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So work is going really well! I’m actually starting to feel comfortable taking care of pateints by myself. I still have two more months of orientation which is good but I am already handling a full patient load and trying my best to troubleshoot areas myself before asking for help. A couple of weeks ago a group of Junior nursing students from a near by University started on my floor.  It was really awesome being the person that they...  Read More »

Drugs are sorted into classes or related groups, such as beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, benzodiazepines, etc. One of the cool things about pharmacology is, generally speaking, members of drug classifications behavior in a similar fashion. Let’s consider this list: Pindolol Propranolol Sotalol Timolol Metoprolol We would note a certain similarity in the last syllable of each and suspect they belong to the same family. Learn...  Read More »

On Wednesday, I shared my first tip on how to be “The Man” in an overwhelmingly female classroom. Here are some more thoughts on the topic: Tip #2: Be organized Okay, I’m going to be honest. I can’t find stuff about 25% of the time. The day of a test, I was usually asking friends for a pencil, or an eraser, or something simple (I make sure to return it though!). The night before class, however, I was packing my bag...  Read More »

It’s been quite some time now that I’ve been working, already more than a month. And at this point, I still can’t get over the fact that I’m not in school! Even though I’m constantly under supervision from my preceptor, it is strangely liberating. For the first time, I don’t have to rely on my professors for feedback. Now, I am the one patients are looking to for information about their diagnosis or prognosis....  Read More »

Mention to most guys that they could have a job where they could be surrounded by women, make relatively good money, have countless opportunities to make the world a better place, and most would ask “where do I sign up?” There’s just one catch. To get there, you must first go through at least two years of education about the entire process and your responsibilities in said field could mean life and death for others. Still,...  Read More »

When looking to develop a critical-thinking process in a facility, it’s best to start with the basics. “Critical thinking has been around for a couple of decades, but applying it in healthcare is something we’ve been looking at pretty closely for the last 10 years,” says Carole R. Eldridge, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, dean at St. John’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences of Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar,...  Read More »

As a nursing student in the United States, it’s sometimes hard to imagine a world where bandages, stethoscopes, and up-to-date books are rare commodities. Students and professors at Mount Carmel College of Nursing (MCCN) in Columbus, OH, took action to bring information and some of those supplies to fellow nursing students in Gambia, Africa. When MCCN graduate Kellie Seelig was finishing up her two-year peace corps duty in Gambia earlier...  Read More »

By Richard Freedberg, RN, MSN, MPA I’m not sure I still want to be a nurse. Has this thought ever crossed your mind? Whether you have heard fellow students or new graduates openly disclose it, it’s fairly safe to assume many share the same doubts and apprehensions. Here’s what we all need to agree on: It is never wrong to have doubts since they are an important part of the human experience. They sometimes prevent us from...  Read More »

By Richard Freedberg, RN, MSN, MPA I’m not sure I still want to be a nurse. Has this thought ever crossed your mind? Whether you have heard fellow students or new graduates openly disclose it, it’s fairly safe to assume many share the same doubts and apprehensions. Here’s what we all need to agree on: It is never wrong to have doubts since they are an important part of the human experience. They sometimes prevent us from...  Read More »