Nursing is many things to many people, but it still is made up of caring, compassionate individuals working relentlessly to improve the health and well-being of everyone. 

What most people don't know is what happens after the student leaves nursing school. This is the time nurses become busy serving the public and each other. This is the time of the "busy buddy."

The busy buddy is the nursing ...

I loved Michael Jackson. I was shocked and saddened to hear of his untimely death.

He spent nearly his entire life on stage. No matter what you may have thought of his sometimes questionable personal life, his reputation as the "King of Pop" is indisputable. If you were like me, you were glued to your TV set enjoying tapes of his concerts, videos and personal appearances over the years.

While I was ...

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 a suspected anxiety disorder, Jackie is aghast.

"It's amazing to me. You think a kid has a problem you just make them take a pill. Nice ...

EPISODE 2

Minutes into the second episode, Jackie empties three "Sweet-N-All" packets and refills them with crushed Percocet. ("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.")

But episode 2 also brought what I thought ...

Depending on your impressions of the show, it's likely you're either smiling or cringing right now.

But, regardless of whether you think ...

Nurse Jackie is a tough ED nurse at New York City's All Saints Hospital, who, in the first half-hour episode is already shown snorting painkillers, having an affair with the hospital pharmacist (who is also her drug supplier), forging a deceased patient's signature to make him an organ donor, flushing a rapist's severed ear down the ...

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

Don't take my word for it. ...

President Barack Obama heard a fairly unfamiliar sound yesterday.

A chorus of boos.

The source of the catcalls was from an audience of physicians at the AMA National Conference in Chicago. Obama was there to push his plans for healthcare reform.

While the Associated Press reported that the president was greeted "warmly" by the docs and had received a number of standing ovations during his ...

I spoke at a local nursing school yesterday, Willow Street Vo-Tech in Lancaster County, PA. I really look forward to these opportunities.

I had a great group. Lots of good questions, and they had a lot of energy. It was one of the largest classes I have ever spoken in front of at that school.

I talked to the students about my role as an LPN in the clinic. I talked about some situations and told ...

In mid-May, ADVANCE polled our LPN readers to gauge their thoughts on the swine flu "scare" at the time.

A vast majority of you (86 percent) said the whole subject was "overblown."

With today's announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the flu has reached its highest level of pandemic warning, meaning it's officially a global epidemic - the first since 1968 - I'm curious as to ...

I'm not a hypochondriac but I do worry about my health as well as the health of others; hence, me going to nursing school.  ...

During yesterday's morning commute, I listened to a radio interview with Emmy-award winning actor Joe Pantoliano. You probably remember him as Ralph Cifaretto on The Sopranos, Cypher in The Matrix or in one of the many other roles he has played in his 100-plus film career.

He was promoting his latest film, which is unlike any he had done previously: No Kidding, ...

That said, I am happy my maternity rotation is over.  ...

I had a patient come in last week who shared with me that he was going see his lawyer after his latest appointment.

Naturally, I asked what was going on. He said that he and his partner have been the victims of harassment by two of their next-door neighbors, a husband and wife. These two men are professionals, live in a nice community and take care of their home. They have their own social network and are ...

The Moore County (NC) district attorney recently announced she will seek the death penalty for Robert Stewart, the man accused of killing eight people, including LPN Jerry Avant, Jr., in a Carthage, NC, nursing home March 29, according to the Fayetteville Observer. 

In April, ADVANCE reported that Stewart entered Pinelake Health and Rehab the morning of March 29 and allegedly moved from ...

My week has been going kind of lousy. Just those feelings that you can't get anything right, your boss thinks you're a moron and the weather stinks so you wish you were on a beach in Bora Bora kind of mood.

Then I had a call today from a patient I like a lot. He has a lot of issues - his HIV is the least of them. He needed a prior authorization for his narcotics from his insurance company. I hate insurance ...

My group and I recently completed a written assignment on the birthing process for a patient we had during clinical. It was a rather long assignment that took quite a bit of time and effort to finish. ...

So, in a week, it will be Nurses' Day and then we have Hospital Week and Critical Care Awareness Month...lots to celebrate.  Of course we also have GNs who can't find jobs, Nurses who have been laid off or cut back and the Swine flu outbreak....wow, such a bag of mixed emotions.  Call me polyanna...but I say let's stay focused on the positive.

 I hope you are enjoying health and happiness in ...

A survey released this week by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization that focuses on healthcare issues faced by the U.S., claims only 6 percent of Americans think HIV/AIDS is the most urgent health problem in this country.

This is a decrease from the 17 percent that saw the disease as the most pressing issue in the U.S. in 2006 and the 44 percent that believed such in 1995.

It was ...

On April 25, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared swine flu a "public health emergency of international concern." On April 26, the U.S. followed suit, declaring a national public health emergency, according to the New York Times.

Thus far, the CDC has documented 20 cases of swine flu in the U.S. -- in New York, Texas, California, Kansas and Ohio. Worldwide, cases have been reported in Mexico ...

I am hearing a lot of challenging situations from staff lately as it relates to juggling the forces of the economy on their families and trying to balance it with work.  Nurses are the main staple for income in many families in our country, regardless of their job title or workplace.  Nursing jobs have always been a "given" to a certain extent, but now, even that is not so in many places.  Let's see ...

One in particular has disturbed me a bit. It's from "Doreen," an LPN from New York who, at 46 years old, has been an LPN for 25 years and says there is no respect for LPNs anymore and feels she is too old to go back to school.

This isn't the first time I've seen or heard this from a nurse. I just think it's ...

One of the most important aspects of HIV/AIDS care and education is prevention. As healthcare providers, we try to remind our patients, their partners and the general public of this disease through newspaper articles, speaking engagements and blogs like this.

HIV is a preventable disease. It is mainly behavior driven, and anyone who engages in risky behaviors is vulnerable to the infection. But HIV knows ...

There is no good time to be laid off, but some employers' timing can be more alarming and more difficult to accept than others.

Say, during surgery, for example.

An RN at Dean Health System in Madison, WI, was pulled out of a minor surgical procedure to be laid off last week, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. Officials say there was never any danger to the patient, but did admit the ...