Owner: The Nursing Site Blog URL:http://nursingsite.blogspot.com Join Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:24:04 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: The Nursing Site Blog is about nurses, nursing students and those who desire to become a nurse. Written by Kathy Quan RN BSN, former guide to Nursing at About.com, and author of The Everything New Nurse Book. Site statistics:Click here
National Nurse Campaign 2007-12-10 13:29:00 To solve the nursing shortage crisis, it's going to take a lot of thinking outside the box. One idea came from Terri Mills RN, MS, ANP, a nurse educator at Portland Community College in Oregon. In an op-ed column in the New York Times, Mills suggested the idea for a NationalNurse
. Over the past couple of years, the idea has evolved and gained support. Learn more about the Campaign
for a National Nurse. Watch this video about the National Nurse Campaign. For more information read the National Nurse blog.
Looking for Something Beyond the Bedside?? 2007-12-07 12:57:00 Things got a little crazy this week. I was out of town and didn't have a chance to get anything written here.I did find some interesting blogs for nurses and one that really caught my eye.... Alternative Nursing Careers. It's a great resource for those looking for a field beyond the bedside. Check it out. Many times I get questions from readers about what else is there and so many hospital nurses who feel stuck and just want to give up entirely. There are many alternatives for nurses.
Read more:Bedside
Head to Toe Assessment 2007-12-03 18:32:00 One of my most popular articles has always been the Head to Toe Assessment
,Student nurses and nurse educators have used this page quite often, and I have posted it on TheNursingSite today. I have added a few recommended books at the bottom of the page for further reading on assessment skills for nurses.Photo: Dilated pupils by Kathy Quan
Finding an Accredited Nursing Program 2007-11-30 18:16:00 How do you find an accredited nursing program?What is an accredited program and Why does it have to be accredited?These are important questions to understand and consider in searching for a nursing program that fits with your own criteria. There are other factors to consider as well.What does impacted mean? Along with the shortage of nurses, we have a shortage of nurse educators and this means that nursing programs are overcrowded and many have long waiting lists. Candidates who are at the top of their game are usually the first ones to get admitted. One way to hedge your bets is to apply to several programs.Find the answers to these and other questions in learning how to find an accredited nursing program at TheNursing
Site.com.Have a good weekend!
Read more:Accredited
, Program
Why Should I Become a Nurse? 2007-11-29 17:41:00 Why should you become a nurse? Nurse
s are in demand and will be for many years to come due to a shortage of nurses as well as an increasing demand for more nurses.As the population ages and grows, the demand for health care is growing. Health care careers will continue to top the list of fastest growing professions well into the next decade.Registered nurses will be among the top of that list. This means job security, and nurses will be able to demand higher salaries and better benefits for many years to come.Consider a career in nursing!photo: Microsoft.com
Read more:Become
Medical Memory Cards 2007-11-28 13:25:00 I was recently apprised of a new product for nursing students to help them learn and remember common medical abbreviations and basic mathematical conversions nurses frequently need such as Fahrenheit to Celsius, pounds to kilograms, etc. Designed by a nurse educator, Medical MemoryCards
follow the rules of memory matching card games. Each set has 26 pairs of cards to match up. There are 3 different sets and they can be purchased individually or in a set of all 3. If you're looking for a holiday gift for a student nurse, check out Medical Memory Cards
Some Nursing Humor 2007-11-27 16:09:00 I received this in an email today from a dear friend and fellow nurse...enjoy! (author unknown)Did you hear about the nurse who died and went straight to hell? It took her two weeks to realize she wasn't at work!You know you're a nurse if...You would like to meet the inventor of the call light some night in a dark alley.Your sense of humor gets more warped each year. Almost everything can seem humorous...eventually.You know the smell of different diarrhea to identify it.You wash your hands BEFORE you use the bathroom.You can tell the pharmacist more about the medication they are dispensing than they know.You check the caller ID on your day off to see if anyone from the hospital is trying to call and ask you to work.Discussing bodily fluids over a gourmet meal seems perfectly normal to you.You think that caffeine should be available in IV form.You get an almost irresistible urge to stand and wolf your food even in the nicest restaurants.You believe that unspeakable evils will befall Read more:Nursing
, Humor
Email Subscriptions Changed 2007-11-27 16:06:00 If you previously subscribed to this blog by Email
, you will have to re-subscribe. I encountered some technical difficulties and had to make some changes. You can now also subscribe to the RSS feed if you prefer and add it to your home page. Thanks, and sorry for the inconvenience.
