Last time we saw Laura Vlaadingerbroek, MSN, RN, she was serving as chief medical officer aboard Holland America Lines' luxurious ms Zaandam. All the while she was living -- and loving --the good life, while traveling to exotic ports-of-call. Then she found something else to capture her attention: a Dutch officer named Bob ...

It started out as a career shift, but ended up as The Love Boat for Laura Vlaardingerbroek, MSN, RN, lead medical officer aboard the ms Zaandam. From that mouthful of a last name you may have guessed: This American RN from Wisconsin married a Dutch officer she met aboard a luxurious ocean liner under the Holland America Line (HAL) flag. She has ...

Just when you thought nurses were under-represented on TV, we now have no fewer than three primetime series about the lives of nurses. Since the ''nursing shortage'' in primetime has all but been eliminated, the question now is: Which series most accurately depicts the ''real'' lives of nurses? Keep in mind that all TV is ''heightened reality.'' ...

''I spent 15 years of my career doing critical care,'' said Joe Niemczura, MSN, RN. ''Sure, I can run hemodynamic monitoring ... But, if you have a high-tech background in nursing, just throw that out the window. In Nepal, they don't have hemodynamic monitoring, they don't have PIC lines. They don't do TPM. They're new at giving insulin because ...

I have been following the first season of Nurse Jackie closely. Not only am I enjoying the show, but I also find the heated debate around it very interesting. Ainsley Maloney's  coverage of the show at Advance Perspective has had great comments, as well as Suzanne Gordon's website.   The show has brought the reality of drug ...

On his first nursing mission to Nepal in 2007, Joe Niemczura, MS, RN, wondered how he would make his mark on the indigenous people. ''I wasn't there to do the nursing, I was there to teach the locals what they need to do,'' he explains. But as he arrived at the host hospital in the town of Tansen, he had no idea how he would build ...

Most insurance companies require a copay for different types of appointments, including ER visits.  This seems reasonable enough, and most of the rules, depending on the particular policy make sense.  But now that the hospital I work in attempts to collect these copays before discharge, the inequalities of our health care system are ...

  My first reaction about learning of myiasis was ... wow. A rare occurrence in healthcare settings, myiasis is the infestation of maggots in mammals. Caused by eggs laid from female houseflies, the eggs grow to become maggots. The maggots live by ingesting living and necrotic tissue in the host. None of my nursing instructors had so much ...

I ran through the door at 3pm, a few minutes late.  The hallway was filled with stretchers and wheelchairs holding patients that had been waiting for hours.  The air was warm and thick; the air conditioner had apparently malfunctioned again.  I swallowed my urge to run out the door into the fresh air and weaved through numerous ...

''How do I chart that?'' Has this question come up after caring for a challenging patient or after a crisis has occurred? Documentation in a patient's record is difficult for many nurses because information has to be both condense and clear. Recently, I attended a seminar about legal consequences of poor documentation. To my surprise, poor ...