Shortly after the publication of “Independent practice: Both nurse practitioners and physicians should be outraged,” the nurse practitioner (NP) leadership responded with a press release, denouncing the concerns that were cited, calling them “rhetoric.”
But in contrast to this criticism from the political end of the NP spectrum, I was inundated by emails from working NPs across the country in support …
“Nurse practitioner (NP) education is seriously underfunded. The profession is attempting to saddle private physicians with this cost.”
That is how “Dr. X” replied to my email asking whether he would be willing to precept a nurse practitioner student for her clinical rotation. I read through his clearly disgruntled letter and wanted to explain to him why NPs have to train “on the backs” of physicians and why funding for nursing …
Patsy loved playing bingo every Wednesday night. Her boyfriend of three years loved watching her daughter Jenna who was a tiny and pretty six-year-old her momma called “princess.”
Even though they weren’t related, Jenna called Patsy’s boyfriend “Uncle Billy” at her mother’s behest.
And Uncle Billy made Jenna shyer and quieter than she usually was. He’d walk in on those Wednesday nights and demand a big hug and kiss on the cheek …
Alex Wubbels, the head nurse at the University of Utah Hospital’s burn unit, was arrested for refusing to draw blood from an unconscious patient. She was absolutely correct, since it was against hospital policy, and constitutional law, to do so.
ZDoggMD dedicated an episode of his Facebook Live show, Incident Report, highlighting the travesty:
“Sir, you’re making a huge mistake because you’re threatening a …
Congratulations on the new job! After countless, grueling hours of juggling school with the rest of your life, you’ve finished and secured a job, a huge accomplishment indeed.
Negotiating your compensation package can be a nail-biting, heart-racing all around anxiety-producing experience. While some of this anxiety might just stem from inexperience with negotiating a contract, you might also be worried about not knowing what to ask for as a new nurse …
A inmate, while a patient at Delnor Hospital in surburban Chicago, escaped and took two nurses hostage. One of nurses was raped and tortured at gunpoint. There is little mention of this horrific story in mainstream media. Violence against health care workers cannot remain silent.
ZDoggMD recently spoke with this individual, who shared her story. #silentnomore
Please send your notes of support to her:
Delnor Nurse
PO Box …
Recently, a nurse at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles noticed that comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s newborn baby had a murmur and was cyanotic and brought it to the newborn intensive care unit for further evaluation. That triggered a rush of activity that led to a diagnosis of a congenital heart defect and heart valve problem and surgery to save the baby’s life.
Here’s what the public doesn’t understand: Nurses do this every day. …
Welcome to the land of happiness, sadness, confusion, self-doubt, defeat and heroism. You have only just begun. This is not an easy job. And countless times you will say, “What was I thinking?” Or “Why did I do this?”
But it’s not really a job. It is a lifelong sentence. It can be insanely gratifying, or you can throw in the towel.
But be patient. It will consume you, and you will …
The recent horrible events involving racial profiling, excessive force, and gun violence are deeply troubling but not new. Who can forget the Bronx shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999 when 41 bullets rained down on his unarmed body. I can uniquely identify with the black experience because of my own numerous experiences of being pulled over for no other apparent reason except for being in the wrong neighborhood, wrong state …
Thanks to all the nurses who take care of my patients and every other patient. I may be a doctor, but you are the ones who deliver the care. You give the medications and hang the IV fluids. You wash the patients and turn them. You check their vitals and listen for bowel sounds. You walk with them. You talk with them. You fulfill their needs. And you provide comfort to …
In September 2010, a seasoned pediatric intensive care unit nurse administered an accidental overdose to a critically ill baby, giving ten times the amount of calcium that was prescribed. Five days later, this baby, with an already tenuous heart condition, died. The nurse recognized her mistake immediately, informed her superior, and also told the family and physicians. She was, however, escorted out of the hospital, put on administrative leave, and …
I remember attending an eight-hour seminar on my job, where experts educated new nurses about the transition we would experience in our profession. We learned about the change theory and the different levels of transition, from novice to expert. I remember not taking the two-day session very seriously, thinking that my accelerated three-year nursing degree had prepared me well for the workplace. Now that my one year of practicing as …
A few weeks ago, after feeding my face with rich, dense chocolate cake brought by a truly awesome nurse (for no particular reason other than a warm and generous spirit), I walked back into a room to check on a post-cardiac arrest patient.
After surveying his vitals on the monitor, I turned my attention to two nurses and a pharmacist who were discussing the management of his six drips. He was …
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I have been an emergency physician for 12 years. I have had the opportunity to learn from and try to emulate an impressive number of amazing clinical physicians. These doctors seemed god-like at first, but as my training and career progressed, I realized that they were mostly teaching me through their own experiences.
One of my favorite teachers had a humbling saying: “Good …
Nurse Shannon Wilkens on floor 4 west thought she saw someone she knew in scrubs walking into room 414.
“He was tall, I swore he looked familiar. Our charge nurse informed me he was recently hired and volunteered to work nights,” Wilkens recalled. “So being that it was slow, and I had only three patients as opposed to …
When I was in nursing school there was always a lot of eye-rolling when it came time to discuss nursing diagnoses. This was mostly because nursing diagnoses were followed by book-length nursing care plans that we had to produce for various imaginary patients. There was also a faction, including myself, who thought a medical diagnosis was just fine, thank you, no need to reinvent the proverbial wheel.
For example, for a …
Having been both a nurse and a doctor, most of the questions I get from readers have to do with making the decision between nursing and medicine. Let’s lay aside for a moment the reality that the fields are totally different and that direct comparisons are useless.
But people ask me all the time, so, as a little experiment, I …
I really hate it when a nurse practitioner is called a mid-level provider.
“Mid-level provider” isn’t even a legal or academic term. It is slang developed to demean or minimize a health professional, who is not an MD.
The term “mid-level provider” is primarily aimed at nurse practitioners (NPs) as well as physician assistants (PAs) and midwives. It is insulting to health professionals …
It was recently Nurses Week in early May and there were a lot of adulations being offered on social media and throughout hospitals regarding the appreciation we have for those among us who have chosen to be on the “front lines” of caring for us when ill or injured.
As an emergency physician I could speak about the many times a nurse has grabbed me and pulled me into a room …
I hate being told what to do. I will scratch and claw when ordered around. It takes a conscious act of will to smile and say, “sure, I’ll get going on that right now.”
This is a problem since, as an anesthesiologist, I get told what to do all the time. My kids order me around all the time. When I was a nurse I used to bristle at the term …
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