A Holiday Card Available on The Nursing Site 2007-11-26 15:35:00 I hope everyone had a terrific Thanksgiving holiday! How's your holiday shopping going? Hope it isn't stressing you out too much. Stop and enjoy the season!If you're looking for a card for your staff, fellow nurses or students, I have one available on The Nursing
Site. For $5 (through PayPal) you can download and print your own on card stock or even regular paper. Print several, or take the .pdf file to your printer. Take the stress out of wishing your colleagues a happy holiday season!
Read more:Holiday
Happy Thanksgiving! 2007-11-20 13:27:00 With Thanksgiving
just a couple of days away now, the holiday season is upon us whether we're ready or not. Wishing you all a very Happy
Thanksgiving and the best of holidays yet to come!!This is never an easy season for nurses. People don't get well and go home for the holidays. Health care facilities don't have the opportunity to shut down for a week between Christmas and New Years like my husband's engineering company always did.In fact, this can be peak season for nurses. Flu season officially starts about mid November and continues well into the new year. Pneumonia seems to run rampant and hospitals fill up. Home health agencies open many new cases, and doctor's offices and clinics are full. About the only thing that may slow down is elective surgeries. People don't usually choose to be battered and bruised for the holidays.For those of you in nursing school, or considering a career in nursing, be sure you understand that you aren't going to have a two week break for the h
Adding Content to The Nursing Site 2007-11-17 13:28:00 I have begun the tedious task of adding content to The Nursing
Site from the old Nursing.About.com. I started with "How to Become a Nurse" articles and have a few others up as well. I estimate this is going to take a few weeks to get it done right so please bear with me, and if you'd like to know when it's all done, please be sure to subscribe to the feed for this blog, and join the Forum. The links for these are in the sidebar.Many thanks to all of you who have written to encourage me!!!
Read more:Content
Toy Recalls Continue 2007-11-15 20:34:00 It's overwhelming to think about the number of toys that have been recalled in the past few months mostly due to lead content and other safety concerns. Our local news station alerted us to this new Widget that updates with each new recall. (See the sidebar.)I hope it's helpful to anyone with young children in the home or family. As the holiday buying season moves into high speed with "Black Friday" next week, it's going to be increasingly difficult to know what to buy for children. Poor Santa really has his hands full this year!
Read more:Continue
The Nursing Site Forum is open 2007-11-13 13:11:00 The Nursing
Site website has been set up and I am adding content everyday. As soon as I have rights to my articles from nursing.About.com, I will post them as well. This should be around the end of November.Today I created a new discussion FORUM site for The Nursing Site. It is hosted on Google Groups. Please join and become a frequent visitor. Invite your colleagues.The address is: http://groups.google.com/group/the-nursing-site-forum?lnk=gcimh
Read more:Forum
Welcome 2007-11-06 10:52:00 Welcome to The Nursing Site. As you may know, About.com is making changes and will disband the Nursing site. They are going to have a health care careers site and incorporate nursing into the site. I encourage you to continue to visit this new site and support About.com. They are a great site and a wonderful company to work for. I will post my articles from that site as soon as I have all rights to them again. This should be in a couple of weeks. Until then you can still access them at nursing.about.com. As I begin to set up a new website for my articles all about nursing, I will also begin to post news about nursing in this blog. I invite you to comment and participate actively. As part of my new website, I will also set up a forum for nurses to share experiences.
