes ...


12 comments  
June 16, 2009 12:30 PM by Ainsley Maloney of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

Minutes into the second episode, Jackie is emptying three Sweet-N-All packets and refilling them with crushed Percocet powder. ("Percocet should never be crushed, broken, or chewed," Jackie muses, "unless you want it to hit your system like a bolt of lightening. Which is only a problem if you're afraid of lightening. Which I am not.")

Drug-addicted as she still is in last night's episode, it's no secret nurse ...


11 comments  
June 16, 2009 10:35 AM by Adrianne OBrien of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

Two weeks after the premiere of Showtime's Nurse Jackie comes - can we believe it? - another nurse-focused TV show. Debuting on June 16 at 9 p.m. on TNT, Hawthorne (the "RN" in the credits is capitalized) stars Jada Pinkett Smith as Christina Hawthorne, the CNO of the fictional Richmond Trinity Hospital.

Pinkett Smith's real-life mother was an RN at a hospital in Baltimore, and in a June 16 interview on Philadelphia ...


3 comments  
June 15, 2009 1:34 PM by Ainsley Maloney of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

The second episode of Nurse Jackie airs tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime. (You can catch the preview here).

Many nurses told us they're anxiously awaiting the second episode to determine what direction Nurse Jackie will take: Will it cement the show as featuring a drug-addicted nurse who engages in affairs and ...


 
June 12, 2009 10:04 AM by Ainsley Maloney of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

Barring rave reviews and a record number of viewers (a cumulative 1.35 million after the premiere and encore), Showtime picked up Nurse Jackie for a second season just 1 day after its June 8 premiere.

It's likely you're either smiling or cringing.

But, regardless of whether you think Nurse Jackie's a strong, competent nurse who's finally ...


2 comments  
June 11, 2009 1:40 PM by Abigail Scott of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

My son's birth and first newborn days should have been some of the happiest of my life, but my mind had other plans. It was a long labor and delivery in March 2006, starting with an inducement, progressing through 24-30 sleepless hours of labor and concluding with a 1:30 a.m. C-section. Then my blood pressure went up, and I started to panic. I could not sleep, even when nurses gave me Ambien. I kept thinking I was ...


3 comments  
June 11, 2009 1:13 PM by Lisa Brzezicki of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

According to results of an online poll of nearly 2,000 infection preventionists, the economic recession is forcing many U.S. hospitals to reduce infection prevention staff and resources. Members of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) responded to an APIC survey from March 20-27, with 41 percent reporting cuts in budgets for infection prevention in the last 18 months. At a time ...

 
June 11, 2009 12:03 PM by Valerie Newitt of InteRNational

I first sailed into Haiti on a little Brit ocean liner. It was nothing like the ones you see today... no water slides, casinos, spas or rock climbing walls. Just 500 passengers, a British-accented crew and an environment so innocent that the rooms had no locks or keys. Risky by today's standards, but carefree by yesterday's. In my mind it was a floating slice of heaven.

It stood in stark contrast ...


2 comments  
June 11, 2009 11:18 AM by Lorettajo Kapinos of Tales From an ED Nurse

I have seen a recent resurgence in the news about medical apologies.  According to a recent article on MSNBC, Rhode Island is trying to join 27 other states that have passed laws forbidding an apology from a doctor to be used in a law suit against them.

This should be common sense.  So often, events just happen.  It's not always the result of negligence ...

1 comments  

I am attending the annual Association for Professionals in Infection Control (APIC) in Ft. Lauderdale this week. There will be significant information on the latest topics in infection prevention from leading experts on pandemics, of course, including H1N1. Plus sessions on the latest in compliance, infection prevention in various settings (hospital, ambulatory surgical sites, LTC, and outpatient clinics), and device-related ...


 
June 9, 2009 1:23 PM by Ainsley Maloney of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

The first episode of Nurse Jackie premièred last night on Showtime. If you didn't catch it, you can watch the full (albeit slightly edited) episode here

To sum it up, nurse Jackie is a tough ED nurse at New York City's All Saints Hospital, who, within the first ...


38 comments  
June 8, 2009 1:13 PM by Ainsley Maloney of ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses

Jackie Peyton is a pill-popping, cursing, adulterous ED nurse in the new half-hour dark comedy Nurse Jackie premièring tonight on Showtime at 10:30 ET/PT.

She's also quite possibly one of the best portrayals of the nursing profession prime-time TV has ever seen.

Don't take our word for it. Just ask Sandy Summers, MSN, MPH, RN, ...


5 comments  
June 8, 2009 7:55 AM by Bridgette Williams of Transition to RN

For those of us who watched the popular 1970s television shows The Million Dollar Man or The Bionic Woman, one of the most notable facets was the integration of technology and biology.

Both shows featured a main character who incurred loss of function in a limb and was given a second chance to regain full independence thanks to the advancements of technology and health. The show appealed to lay and ...


 
June 3, 2009 1:12 PM by Pam Tarapchak of My Other Full-Time Job

June 6, 2009. It's the day I've been brewing over and sulking about for some time now.  It's my birthday - but not just any birthday; it's the 40th one. I certainly haven't been acting like an adult about it, more like a 5-year-old, whining to everyone who will listen about how distraught I am regarding my impending age. Most people have told me me to just let it go; nothing will change. I know, I know.

In ...


6 comments  

ABOUT OUR BLOGS

Mary Bylone is a staff nurse in a management position because 25 years ago, there were not very many opportunities for staff to have a say in their practice. The environment is changing for the better, yet some nurses find it difficult to express issues to the manager. Mary believes that every nurse deserves to work in a healthy work environment and wants to assist staff in creating one where they work. What do you want to say to your manager? Let Mary help you craft a presentation that will yield results.

Pam Tarapchak juggles the responsibilities of motherhood and marriage, along with a full-time career. Share her struggles and triumphs as she strives to achieve that infamous work/life balance.

Alexandra Cosan was inspired by her RN-mother to enter the nursing field. She is in her second year at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. Enjoy the experiences of this 20-year-old San Diegan surviving student nursing on the East Coast.

Lorettajo A. Kapinos will explore the diverse and complicated job of ED nursing, and touch on some general nursing topics she's come across during her 10 years in the field. She wants to share the simple stories of life and death that refuel her passion.

William M. Keane will provide a glimpse into what he experiences throughout his venture into nursing following 15 years in various business industries.

If you're looking for a different type of online book club, look no further. Here you can read a great book and share you opinions with your colleagues around the world. So grab a book from our list, begin reading, and get ready to engage in some fun online discussion.

Here you'll read accounts of personal growth, travel interests, special events and awards-essentially anything that's on your mind (within reason, of course). So sit back and enjoy stories from your peers.

The ADVANCE for Nurses editorial staff will discuss issues in the nursing profession, current events in healthcare and offer their two cents for your enjoyment.

Bridgette Williams isn't new to the professional world, but she's new to nursing, having earned her degree in 2008. Join her as she explores second-career nursing as a new grad.

From our work environment to our homes and schools, our society is riddled with the catastrophic impact the lack of infection prevention has had in our communities, particularly in the facilities where we as nurses work. Susan Dubay, MPA, BSN, RN, will share her expertise and experience in infection control, and hopes this space will give you an opportunity to share your opinions and comments as professionals who deal with this important topic each and every day.

Valerie Neff Newitt talks to nurses around the world for a global view of the challenges and triumphs that define their shared profession in disparate locations. Indeed, the lessons lie in the contrasts. On the move and in vacation mode? We'll be happy to share your travel discoveries.