Penlight Archive

My first job out of nursing school was on the telemetry floor of a small, community hospital. I spent six weeks training on the day shift, but I was hired for nights. The day nurses said that the night nurses would be very tough on me. What I saw during shift report did little to dispel my fears. Their reports were terse, often berating if I stopped them to ask too many questions. It didn't occur to me at the ... More »

Patient Advocacy is as old as nursing itself. The idea of speaking up on behalf of someone who may not be able to speak up for themself. When I was a new OR nurse, my preceptor told me that taking care of operative patients was a big challenge, because they were unconscious for most of the stay and completely helpless. The patient can't tell you what's wrong, they have no voice. Throughout history, nurses have championed for those that aren't ... More »

So I was going to do a post about nursing advocacy. Naturally, I went to the Center for Nursing Advocacy. And, being of short attention span as I am, I came across this article about how a study found that nurses lead the way in male fantasies. Well, probaby not any males that I've taken care of, but whatever. (It is true however, that woman love to fantasize about firemen. I will say no more.) So what's ... More »

There are no coincidences. Only a month ago I emailed Kim at Emergiblog with a blogging question. She forwarded the email to her "web guy" Shane. As we say in New Jersey, "Don't worry ‘bout it, I know a guy." Shane emails me back to say he's been looking for me. And so this column was born. Why nursing ethics? As a transplant coordinator, ethics comes up quite a bit. Organ donation has been in the news a ... More »