There have been times in my nursing career when I have put the pieces of a clinical picture together only to see something entirely different than the treating physician. The picture I would see was not based only on the lab work, or clinical manifestations of an illness, but was guided by the narrative of the ...

Calamitous topics of conversation to initiate with strangers include politics, religion and body weight. I multiply that degree of calamity by 100 when the stranger is my patient. So, I carefully avoid the bits about God and Country. However, avoidance of any weight-related topic is rather negligent. Nevertheless I address diet with the ...

How much time is spent in patient education? How effective is it? Is it worth the time spent? Do we get reimbursed for it? These are all questions that we debate -- when we have time, in between doing all the other things that have to get done each day. We all agree that educating our patients is important and that we should do it. But we all ...