I have been reading, reading and reading, quizzing, quizzing and more quizzing. Things are starting to get a lil blurry…

I do think I’m drinking a lil too much coffee though.. don’t ya think?

Trenta sized cups are almost too small for me these days. Although.. I do feel a bit twitchy..

I promise…

Taking my boards can’t come soon enough. While I’d love to jump gleefully across the finish line, at this rate with the lack of sleep, and continuous question quizzing I may very well …

But if that gets me to that ominous place where I can say “I PASSED”. I’ll gladly crawl with pride.

Not much longer…

Not much longer…

*Images courtesy of Google* 

I decided I needed as much motivation and mental prompting as possible. This is my new desktop wallpaper.

Back to studying for boards…

The next time life is trying to beat you down, testing you’re mettle… be sure to refer to this. I know I will. 

…

You’re welcome.

Via Welcome To The Grind (Motivation) – YouTube

“Rise and shine.”

6am and your hand can’t make it to the alarm clock before the voices in your head start telling you that it’s too early, too dark, and too cold to get out of a bed.
Aching muscles lie still in rebellion, pretending not to hear your brain commanding them to move
A legion of voices are shouting their unanimous permission for you to hit the snooze button and go back to dreamland, but you didn’t ask their opinion.

The voice you’ve chosen to listen to is one of defiance.
A voice that’s says there was a reason you set that alarm in the first place. So sit up, put your feet on the floor, and don’t look back because we’ve got work to do.
Welcome to The Grind!
For what is each day but a series of conflicts between the right way and the easy way,
10,000 streams fan out like a river delta before you, Each one promising the path of least resistance.
Thing is, you’re headed upstream
And when you make that choice, when you decide to turn your back on what’s comfortable and what’s safe and what some would call “common sense”, well that’s day 1.
From there it only gets tougher.
So just make sure this is something you want.
Because the easy way out will always be there, ready to wash you away, all you have to do is pick up your feet.
But you aren’t going to are you?
With each step comes the decision to take another
You’re on your way now
But this is no time to dwell on how far you’ve come.
You’re in a fight against an opponent you can’t see
Oh but you can feel him on your heels can’t you?
Feel him breathing down your neck
You know what that is?
That’s you…
Your fears, your doubts and insecurities all lined up like a firing squad ready to shoot you out of the sky
But don’t lose heart
While they aren’t easily defeated, they are far from invincible
Remember this is The Grind
The Battle Royale between you and your mind, your body and the devil on your shoulder who’s telling you that this is just a game, this is just a waste of time, your opponents are stronger than you.
Drown out the voice of uncertainty with the sound of your own heartbeat
Burn away your self doubt with the fire that’s beneath you
Remember what you’re fighting for
And never forget that momentum is a cruel mistress
She can turn on a dime with the smallest mistake.
She is ever searching for that weak place in your armor
That one tiny thing you forgot to prepare for
So as long as the devil is hiding the details, the question remains,”is that all you got?”, “are you sure?”
And when the answer is “yes”. That you’ve done all you can to prepare yourself for battle THEN it’s time to go forth and boldly face your enemy, the enemy within
Only now you must take that fight into the open, into hostile territory
You’re a lion in a field of lions
All hunting the same elusive prey with a desperate starvation that says VICTORY is the only thing that can keep you alive
So believe that voice that says “you CAN run a little faster” and that “you CAN throw a little harder” and that “you CAN dive a little deeper” and that, for you, the laws of physics are merely a suggestion.

Luck is the last dying wish of those who wanna believe that winning can happen by accident, sweat on the other hand is for those who know it’s a choice, so decide now because destiny waits for no man. And when your time comes and a thousand different voices are trying to tell you you’re not ready for it, listen instead for that lone voice in decent the one that says you are ready, you are prepared, it’s all up to you now,

I’m typing this post from my empty house. The movers are here today loading and hauling the remainder of our earthly possessions to our new home. We then make the road trip 90+ miles to our new place.

