I am currently in a  class called ''Societal Forces'' as a precursor to my first semester of advanced assessment in the Adult/Gero Primary Care Nurse Practitioner track. The teachers are passionate and well informed. The speakers are excellent, but the subject matter...The subject matter is frankly depressing. The class theme seems to ...

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 ...

In an accelerated NP program, newly-minted nurses often find themselves in graduate-level classes with people who have been in the profession for most of their lives. I just passed the NCLEX two weeks ago -- hang on -- I can't hold it in. Hire me! I'm great! Anyone in the central Mass. area looking for a new grad Murse with a background in ...

As I entered the patient's room, I introduced myself and asked if her name was ''Sarah.'' She said ''yes,'' nodding in my direction with a welcoming smile. Prior to entering the patient's room, I had diligently reviewed the chart. She was 93 and had been hospitalized after slipping and falling in her home, where she lived alone. Her husband had ...

It was a sunny, warm afternoon. A great day to spend outdoors with the family. But Dad had not come home ... again. Then, the phone rang. Maybe it was him? But the voice was not his. ''I'm afraid that he has died,'' the voice whispered across the phone. They found him in a ditch, motionless, dirty ... and gone. ''I am sorry. He died from alcohol ...

Terry Clarke, student nurse here. I am in an accelerated nurse practitioner program at UMASS Worcester. We just finished our year-long RN BSN equivalency. I've been feeling like a hand-stamped 18-year-old at a bar, able to join the conversations but not order a beer. As my NCLEX draws nigh, I finally feel competent to write about this experience. ...

The other day, I came across an article about Val Patterson, a man who was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer. What made his story memorable was that before passing away on July 10, 2012, he wrote his own obituary. It was printed in his local newspaper and then throughout the world. Thousands of people have read it; hundreds have left comments ...

After Mother Teresa's death, it was revealed that in private correspondence she wrote of not feeling the presence of God - of lack of faith and spiritual anguish. Helen Keller, who spent her life fighting for suffrage and the rights of the disabled, was a radical socialist. Florence Nightingale was a long-term user of opiates. These facts are a ...

Doctor: ''Nurse, the diabetic patient in room 8 is waiting for his insulin shot.'' Nurse: ''What diabetic patient? Bed 1 or 2?'' Doctor: ''Umm...the bed by the window. I'm blanking on the name right now. John? No, Tom. I think. To be honest, I'm not quite sure. Check the chart. He is the cellulitis patient who is been here for 2 ...

Finding a preceptor was one of the most difficult things I have had to do thus far on my journey to becoming a family nurse practitioner. I believe what made this so difficult is dealing with the rejection - and sometimes rudeness - that I encountered. I also felt helpless, since this is the only part of my education that is out of my control. I ...