I recently edited a compelling article on physician-assisted suicide (PAS) written by Lisa Siminski, BSN, RN, CHPN, staff nurse, St. Luke's Hospice House, Bethlehem, PA.   In her report on PAS, Siminski points out straight away that the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses ''clearly specifies that nurses ...

Wall Street failures. The housing market and mortgage industry collapse. The epic, disastrous BP oil spill. Huge mistakes with dire consequences for a large chunk of the global population. How can ''these people'' sleep at night after pulling the wool over our eyes? The answer, according to a newly released book, is the wool most likely covers the ...

You probably don't know the name Sara Dale, RN - then again, perhaps you do. The British nurse has been the target of investigations, allegations of scandal, and loss of livelihood since it came to light that she had romantic relationships with the spouses of her deceased patients. As you can well imagine, it's a story well-suited for the ...

Have you ever known a Nurse Jackie in your own life? You know the kind -- full of swagger and bravado, oozing with street smarts and clever comebacks, never one to turn away from conflict. Showtime, which aired the latest episode last night, recently asked that question to its viewers. Online respondents revealed: ''Jackie reminds me ...

In the latest episode of Nurse Jackie (played by Edie Falco in this Showtime series), Jackie is quintessential Jackie. In past shows, we saw Jackie acting as a medical Robin Hood, never hesitating to rob from the rich (those who bestow health insurance) to help the poor (those who don't have it or aren't served well by their health insurance). ...

Did you read the article on the ADVANCE Web site about the nurse who has been acquitted after whistle blowing on a doctor? What she and her colleague must have gone through! And for doing the right thing! Even as they were following the proper employer channels and still not getting results, they were brave enough to take it farther, and lost ...

Yesterday I blogged that Dean Hilda Alcindor, RN, of FSIL School of Nursing, the first BSN nursing program on the island of Haiti, was among the missing. Amidst the tragedy came good news: The dean is alive and well. She is, however, mourning the loss of one of her students. The bright nursing hopeful had left the safety of the school ...

It just galls me that al Qaeda ''takes responsibility'' for the failed Christmas terror attempt at blowing up an airliner at the Detroit airport. Takes responsibility? I beg to differ. There's more to taking responsibility than admitting guilt. Taking responsibility does not mean gloating over a mere chance to incinerate hundreds of innocent ...

I was at the gym, doing the obligatory 40 minutes on an elliptical. I was willing to read anything I could get my hands on to help pass time and minimize the drudgery of pumping toward nowhere. To my great joy, wedged among the body-building magazines was an outdated issue of Marie Claire magazine. So with legs straining and heart thumping, I ...

On a brief jaunt last week, I met a fellow traveler -- a retired military officer whose career spanned various deployments to Germany, Panama and Vietnam. We discussed at length the tone of the nation in the 1960s when he was fighting an unseen enemy in an Asian jungle. Eventually, we talked about the sadness he felt when he returned to ...