Real-world nurses bring competency, professionalism, and passion to the hospital everyday. But according to a new study, it wasn’t until recently that onscreen nurses exhibited these qualities. David Stanley, MSc, RN, RM, lecturer at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Curtin University of Technology, in Perth, Australia, studied 280 films featuring nurses produced throughout the U.S., U.K., Western Europe, Canada, Japan, and Australia...  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 »

“Who cares about a lunar eclipse?!?” And the winner is … (drum roll, please) … Suzanne Conway! Congratulations, Suzanne! Thanks to everyone who submitted a caption. They were all hilarious! And, we’ll be back next week with a brand new cartoon! Will YOU be the next winner?   Read More »

The nursing shortage places a heavy emphasis on the education and development of competent nurses to provide the safest patient care. A Web site is now offering nursing school educators and students some assistance outside the classroom. Liko North America, a supplier of patient lift and transfer products and resources, recently launched a “Nursing Schools” section of its Safe Lifting Portal Web site to help educators develop...  Read More »

The reality is that we have operated for years in an environment where people were punished or looked down upon for making errors. Such negative energy around mistakes has decreased our sense of self-esteem. Therefore, many nurses find it hard to receive feedback and even harder to give feedback directly to the person involved. The culture is changing, however, and your response to mistakes in the workplace is critical to creating a safer...  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 »

The reality is that we have operated for years in an environment where people were punished or looked down upon for making errors. Such negative energy around mistakes has decreased our sense of self-esteem. Therefore, many nurses find it hard to receive feedback and even harder to give feedback directly to the person involved. The culture is changing, however, and your response to mistakes in the workplace is critical to creating a safer...  Read More »

Can writing really reduce stress? A nursing researcher from the University of Iowa is hoping to find out. Howard Butcher, an associate professor of nursing at the school, is conducting a study to see if adults over the age of 55 can use writing to manage stress. The study, which will take a close look at the effect of writing, will focus on individuals who care for cancer patients in their own families. Participants will be asked to write...  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 »

Can writing really reduce stress? A nursing researcher from the University of Iowa is hoping to find out. Howard Butcher, an associate professor of nursing at the school, is conducting a study to see if adults over the age of 55 can use writing to manage stress. The study, which will take a close look at the effect of writing, will focus on individuals who care for cancer patients in their own families. Participants will be asked to write...  Read More »