Blog Entries - June 2008

A Brief Vacation....

nursekeith@gmail.com — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Yes, Dorothy, even nurses need a vacation, and while this nurse is not returning to Kansas, he is absconding with his wife to an undisclosed location where we happily honeymooned nineteen years ago.

More tales and adventures of nursing will follow after a brief period of rest, recovery, and leisure.

Happy summer to all!

NurseKeith

US Body Snatch Mastermind Jailed

jfeakins@msn.com — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The US dentist who masterminded thefts from hundreds of human corpses from funeral homes will serve between 18 and 54 years in jail, a judge has ruled.

Michael Mastromarino's ring stole parts from more than 1,000 bodies, including that of BBC presenter Alistair Cooke.

The group then so [...]

Maryland Nurses Honored

partnersearch@msn.com — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Two RNs were honored recently by The Daily Record as top category winners as part of its annual Health Care Heroes program.

The Baltimore legal publication, which honors healthcare professionals in six categories, recognized nearly two dozen local RNs or RN teams in its awards program.

The late Marie Harkowa, RN, CHPN, was honored as the Nurse Hero Top Winner.

Harkowa, who died Nov. 15, 2007, after a seven-year battle with ovarian cancer, served as hospice super [...]

Change of Shift is Up at "20 Out of 10"

nursekeith@gmail.com — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The latest edition of Change of Shift , nursing blog carnival extraordinaire, is now up at "20 Out of 10 ", a nursing blog which is a new discovery for this nurse blogger.

Please pay a visit if you can!

Nurses' Unseen Work

nursekeith@gmail.com — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

How much do nurses do that goes unseen, undocumented, and unsung? How much of nursing is of an invisible nature, unnoticed yet crucial to the work of nursing?

So much of what we do as nurses has to be quantified, qualified, charted, and reduced to letters and numbers on a page. Yet there is so much that we do as nurses that is simply beyond documentation and quantification.

A smile, a hand on a shoulder, a chat with a colleague that clears the way for a clinical brainstorm---so [...]

Links!

admin@nurselinkup.com — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Greetings, LinkUpians!

A brief word about links....

We are busy populating a dynamic and informative list of links for your edification and enjoyment. If you visit the links page (under the heading of "Community" on the home page of Nurse LinkUp), you will find headings such as:

Professional nursing associations (US and Canada)State and provincial nursing associations and societies (US and Canada)Nurse bloggersMedical bloggersNursing referenceHumanitarian organ [...]

GAS CRISIS IN AMISH COUNTRY, PENNSYLVANIA

jfeakins@onlinelinkup.com — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Of Orientation and Unions....

nursekeith@gmail.com — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I have completed my first week of orientation at my new job as a per diem hospice nurse at a local VNA. While I still feel like an impostor who knows nothing, my ignorance painfully obvious to anyone who looks at all closely, I'm feeling comfortable and warmly welcomed to my new workplace (even as contract negotiations between the union and my new employer drag into their tenth month).

Interestingly, I was allowed to leave 90 minutes early yesterday, and only today I read in the pa [...]

Orientation: Hospice

nursekeith@gmail.com — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Tomorrow I begin orientation at a new facility where I will begin training for a dual position on the hospice and palliative care teams of a local visiting nurse agency. It is run under the auspices of a local hospital that is part of a larger regional medical system from a neighboring state. Bureaucracy may be an issue, but that remains to be seen.

I feel very slight trepidation as I embark into another unknown, being the new kid once again, feeling stupid and ignorant. New computer [...]

Focus on Blogs: Disappearing John

nursekeith@gmail.com — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Disappearing John is the blog of a male nurse deep in the heart of Arizona. John tells some personal tales of undergoing gastric bypass surgery in 2004, losing more than 200 pounds, and working as an ER nurse in a busy hospital.

John's blog is always interesting, often entertaining, and a very nice mix of the professional and the personal. I highly recommend stopping by from time to time, and note that his blog is also listed in Nurse LinkUp "Links" section.

S [...]

Change of Shift at Nurse Ratched's Place

nursekeith@gmail.com — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The newest edition of Change of Shift, that blog carnival of nurses who blog, is up and at 'em over at Nurse Ratched's Place . Happy reading!

RN handy home care

timothy104@bellsouth.net — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

FL resident and currently full time private care RN...

Nursing Shortage: American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN)

jfeakins@msn.com — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The Nursing Shortage

The United States is in the midst of a nursing shortage that is expected to intensify as baby boomers age and the need for health care grows. Compounding the problem is the fact that nursing colleges and universities across the country are struggling to expand enrollment levels to meet the rising demand for nursing care.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is concerned about the shortage of Registered Nurses (RN [...]

To Sleep....Perchance to Dream.......

nursekeith@gmail.com — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Tonight I spend the night as a patient, undergoing a therapeutic sleep study. Having originally been diagnosed with both Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Periodic Limb Movement Disorder during my diagnostic sleep test, I am back again to see if my medications and dental sleep device are working.

A dental sleep device, you ask? Yes, I use a Somno Med dental device, which essentially forces the lower mandible to protrude slightly, giving me a somewhat laughable underbite. Remember how [...]

Heat Wave Redux

nursekeith@gmail.com — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The heat wave continues today, and the inner city bakes as the sun reflects off of the proverbial concrete jungle.

At the urban senior center where my wife is director, air conditioners work overtime, and the city provides spring water and popsicles, as well as fans for residents who lack even the slightest chance of escaping the heat.

Driving through the city, I know very well that, inside some of those buildings, people with chronic illness swelter without relief. Some sit und [...]

Of Money and Time

nursekeith@gmail.com — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

What do you do when you receive a verbal offer by telephone of an hourly wage for a new job, and when you arrive to sign papers they've decreased the amount by almost one dollar per hour?

This was the scenario today when I arrived for my pre-employment physical, and the person who made the original offer wasn't even there. So, in lieu of signing the offer letter as requested, I simply wrote that I was not accepting it due to a discrepancy in the agreed-upon amount, and requeste [...]

A Heat Wave and My Relative Privilege

nursekeith@gmail.com — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:35:45 +0100

Today I slogged through the city doing patient visits from one end of town to another as the mercury rose to the mid-90's.

Feeling sorry for myself, I jumped in and out of my comfortable air-conditioned car only to realize my relative privilege as I visited patients who were sweating it out in third-floor walk-ups devoid of even a simple fan!

Deep in the city are thousands of people living in near-squalid conditions with no escape from the summer heat and little comfort [...]

Hello to Our New Members!

admin@nurselinkup.com — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Greetings to our new members who have recently signed up to Nurse LinkUp! We welcome you to this growing community, and we want to remind you that we are ready and willing to hear your reactions and feedback about the site.

Please feel free to visit the forums, start a blog, submit articles, ask questions, and let us know what you like, what you don't like, and what you'd like to see.

To communicate your feedback, please visit the forums and leave comments under &q [...]

Focus on Blogs: Emergiblog

nursekeith@gmail.com — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Today's featured blog is Kim McAllister's Emergiblog. Kim has done a great deal to advance the cause of nurse bloggers, and she has created and maintained this irreverent, fun, and informative blog for many years. Respected among her peers, Kim also created Change of Shift , a bi-weekly blog carnival that features some of the best nurse bloggers around.

Emergiblog has been nominated for several awards and is currently positioned at #20 on the list of the 100 top medical and he [...]

My blog location

traceytrn@yahoo.com — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I blog already at http://nighttimenursing.blogspot.com

Come and check it out if you'd like to.