Read more:Welcome
Forum for Home Health Nurses 2007-12-19 14:03:00 I know from experience that there are a lot of home health nurses out there who need a place to share information and to vent. It's hard to get a forum up and running and keep it active. The ones with the largest numbers of members and active participants have gotten greedy and gone way too commercial for my blood. If you're looking for a new place to visit and share some of your experiences and ask questions of your peers you might want to check out the Home HealthForum
Well I'm off to finish some last minute holiday shopping. UGH I don't look forward to trying to find a parking space! How about you? Are you all done, wrapped and ready for the holidays? The last time I was done early I fell and spent 6 weeks on crutches... sooooo call me superstitious, but I don't get it all done early anymore!Take time for you today!!!! Remember you can't give to others if you are drained yourself. Replenish often! Even if it's just five minutes of day dreaming about your favorite vacation spo
How the Presidential Candidates Feel About Nurses 2007-12-17 12:50:00 Finally on January 3, 2008, the Iowa Caucus will take place and rapidly after that other states hold their elections to start the process of selecting candidates for the November presidential election. If you're like me, you've become weary of all the debates and hoopla. This has gone on far too long. Now finally it will begin to get serious. It's time now to start paying attention.The American Nurses Association has been in touch with the candidates from both major political parties to determine how they stand in support of nurses. The ANA has been criticized by some for only showing democratic candidate's responses. That's because for the most part the Republicans aren't talking to the ANA. You can read all about ANA's involvement and participate in an online vote starting on January 3. Although ANA does not believe that nurse staffing ratios should be legislated, many issues regarding nurses and the shortage of nurses will be important factors in this campaign.
Read more:Candidates
, Presidential
Before You Decide to Become a Nurse 2007-12-13 08:27:00 Before You Decide to Become
a Nurse
is a series of articles recently added to The Nursing Site for those who are thinking about a career in nursing including Why Become a Nurse, Nursing is Not For Everyone, Nursing as a Second Career, and the Many Diverse Roles for Nurses.Becoming a nurse is a serious decision and should not be entered into lightly. Nursing programs are impacted and many qualified candidates are turned away each year. Students who are unsure of their commitment to become a nurse and practice as a nurse, should perhaps consider another aspect of health care for a career. Schools are getting better at weeding out candidates who are not serious, but many still occupy space in programs that would be better suited to other students. Nursing is NOT for everyone, so please consider carefully before you decide to pursue a career in nursing.Students and recent grads need to understand that it can take you a full year or more before you are truly comfortable and have a level o
Survey Shows Nurses' Health Affected by Exposure to Chemicals 2007-12-12 14:22:00 Some very disturbing news is exposed in the San Francisco Chronicle today. We all know that as nurses we are exposed to chemicals, germs, and a whole lot of unknown problems everyday. It's just part of the risks we take to help others. But how much exposure is too much? And what is being done to protect us?The results of an online survey of 1500 nurses in the U.S. conducted by the Environmental Working Group and Health
Care Without Harm shows that nurses are being affected by their exposure to eleven common health care chemicals.These common chemicals include:hand disinfectantscleaning agentslatexchemotherapy drugs and antiretroviralsgasses used in anesthesiaproducts containing mercuryshampoos and soapschemicals used to sterilize equipmentThe results of the survey show that nurses who were regularly exposed to these chemicals had increased rates of asthma, caner and miscarriages. Pregnant nurses exposed to these chemicals regularly throughout the pregnancy had an increased rate of bir Read more:Exposure
Health Care Bills & Nursing Funding Passed! 2007-12-22 15:27:00 Take a break, enjoy your holidays! Take some time for YOU!!! Make the most of whatever time you have with your families. Know that you are doing something to make a difference in someone's life! My aunt was hospitalized a couple of days ago and is very unhappy that she'll have to be in over the holidays. I know I'm grateful for the terrific nurses who will help her to breath easier!Congress passed the SCHIP renewal and the consolidated funding bill which appropriates $156.05 million for Title VIII nurse workforce development programs. Hurray! This is an increase of $6.4 million over last year's funding. President Bush had suggested cuts of $44 million so this is a real victory. Pres. Bush is expected to sign these bills in the next few days.Congress also sent legislation for President Bush to sign which will delay for at least six months any cuts in Medicare reimbursement to physicians. For the moment, some of the major health care issues seem to be holding their own.
