Owner: Digital Doorway URL:http://www.digitaldoorway.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2008 07:40:36 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Views of life, healthcare, nursing and spirituality by a 40-something male nurse somewhere in New England. Site statistics:Click here
National Nurse's Week 2008-05-09 09:21:08 In recognition of NationalNurse
s' Week (officially May 6th to May 12th), I want to take a moment to honor the approximately 2.9 million registered nurses who provide skilled and compassionate care to millions of Americans day in and day out. Nurses are an essential component of the healthcare system, and this week is simply an opportunity for recognition of a body of individuals whose work is essential to the health and well-being of so many.Expanding that notion, I would also like to recognize nurses worldwide, my professional brethren with whom I am connected through our mutual dedication to service and nursing care. All too often, we focus too keenly on our own community or country, losing sight of those in lands beyond our borders. Nurses and other healthcare workers labor each day in
During the Dream..... 2008-05-12 11:38:42 Always recognize the dreamlike qualities of life and reduce attachment and aversion. Practice good-heartedness toward all beings. Be loving and compassionate, no matter what others do to you. What they will do will not matter so much when you see it as a dream. The trick is to have positive intention during the dream. This is the essential point. This is true spirituality. CHAKDUD TULKU RINPOCHE Read more:Dream
Definition and Redefinition 2008-05-14 10:27:53 Working a few hours at the community health center in the city yesterday was a good reminder of the things I do and don't like about my current career trajectory. Spending a half-day helping out in my old office also solidified those stark reminders of why I eschewed full-time work four months ago.Quietly observing my colleagues, I watched as everyone seemed to be running around in circles of frus Read more:Definition
Desire and Happiness 2008-05-17 17:12:38 Whatever joy there is in this world All comes from desiring others to be happy, And whatever suffering there is in this world All comes from desiring myself to be happy. SHANTIDEVA Read more:Desire
Rural Health Care: A Few Thoughts 2008-05-16 18:37:39 Having just interviewed for a position with a home health agency whose territory covers a large swath of rural countryside, I am appreciating the challenges and difficulties of delivering care in such a setting. Whereas the city---where I currently provide home health care---finds patients in an area of high population density and relatively close geographic proximity, serving patients who live in Read more:Health
, Rural
Alone 2008-05-18 08:15:38 "What a lovely home you have here," I say as I walk in the front door."Thanks. People always say that when they come here." He seems like any other suburban middle-aged man. We sit in the living room."So, what's happening today?" I ask as I open his lock box and arrange his morning and evening medications."I don't know. Maybe I'll make some calls. Maybe I won't. I don't have a car right now so I d
Problems 2008-05-19 10:25:23 "When reflecting on our problems, we should include ourselves."---Shunryu Suzuki
A Smiling Buddha 2008-05-21 05:37:08 She sitslike a smiling Buddha
.Brittle diabetesrenal failure,and malignant hypertension.She is blindand last yearthe surgeons removed her left legdue to the ravagesof diabetes.Stillshe sits likea smiling Buddha.I ask how she feels,how she isHer response:"Very well, thank you. And you?"She sits likea smiling Buddha,the picture of equanimity.Her husband fluttersto her sidelike a loving butterflyaligh
Suffering, Understanding and Compassion 2008-05-22 13:19:51 The times when you are suffering can be those when you are open, and where you are extremely vulnerable can be where your greatest strength really lies. Say to yourself: “I am not going to run away from this suffering. I want to use it in the best and richest way I can, so that I can become more compassionate and more helpful to others.” Suffering
, after all, can teach us about compassion. If Read more:Compassion
, Understanding
Patients' Lives and Nurses' Advocacy 2008-05-24 11:45:48 Please follow this link to a new article posted by yours truly over at Nurse LinkUp. Due to contractual obligations, I cannot post the text of the article here, but you're very welcome to surf on over to Nurse LinkUp and read to your heart's content, as well as poke around the site which is under construction but really coming along! (And if you're a nurse, nursing student, or wannabe nurse, pleas Read more:Lives
Hospice and Palliative Care: A New Opportunity 2008-05-26 06:14:31 I have accepted a per diem position with a local visiting nurse agency which provides both palliative care and hospice care to people in our region. Since I became a nurse in 1996, I have worked in the urban areas which are located just under an hour from our home. I have always commuted elsewhere to work, and subsequently have never provided nursing care here in my own county.For several reasons, Read more:New Opportunity
, Opportunity
, Palliative
, Palliative Care
Nurses, Social Responsibility, Human Rights, and Activism 2008-05-26 23:01:01 While nursing is seen by many as an inherently political act in and of itself, and while nurses have advocated for the poor for centuries, this article explores how nurses have organized for the betterment of society, and whether nurse-centric organizations exist---or have existed---akin to Doctors Without Borders or Physicians for SocialResponsibility
.Please click here to read my complete articl Read more:Activism
, Human Rights
, Rights
The Wheat and the Chaff 2008-05-28 12:27:22 Driving from patient to patient today in the admittedly not-so-big city, I found myself wondering how much longer I can do this. From pot-holes to one-way streets and buildings close to being condemned, I realized today that this job's days may be numbered. Actually, having just signed on to begin providing per diem hospice and palliative care closer to home, I realized that I very well could be s
