We have volunteers in our clinic who spend several hours each week helping around the office - running errands, filing, running for charts and reports that staff needs. We treasure each and every one of these individuals. There is one standout however, Jon, whom without, our office just wouldn't be the same. He's loyal and dedicated to the staff ...

They say doctors and nurses make the worst patients. There will likely be times during your career when you are on the receiving end of medical care. Should this happen, it will be a serious learning experience. Learning how to be taken care of, learning how ill-prepared we are to voluntarily give up control of our freedom and choices, and, most ...

For many of our patients, their HIV status is the least of their problems. The population of people we deal with not only suffers from the disease, but from their addictions, homelessness, abusive relationships and indifference. I've come to learn that these people view our clinic as much more than just their doctor's office. For a lot of ...

Here is something to ponder:  What do you do as a nursing student (or a nurse) when one of your parents is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease? Such was the case for me in early 1998 when my dad was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I was in the first year of my practical nurse schooling, and I didn't know how much of a ...

June 27th was National HIV Testing Day and the first day our clinic offered free HIV screening. We weren't really sure how the response would be, but it turned out to be fantastic. We saw 25 people between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. We had a real broad range of people walk through our door. Asians, African Americans Latinos, Whites; men and women from as ...

The following is a true story. We had a patient who needed a new mattress. My facility works with a medical equipment company that provides this service. After I had sent all the necessary paperwork, I received a rather startling phone call. The woman at the supply office was upset that we didn't let them know the patient was HIV-positive. I ...

The trauma room was once an elusive place to me where lives are magically saved and miracles occur every day. I waited anxiously to receive notice that it was time to take the Trauma Nurse Core Class (TNCC) and orient to the elite status of trauma nurse. Over the years, I have developed a state of mind that I refer to as my ‘Trauma Daze.'  ...

For every nurse who had to go through the student lab multiple times until you learned how to open a sterile package without contaminating it, you'll appreciate this description  of a program to teach residents how to do procedures, What is innovative in academic medicine has been a standard of nursing education for almost ever, If you're not ...

Andrea Kerr is a frequent contributor to Advance. With the help of Michael Paras, she will provide readers with daily updates on Lutheran HealthCare's medical mission work in Tela, Honduras. Dispatch from Michael Paras - Wednesday April 23, 2008 By Wednesday the medical team on the ground in Honduras had already seen and treated 230 patients ...

I was having a bad couple days at work recently, and it left me wondering why I went into nursing in the first place. I think all nurses think that from time to time I was doing what I always do in my clinic: talking to my HIV patients, drawing their blood and listening to their stories. But I was struck by one patient who shared a story of her ...