Read more:Health
, Nursing
, Bills
, Health Care
, Funding
Support Candidates who Support Nurses! 2008-03-11 22:15:22 The Paul Wellstone Mental Health & Addiction Act passed in the House of Representatives last week! Many thanks to all of you who contacted your Representatives!Now, nurses need your help... there is still time to get signatures on the "Dear Colleagues" letter being circulated by Representatives Lois Capps (D-CA) and Steven LaTourette (R-OH) to encourage Congress to increase funding in the FY 2009 budget for the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development program which help to fund education costs for nurse educators. Signatures are needed by tomorrow, March 12.As nurses we need to continue to contact of legislators to remind them that whether or not every American has health insurance, if we don't have a nursing workforce to help care for patients, all the insurance in the world won't be Read more:Support
, Candidates
Resources for the Nurse's Computer, Palm or Pocket PC 2008-03-06 13:13:20 I discovered a terrific site for nurses to find "Free and Free to Try Downloads" for the computer (Windows and Mac), Palm, or Pocket
PC. This is all software for nurses and health care professionals and includes such items as medical dictionaries, calculation programs, drug books, diabetic resources, lab values, diagnostic tools, ICU tools, etc. Check it out at I Love Nurse
s.photo: Kathy Quan
Read more:Resources
, Computer
Subscribe to the Wednesday Newsletter 2008-03-05 13:32:12 For those of you who would like to keep up with this blog, but don't have or want an RSS reader for it on your home page, I now have a weekly newsletter that encompasses the latest blogs.You can subscribe in the box over there in the right hand column, just by entering your Email address. (No long forms to fill out!) The newsletter will be delivered to your Email address every Wednesday
. Thanks for reading! And I promise not to spam you or sell your Email address!!!
Read more:Subscribe
Mental Health Parity Can Be Achieved! 2008-03-04 14:16:25 Yesterday I received an urgent message from the ANA asking nurses to contact their Congressional Representatives to support HR 1424, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health
& Addiction Act. Congress is expected to take up this issue tomorrow, March 5, 2008.In September, 2007, the U.S. Senate passed similar legislation (S. 588) which will help bring an end to health insurance discrimination and remove barriers blocking health care for those who suffer from mental illness.Please call today! The toll free number is 1-866-727-4894 and ask for your Representative's office. If you don't know who your representative is or prefer to send an Email you can get this information and access at Congress.org.
Read more:Mental Health
Help Encourage Increased Funding for Nursing Workforce Development Programs 2008-02-29 18:23:02 On Feb 25, 2008, Congressional Representatives Lois Capps (D-CA) and Steven LaTourette(R-OH) began circulating a "Dear Colleagues" letter in the House of Representatives seeking support of funding the Title VIII NursingWorkforceDevelopment
Program at a level of $200 million for FY 2009. The American Nurses Association and the National League for Nursing are asking nurses for help. Nurses are encouraged to contact(by phone, FAX. or Email) their Congressional Representative to encourage him/her to co-sign this letter by Wednesday, March 12, 2008. Find your Representative at Congress.org.President Bush's proposed budget for FY 2009 reduces the funding for Title VIII by 30% ($46.1 million) from FY2008. He accomplished this by completely eliminating the funding for "Advanced Education Nursi Read more:Funding
, Programs
Article Index Now on The Nursing Site 2008-02-28 19:16:49 I'm adding content to TheNursing
Site and have now made an ArticleIndex
page so if you're in a hurry to find a particular article you can find it there faster. Be sure to check the specific web pages however, as there is also relevant information and links you don't want to miss.As always, if you have any specific content added, please be sure to Email me. And many thanks to those who have asked before they use my content!! It is important to respect copyrights!
Joining Forces With the National Nurse Efforts 2008-02-26 19:32:15 Patient education is a key element in helping patients to assume responsibility for their own health status and outcomes. Nurse
s are a primary source for patient education, but beyond the bedside, nurses are not always as accessible. Practitioners have cut office operational costs by using medical assistants and lay personnel.An Office of the National
Nurse could help to make nurses more accessible to the general public. Health care costs are expected to double in the U.S. by 2017. Using nurses effectively to promote wellness and health care education would go a long way in healing the health care crisis.
Read more:Forces
, Joining
Michigan Funds Program to Help High School Students Prepare for Nursing School 2008-02-21 13:59:02 Here's a perfect example of why nurses should pay attention to political issues. The state of Michigan
is funding a program to better prepare high school students for nursing school. One of the reasons nursing students don't succeed in nursing school is that they have difficulties with the math or reading.This poor success rate is why so many nursings schools have now instituted entrance exams to exclude students who don't have the math, reading and science skills to pass.This type of program is designed to help high school students achieve the necessary math, science and reading skills to succeed and to eventually become nurses and help to solve the nursing shortage.
Read more:Nursing
, Funds
, Program
, School
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