It’s a tad surreal. Things are happening so fast. It feels like I should be attending class. It feels like I should still be in graduate school. I feel like I’m still an ACNP student.

Graduation was a blurr of a memory. So much has happened in the past 4 weeks that I’m having a tough time keeping it all straight.

We finish the move this weekend. We have a sale pending on our house this week.

I’m studying for boards every chance I get. Little by little.

I’m continuing to work in the ICU at the bedside while all this is going on.

I honestly have to remind myself I’m a masters leveled prepared nurse.

Maybe someday soon this will all actually sink in??

A friend forwarded this one to me. I of course HAD to share it.

Operation ‘move this house’ continues through this weekend, I hope everyone is having a great week!

So the wife and I are in the middle of a packing BLITZKRIEG. We have approximately 10 days to move 8 years of stuff out of our house and transplant it 90 miles to our new town house. All to be finished in one week’s time as of typing this post.

So every waking moment we’re not at work, we’re packing.

This morning I woke up in a zombie-like fog & haze. All I could think of was what I’m packing and carrying next. LOL

This is how I’m spending my nurses week.

HAPPY NURSES WEEK!! 

Image Source: Google

Introducing Amber and her blog “This Nursing Journey”. I stumbled upon Amber and her awesome story-telling blog many months ago and I have been a dedicated reader since my first visit. Here’s a lil’ bit about amber from her blog site:

Via This Nursing Journey

Amber’s blog is all about her adventures in nursing school. She puts a very intimate accent on her stories, which is what I truly enjoy. You can tell from her words how excited and nervous she is during her journey to becoming a nurse. Her passion is something I tell her she needs to keep and defend. We need more individuals like Amber entering our profession.

Here are some of her words in a recent blog post:

So we left the boy in the capable hands of the FOUR S1s that had ended up in the room somehow (lol!) and my partner and I went to our post-conference downstairs to talk to another instructor about what we liked, what we didn’t like, and if it was a good learning experience for us or not. We completed a questionnaire/survey, and then we were free to go! In all, we were there a little over 3.5 hours, but it went by SOOO fast. Insane! I can’t imagine what it’ll be like in a real ICU with more than 1 patient that I’m having to take care of…makes me excited to be in the ICU in upcoming semesters.

All in all I really enjoyed the experience, and I wish were had more of them in a semester! And I can’t wait until my S1 semester when I get to do that one over again, only as an S1!

Also…now it’s Saturday. You know what that means?? I only have one more pharm quiz, my HESI next week, and then FINALS the week after that and I’ll be DONE DONE DONE!!!

via Adult Simulation Lab

She’s also on Twitter: Tweets by @AmbreKai

Be sure to pay her a visit, say hi, and tell her I sent ya!

DELIVERING QUALITY AND INNOVATION IN PATIENT CARE

Often described as an art and a science, nursing is a profession that embraces dedicated people with varied interests, strengths and passions because of the many opportunities the profession offers. As nurses, we work in emergency rooms, school based clinics, and homeless shelters, to name a few. We have many roles – from staff nurse to educator to nurse practitioner and nurse researcher – and serve all of them with passion for the profession and with a strong commitment to patient safety.

Background
National Nurses Week is celebrated annually from May 6, also known as National Nurses Day, through May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.

Via ANA 

This comes directly from the American Nurses Association website. Be sure to thank a nurse and recognize them for their efforts and their profession.

This year’s them “Delivering Quality and Innovation in Patient Care”:

(From the ANA’s website as well)

Nurses are always developing innovations and improving the quality of care in various ways. Sometimes innovative thinking helps one patient overcome a troublesome symptom. Other times, initiatives aimed at quality improvement and clinical practice innovation can benefit millions of patients system-wide.

ANA is highlighting nurses’ quality and innovation contributions in health care for National Nurses Week 2013 (see this article in The American Nurse for more detail), and is offering a webinar on how innovations in processes, technologies and best practices lead to improved patient outcomes.

