Facebook, the popular online social network, helps old friends reconnect and opens up networking possibilities for the future. It could also cost one Swedish nurse her job. A nurse at Karokinska University in Stockholm recently added 14 photos from a brain surgery and a back operation to her Facebook account. Although the patients couldn’t be identified, hospital officials are angry about the violation of ethics and judgment. Officials are using the incident...  Read More »

The bond between a mother and a child is like no other. Sometimes it takes a nurse to strengthen it. “[Nurses] can actually improve the lives of the children, the mothers, and our communities,” says Brenda Graves, RN, BSN, CLC, supervisor of the Fort Collins, CO-based wing of the nurse-run non-profit Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program. The NFP program partners low-income, first-time mothers with nurses who visit the mothers in their own homes....  Read More »

By Richard Freedberg, RN, MSN, MPA Can we take a quick inventory of your life? Let’s see, you might be just starting nursing school, in the thick of it, or just out of it. Since college is expensive, you may be working in addition to attending class. Then, there is the family and friend situation, those people you care about and need to spend time with. Could we agree that many of us have way too much to do and far too little time in which to do it? Seems...  Read More »

People enter professions for different reasons. Some do it for money. Some do it because of a natural skill or talent. Some do it because they can’t think of anything better. But sometimes, people enter professions because they seem destined. Erin Nestor, our $500 scholarship winner at StressedOutNurses.com, is one of those people. After a 25-minute conversation with her last week, it was clear she was born to do one thing: be a nurse. Nestor is a third-semester...  Read More »

It’s important to get organized in your financial life. Go out and buy an accordion-type file folder—one that is big enough to hold one year of expenses. Pick out a brightly colored one with tabs that you can mark as follows: Auto Credit cards Contributions Education Income Insurance Medical Mortgage/rent Taxes Utilities Miscellaneous This is now your file folder for everything you will need for tax day. Put your paid bills and receipts in their...  Read More »

A few months ago, we kicked off an exciting promotion here at StressedOutNurses.com. With a $500 scholarship in hand, we went on a search to find a deserving student who coped with stress and exemplified the qualities of an excellent nurse. Professors from around the country sent in dozens of essays on behalf of their students. One stood out above the rest. "It’s hard to describe," says Stephanie Oliver, a professor at Northwest-Shoals Community...  Read More »

Blogs maintained by nurses and physicians can be used to share interesting information about the world of healthcare. They can help stressed out providers let off steam and share a laugh. But do they reveal too much information? A recent study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine looked at 271 Web diaries maintained by nurses or physicians and found that 42% of them contained accounts of private interactions with patients. Three of the blogs...  Read More »

Several weeks ago, we here at StressedOutNurses.com asked professors from around the country to nominate students for a $500 scholarship. The guidelines we laid out were simple: We want to hear about your students who have a handle on stress—even in the most chaotic situations. And the nominations poured in. And poured in some more. We waded through piles of excellent submissions before selecting Erin Nestor, a third-semester nursing student at Northwest...  Read More »

A few months ago, we kicked off an exciting promotion here at StressedOutNurses.com. With a $500 scholarship in hand, we went on a search to find a deserving student who coped with stress and exemplified the qualities of an excellent nurse. Professors from around the country sent in dozens of essays on behalf of their students. One stood out above the rest. “It’s hard to describe,” says Stephanie Oliver, a professor at Northwest-Shoals Community...  Read More »

Healthcare facilities invest large amounts of money on external recruitment agencies to bring nurses through their doors. But for some facilities, the most effective recruitment strategies begin right at home. “Instead of investing $100,000 in an agency that would recruit five nurses over the year, we opted to do something different,” says Robert L. Dent, RN, MBA, NEA-BC, FACHE, vice president of nursing at Midland Memorial Hospital in Midland,...  Read More »