We nurses sometimes forget to separate our personal lives from our work ones.

For some reason, we tend to socialize with the very same people we work with (or used to work with), or we socialize with fellow healthcare professionals (Docs, EMTs, Medics, RTs, etc.).

It’s neither good nor bad–until we’re not around them but continue to act like we are.

Here are some tips to keep in mind this holiday season:

Refrain from talking about work at the dinner table

Yes, contrary to what you may believe, there actually are people out there who cannot talk about bodily fluids, blood, and drainage while shoving food in their mouths. Call me crazy, but slurping down cranberry sauce while discussing bloody wounds is not what most people call normal. Besides, you’d rather be enjoying your time off from work than resuscitating a family member who fainted.

Try actually tasting the food

Try not to eat your meal with the same “hot-rod racing style” that you do when you’re at work. Most of us don’t get a full-fledged traditional meal break, so we eat on the go, on the fly, or while we are still moving. Some of us inhale our food so fast, we forget what the heck we ate. I’ve uttered the phrase, “I’ll taste it later.” This is that rare occasion when you can eat at a normal pace, so give a try!

Cutlery improvisation

Whatever you do, I mean, whatever you do–if the supply of utensils is low, please do not break out the tongue blades, urimeters and other equipment to aid in your feast. Once again, it’s not normal to eat your food with a piece of equipment used to examine the back of the throat, or drink from something that normally collects a bodily fluid. Please refer back to family members fainting.

Native tongue

This goes right along with the bodily fluids topic. The minute you start speaking in medical mnemonics, you’re more than likely going to get that glazed over stare and be asked to explain yourself. Play it safe and avoid them altogether.

Maybe I’m the only one who has had to follow these tips? One thing’s for sure, the holidays are always entertaining when there’s a nurse around.

via What NOT to do this holiday season | Scrubs – The Leading Lifestyle Nursing Magazine Featuring Inspirational and Informational Nursing Articles.

A post from over at Scrubs taking a humorous look at nurses and the holidays.

Care for the critically ill may go too far for nearly a quarter of the patients in intensive care units, according to the physicians and nurses who care for them.

Clinicians felt they administered inappropriate care for 23% of patients treated in a single day across a subset of 69 ICUs in which patient data could be linked to clinician questionnaires, Ruth D. Piers, MD, of Ghent University Hospital in Ghent, Belgium, and colleagues found.

Among the full complement of survey respondents, 25% of 1,218 ICU nurses and 32% of 407 ICU physicians said they delivered inappropriate care to at least one of their patients on the day of the survey.

The most common reason cited — by 65% of respondents — was care disproportionate to the patient’s situation, nearly always “too much care,” the group reported in the Dec. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Clinicians in ICUs who perceive the care they provide as inappropriate experience moral distress and are at risk for burnout,” they wrote. “This situation may jeopardize patient quality of care and increase staff turnover.”

While concerning, the study offered only a “hazy” picture of why and what can or should be done about it, cautioned an accompanying editorial by Scott D. Halpern, MD, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Clinician opinion hasn’t previously been considered relevant in determining whether the care delivered is the care that should be delivered, he noted.

And the validity of this subjective endpoint isn’t clear, Halpern added.

via Medical News: ICU Care May Be Too Intensive, Survey Finds – in Critical Care, General Critical Care from MedPage Today.

OK, so it’s an observational survey from a very small sample size (less than 100 ICU units and less than 500 ICU patients), but it definitely gets your attention. I like these type of ‘studies’ (if that’s what you want to call them), because it’s not really giving any valid empirical evidence for practice change, but is could be the preamble to something bigger or better.

I’m pretty sure there are plenty of ICU nurses out there that would have some great input regarding ‘too intensive’ care. End of life care seems to be blurring the lines between life-saving, life-sustaining, and death-prolonging these days.

What do you think? Follow the link and read the full article.

Playing well in the sandbox

I don’t know if it’s just a nursing ‘thing’, or other career choices emphasize and utilize the team work concept repeatedly. I have encountered it and seen it at ever level of my training and nursing education. From my diploma program, through my BSN education and now currently in my Master’s Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program. Working well with others is a quality that educators require.

I guess it should be no surprise considering what we do on a daily basis. We are the coordinators of care, the wranglers, and the sieve where almost all of our patients’ care is poured and filtered. So if we can’t navigate the didactic of the team concept, our patients are in trouble.

As students we are put through the rigors of group projects. The majority of my projects have applied to research projects, but they sure haven’t been limited to just that subject.

Sometimes you get to pick and choose your group and group members, other times you get the luck of the draw and are assigned to a group. This equates to working conditions if you think about it. You sometimes get to choose whom you work with and where, while other times you can be ‘pulled’ to a foreign or neighboring unit.

The group didactic can be quite enjoyable and simple, or miserable and complex. I’ve experienced both during my time as a nurse in both the academic and professional setting. One thing is for sure, the only thing you ever have control over is your own thoughts and actions. No matter what you may want or need from someone else, in the end you have to figure out how to make it work so that it benefits everyone.

There will be personality conflicts, scheduling differences, work ethic challenges, deadline stressors, and of course the occasional ‘what the heck happened’ moments (I sometimes call that the curve-ball syndrome). Regardless of the situation, the only way things work out is when everyone knows their part, does their part, and communicates their part effectively, efficiently and equally.

I don’t know about you, but every time I work within a group a learn a little bit more about my self. More about my strengths, my weaknesses, and of course my habits. I have subconscious tendencies that are both a help and a hindrance to me and the group. And I’m still trying to sharpen my communication skills to this day!