Enhancing Quality to Improve Patient Outcomes

The Nursing Quality Database: 1 Million RNs and Counting

ANA is improving patient safety and outcomes through the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators® (NDNQI®), a program of ANA’s National Center for Nursing Quality®. More than 1,900 hospitals employing 1 million nurses – one-third of all U.S. RNs – participate in the performance database. Hospitals compare their performance, then devise and implement more effective nursing care strategies to improve patient outcomes.

Hospitals that won the 2012 NDNQI® Award for Outstanding Nursing Quality™  reduced patient fall rates and decreased hospital-acquired infections, among other improvements.

2012 NDNQI® research findings on the quality of care indicate:

• Hospital units with low RN turnover where RNs also rate their work environments highly have fewer negative and costly outcomes, such as pressure ulcers.

• RNs on units with more nursing care hours per patient and lower job turnover gave higher ratings to their unit’s quality of care.

Benefits of Nursing Services More Broadly Recognized

Other nursing advancements in quality care include:

• Care coordination, a core component of nursing, helps patients understand their care plan, self-manage their condition, take medications properly, obtain equipment, and get referrals. Now care coordination is commanding more attention as a way to improve value, efficiency, and patient outcomes and satisfaction.
• Up to 20 percent of Medicare patients are re-admitted to hospitals, often because of inadequate care coordination. But now Medicare is paying for certain care coordination services for the first time, recognizing that the quality of transitional care provided by RNs is crucial to reducing re-admissions.

• Patient falls are preventable, but causes must be assessed to reduce incidence. Nurses are urging incorporation of nursing quality measures, such as the National Quality Forum’s endorsement of NDNQI® measures for patient falls, into national standards for health care performance.

Innovation: Researching New Ideas to Improve Patient Care

Nurses find better ways to care for patients and improve outcomes through research and evidence-based practices. Nurses serving as “innovation advisers” to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed these improvements:

• A new role of “attending” nurse to promote continuity of care over a patient’s stay
• A model predicting the likelihood of hospital re-admissions and interventions to address  causes

The American Nurses Foundation, ANA’s philanthropic arm, makes grants to nurse researchers for innovative exploration of health care issues. Studies include:

• Analyzing coping strategies for nurses who are victims of workplace bullying
• Evaluating how loneliness affects the health of older adults with chronic illness

Nurses’ Innovative Solutions That Make a Difference

The Edge Runners – RNs recognized by the American Academy of Nursing for contributions to  care strategies and health policy – are innovators. Their projects often lead to changes in the health care system and clinical practices and become permanent solutions to vexing problems.

For example, Edge Runners from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing developed these solutions to help older Americans remain healthier and more independent:

• Living Independently for Elders has adapted a chronic care model to provide care to seniors in their own homes rather than a nursing home
• Transitional Care Model, led by RNs, assists seniors with health risks during and after hospitalization, with the aim of reducing re-admissions

New Ways to Provide Care to More Patients

Nurses are integral participants in collaborative multi-professional models of care designed to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs, such as accountable care organizations and medical homes.

The Affordable Care Act is spurring creation of such performance-based models, and the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing report calls for the full contribution of nurses’ skills and knowledge to transform health care.

 

 

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 APRNs: Increasing the Reach

Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are operating more independent practices, creating an emerging health care trend and providing primary care to more patients.  About 100,000 APRNs directly bill Medicare for services provided to 30 percent of beneficiaries.

APRNs are increasingly serving all populations through retail-based health clinics. These clinics treat minor illnesses and provide services such as screenings and diagnostics. Retail clinics have grown from 202 in 2006 to 1,355 in 2011, with projections to reach 2,854 by 2018.

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Of course I especially like how they saved the best for last (yes, I have a biased opinion) when referring to Advanced Practice Nurses.

What cool activities do you have planned for this year’s Nurses Week?