Back at the end of April, I was honored to receive the UCLA School of Nursing 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award for Excellence in Clinical Care, Nightingale Nurse at the SON's 70th Anniversary Gala. Much of me is still in disbelief as I see and admire so many other nurses from whom I have so much … Continue reading Tribute to those behind my UCLA SON Distinguished Alumni Award
Insisting Upon Substance
There is a phrase that starts off all too many hand-off nursing reports in our pediatric intensive care unit. As soon as I hear it, I know the subsequent report is about to add yet another thing to my internal running list of dreaded possibilities of what could, without warning, threaten the life I want … Continue reading Insisting Upon Substance
Nurses Week blog post for American Journal of Nursing
Happy Nurses Week to all of my fellow nurses who give us, according to this year's theme, "4 Million Reasons to Celebrate." If we're honest though, we can at times struggle with our profession as much as (or sometimes more than) we feel we love and celebrate what we do. In my Nurses Week blog … Continue reading Nurses Week blog post for American Journal of Nursing
AJN’s Nurses Week 2019 collection of favorite articles
There are certain patient cases that never leave you as a nurse. They are the experiences that hold - and shape - the indescribable art of nursing as you learn how to read significant cues, listen to the unspoken, and hold another's heart while also holding your own as it comes undone. American Journal of … Continue reading AJN’s Nurses Week 2019 collection of favorite articles
When an Over-responsible Caregiver Learns a Life Lesson from a 5 Year Old
I have in recent weeks come up against my limits at times of what I can give to others and accomplish in the course of a day, and it hasn’t always been a graceful acceptance of those limits. I have instead resented them, and then learned the harder way to heed them and their inherent … Continue reading When an Over-responsible Caregiver Learns a Life Lesson from a 5 Year Old
Speaker Spotlight for 6th National Nursing Ethics Conference
I literally could not stop shaking when I received the email invitation to be the closing speaker for the 6th National Nursing Ethics Conference next year at UCLA. It is one of the most powerful and in-depth nursing conferences when we consider some of the core heart issues that nurses wrestle with as we are immersed … Continue reading Speaker Spotlight for 6th National Nursing Ethics Conference
New AJN Guest Post: Reexamining Resilience
Life has been full with a series of speaking engagements with different audiences, all of which have been immensely enjoyable in unique ways. I spoke with a wonderfully intimate small group of NICCU nurses from the hospital where I work about how we can better support one another in our own grief as nurses. The … Continue reading New AJN Guest Post: Reexamining Resilience
How a Patient’s Family Heals a Nurse in this Era of Medicine
(Author’s note: Permission has been granted by all parties involved, including the patient's family, to share medical details that may make this patient identifiable.) One of the things that feels most unfair about pediatric ICU nursing is that with critically ill children, you don’t get the comfort of being able to look back and say … Continue reading How a Patient’s Family Heals a Nurse in this Era of Medicine
No Ordinary Sunday
The readjusting back and forth between intensely challenging nursing shifts and everyday normal life is a real thing to navigate. It still catches me by surprise every time, how hard it really is. I am in the thick of a full 12+ hours of trying to manage chaos and logistics in a unit full … Continue reading No Ordinary Sunday
The Deeper Thank-You Every Nurse Needs
When I say to fellow nurses during Nurses Week, “Thank you for everything you do,” what I am saying is thank you for: Of course all the close attention you pay to your patients, safe med administration, the turning, the bathing, lifting, oral care, eye care, skin care, wound care; The hand-holding, teaching, empathizing, listening, … Continue reading The Deeper Thank-You Every Nurse Needs