I haven’t met a nurse that looks forward to group projects. I think we all approach group projects the same way we encounter ‘change’ – we’re not big fans of it, but we know it’s inevitable.

I also look at it this way. Remember how I gave the comparison of getting assigned to groups and getting to work where you want? Well that comparison is synonymous with our patient assignments aren’t they? We sometimes get to choose the assignment we want or know is going to be good, and other times we have to bite the bullet and take that assignment that we know is going to put us through the ringer. Does that mean we provide less care?

Not in my opinion.

Playing well in the sandbox | Scrubs Magazine

9)  The more demanding a patient is, the less likely it is that they need medical care.
…

11)  NEVER ever go to work sick. Not only will it be an incredibly busy day, but you will be sicker than most of the patients you see.
…

13)  The more difficult the stick, the more likely the lab is to lose your patient’s blood sample.
…

15)  No extra shift that you reluctantly volunteer to work will ever be an easy shift.
…

18)  The nicer the patient and family, the worse the outcome will be.
19)  I can not tell the difference between very rich patients and very poor patients – they both act the same. “When it comes to my health, money is no object!”

from: My Rules of the ER | WhiteCoat’s Call Room

Do yourself a favor and head on over to read the original post from WhiteCoat. You won’t be disappointed.

Urban legends. That what they are.

Some like to refer to them as ‘stereotypes’. Public opinion is generally not in sync with reality when it comes to the world of nursing.

This website and many others have discussed all the discrepancies before. Well, being a male nurse is no different. I’m here to tell ya those stereotypes are not what’s in store for ya.

Here is what being male nurse is NOT about:

• We don’t always get accused of being gay. Sorry. In my entire time as a nurse I’ve never once been confronted with this gem of a myth.
• We don’t get a job simply because we can lift the heavy patients.
• We are not singled out as the go-to free-labor nurse on the unit, simply because we’re men and we might have muscles.
• We do not lose our ‘man card’ when we become a nurse.
• Critical care and emergency nursing are not the only place that hires us or employs male nurses (it just happens to be the popular choice).
• The last time I checked I did not get a higher rate of pay just because of my gender. You earn every penny you get as a nurse, be it through experience or education.
• Male nurses don’t have it ‘harder’ working as a nurse. Yes, just by the percentages we are the minority. But the job itself has never been gender specific.
• And lastly, no you don’t get to tell a patient they have to accept you being their assigned nurse just ‘because’ or some cockamamie explanation about gender blindness. In the end the patients comfort is part of their care. Get over yourself. It’s not a stereotype, it’s just a patient preference.

Just in case you were wondering, here are a few things on what being a male nurse IS about:

• You have to earn everything you think you deserve
• You will have patients who are just not comfortable having a male nurse take care of them. It’s not a conspiracy against you are the entire male nurse working force, it’s just the patient not feeling comfortable. Try being the patient once. You’ll understand it more clearly.
• Due to society’s traditional legacy, yes, you will be mistaken for a doctor. Be sure to correct them and explain why.
• No one who comes across your path cares about you being a male, what they do care about is how you care.
• The minute you stop acting like a ‘male’ nurse is the minute they stop treating you as such.

Any questions?

What being a male nurse is NOT

Visit the original post and help a soon-to-be nurse out!

To review or not to review

Posted: March 18th, 2011 | By Ani Burr | one comment

With NCLEX exams drawing nearer and nearer, everyone is getting anxious.  Passing the ATI exit exam for our school, and then the NCLEX means a lot more studying without the structure of a classroom curriculum. So then the question boils down to: do you take a review  class first, or not?

My first instinct is YES!  Take 3 review courses! Anything to get through the madness and pass the test! Why  not, right? It can only help.  There is really no way that studying in a classroom can hurt your score on the NCLEX, right?  I’ve heard Kaplan has a course that’s most similar to NCLEX style questions, but there are other companies out there who offer great course as well.  No matter which class, here is my list of PROs for taking a review class:

1. It CAN’T hurt!
2. I’m a very un-structured studier, and so being in the classroom and studying might force me to FOCUS.
3. A lot of the classes focus on test-taking strategies, which would be great to know since I’ve heard that SO MUCH of the test is about how you read the question.

But then, I don’t know. I did pretty well on my school’s predictor ATI… and I studied test taking strategies for that on my own. That’s actually ALL that I studied for the test. There wasn’t enough time for me to be studying what the practice tests told me that I needed to review before the test (ok, so maybe I procrastinated in studying… I couldn’t review all of the systems the night before!). I definitely think that was helpful in studying. So if I could study for that and do well, do I need a review class?  Here’s my list of CONs for taking a review class:

1. It costs an arm and a leg. I know it can’t hurt, but if it’s not 100% needed, then, is it worth the moolah? I am saving up for wedding goodies here!
2. I’ve heard the classes are very repetitive, and long, and boring. So maybe they’re structured, if they’re boring, it’s not going to help.
3. The predictor exam says I have a good chance of passing at this point… and I studied for that on my own, I think I can handle it.

So… I don’t know. Any suggestions out there?  I definitely think it could be helpful, but is it really something I want to invest money in? Do I want to spend my first few weeks of freedom in another classroom?  What do you think? I am open to your advice!

Tags: NCLEX, Nursing School

By Ani Burr

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Ani Burr has survived her years as a nursing student at CSU, Los Angeles. Sh started college as a creative writing major, and then moved on to major in graphic design when a job at a dialysis unit…

To review or not to review