The Doctor of Nursing Practice 2008-05-30 09:25:05 The Doctor
of NursingPractice
, or DNP, is the newest proposal by nursing educators to offset the growing shortage of primary care physicians across the United States. This new breed of advanced practice nurse would receive more training and assume greater responsibilities than a Nurse Practitioner. Even as physician groups argue that patients will be confused by this new "hybrid" provider, it is
Mindfulness Journal: The Unquiet Mind 2008-06-02 06:45:38 Sitting quietly and trying to meditate, my mind roars with thoughts.While going about my usual business, this must be what my mind does all of the time, although I am so busy with the external world that I don't necessarily notice just how wildly raging my thoughts really are.When my eyes close and my body comes into stillness, I'm shocked by my mind's predilection for staying "mindlessly" engaged Read more:Journal
, Mindfulness
Thinking About Hospice 2008-06-04 07:51:50 Contemplating yesterday's post from Sogyal Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist master and teacher, I am considering my new position as a hospice nurse for which I will begin orientation quite soon. Hospice truly is about the alleviation of suffering when curing has ceased and caring holds sway.As the individual and his or her family make the choice to no longer pursue treatment, the job of hospice is to
The Alleviation of Suffering 2008-06-04 07:26:38 What is compassion? It is not simply a sense of sympathy or caring for the person suffering, not simply a warmth of heart toward the person before you, or a sharp clarity of recognition of their needs and pain, it is also a sustained and practical determination to do whatever is possible and necessary to help alleviate their suffering.---Sogyal Rinpoche Read more:Suffering
Institutionalized Racism in Healthcare: Alive and Well in America 2008-06-07 07:49:52 A study by The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice once again demonstrates that institutionalized racism is alive and well in the America
n healthcare system, where African-American diabetics are five times as likely to undergo amputations than their white counterparts. Please click here to read my newest article at Nurse LinkUp. Read more:Alive
, Healthcare
, Racism
Nursing and Writing 2008-06-06 14:54:52 Since birthing Digital Doorway in 2005, I have found great sustenance and release in writing online. I love the idea of instant publication, the immediate gratification of writing down one's thoughts and then sending them out into the blogosphere instantaneously. Blogging is now an accepted form of communication and instant journalism and I am happy to still be riding that wave. Nursing
blogs have
All in a Day's (Not) Work 2008-06-09 21:24:23 What do you do when you receive a verbal offer by telephone of an hourly wage for a new job, and when you arrive to sign papers they've decreased the amount by almost one dollar per hour? This was the scenario today when I arrived for my pre-employment physical, and the person who made the original offer wasn't even there. So, in lieu of signing the offer letter as requested, I simply wrote that I
Mindfulness Journal: Where is the Present Moment? 2008-06-13 10:47:29 My single greatest challenge has nothing to do with earning enough money or getting enough sleep (although those two can doubtless be a challenge!). As I struggle with life-long depression and anxiety, my greatest and most pervasive challenge is living in the present moment.Anxiety can be debilitating, and when coupled with depression it's a mental health double-whammy, if you will. I find that it Read more:Journal
, Mindfulness
, Moment
, Present
Racial Disparities in Healthcare: A Follow-Up 2008-06-12 15:45:42 My follow-up article on racial disparities in healthcare can be found over at Nurse LinkUp by clicking here. Thanks in advance for giving it a read. Read more:Healthcare
, Racial
Homelessness as a Public Health Issue 2008-06-15 16:21:51 To read my recent article on Nurse LinkUp vis-a-vis homelessness and public health, please be so kind as to click here. And thanks! Read more:Health
, Public
Orientation Anxiety 2008-06-17 05:46:42 Tomorrow begins my orientation to a new workplace where I will be embarking upon a dual role as a per diem nurse for a hospice team and a palliative care team at a local visiting nurse agency. Being part of a medium-sized local hospital that works under the auspices of a larger multi-state regional consortium of hospitals, I'm not so sure what to expect in terms of bureaucracy and red tape. So far
Back in an Old Saddle 2008-06-26 23:24:35 Today I began a four-week intensive of covering for vacationing Nurse Practitioners at my old office for 16 to 20 hours each week. While I've been spending a half-day there most weeks---filling med boxes, doing simple home visits, filling insulin syringes---I am now back in the position of Care Manager, albeit temporarily.
My anxiety vis-a-vis this little sojourn has been high, and today was no e Read more:Saddle
Nurses' Unseen Work 2008-06-25 21:35:22 Please click here to read a brief blog post on Nurse LinkUp about the invisible work behind the work of nursing.
Covering the Uninsured 2008-06-24 05:28:52 The numbers of uninsured Americans is a steady and exasperatingly large number, and in this pivotal election year there are still many Americans missing out on important preventive healthcare. Please click here to read my latest article on Nurse LinkUp.
Unions and Confusion 2008-06-20 20:33:22 My new per diem position as a hospice nurse with a local visiting nurse agency entails mandatory membership in a union, the first time I have ever needed to join a union. I am woefully unprepared (and ignorant) when it comes to union issues, and I imagine that my education in this area may provide some fodder for writing as time goes on.
Interestingly, the union in my new workplace has been in co Read more:Unions
Recommend Site To A Friend
