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
New Blog Post for AJN: The Nurse’s Temptation to Fill in the Patient Handoff Narrative
In my latest blog post for American Journal of Nursing, I share a reflection on how easy it is for me as a nurse to presume I know a patient and family's full story when I don't know it at all. What happens to the nuances of our care when we are or are not … Continue reading New Blog Post for AJN: The Nurse’s Temptation to Fill in the Patient Handoff Narrative
Vision and Faithfulness
This is a rather personal reflection, and I debated whether to post it on my personal blog versus this nursing-specific one. Ultimately this is still very much about the issues and conversations happening within nursing, so with some sense of vulnerability, I’m posting it here. What a curious journey the past year has been. People … Continue reading Vision and Faithfulness
New AJN Post: Strong Nursing Management Empowers the Why
My latest blog post for American Journal of Nursing brings light to the incredible nursing management that I and my colleagues are so fortunate to work under. We realize this is not the culture for all nurses, but my hope in writing the article is that it would inspire many nurse managers to consider the … Continue reading New AJN Post: Strong Nursing Management Empowers the Why
