Brittney Wilson, BSN, RN

Brittney Wilson, BSN, RN, a bachelors-prepared registered nurse, is the founder and owner of The Nerdy Nurse® and TheNerdyNurse.com. She is the co-founder of Health Media Academy and is an award-winning author and blogger, international keynote speaker, and influencer in the nursing and healthcare technology communities. Brittney is the author of The Nerdy Nurse's Guide to Technology and co-author of The Nurse's Guide to Blogging. She blogs about nursing, technology, health IT, at other healthcare topics at thenerdynurse.com. Want to blog like Brittney? Take the Take the Nurse Blogging 101 online course!

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. (See Also Nursing)

By / March 8, 2019 / 7 minutes of reading

That Einstein, a real genius. Ok, so I added the last part, but call it poetic license if you will. For all the grief my 6th grade English teacher Mrs.Barnett gave me, she gave me one sweet reward: Poetic license, but I digress. Back to the statement at hand: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Probably of the most profound an truthful statements I have ever heard. So what does this mean to me? What does this mean to nursing? …

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Sometimes a Doctor Needs a Compliment

By / March 8, 2019 / 3 minutes of reading

Recently discovered a blogger who I could almost swear is a twin separated at birth. Not Nurse Ratched recently wrote about the nurse and doctor relationship in a post Toeing the Line: Nurse vs Physician . This reminds me of an encounter with a physician I had a year or so ago. He was covering for another doctor and became furious with me because I paged him several times related to the patients pain control, or rather, lack there of. She was young, depressed, and facing …

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Autonomy in Nursing: How to Have it Stolen From You

By / March 8, 2019 / 5 minutes of reading

Nursing is the first job I have ever had where a “boss” was not constantly breathing down my neck. I get to plan my day and do things as I see fit. I have the ability to use clinical judgment skills to decide to give and hold medications. I have the right, ability, and duty to question inaccuracies in care. I also have the right to be able to practice as a nurse without being placed under a microscope by others.

—Yes, another post about bullying, mobbing, horizontal violence, lateral violence,how nurses eat their young, or whatever term you want to phrase when a nurse is constantly targeted.

Zombie Childrens book

Fearing Zombies and Being a Nurse

By / March 8, 2019 / 3 minutes of reading

So why zombies?

Well, honestly, I encounter the dead a lot more frequently that most members of society. Its not terribly often, mind you, in fact, its usually less than one a year. However, that is still more than I would if I were not in this profession.
Every time I have performed post-mortem care I am on pins and needles. I can’t get over the nagging sensation that at any moment they could moan, groan, vomit, or leap off the bed in a feverous attempt to eat my brains.

What a Nurse Does in Low Census: PRN opinions

By / March 8, 2019 / 2 minutes of reading

Nothing.Well not if she gets the privilege to work. If the privilege to work is granted, that you are to do so with no tech, a bigger patient load with higher acuity patients, and often are pulled to other departments. Being pulled to me is often a nice change of pace, so that I do not mind. What I do mind is being pulled and yet still having an understaffed department that is unfamiliar to you. I’ve been lucky in that the nurses are almost always …

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Respect and Dignity: A Nurses Guide to Bullying in Nursing

By / December 29, 2019 / 6 minutes of reading

Bullying in nursing isn’t a new phenomenon. Nurses experience it in alarming numbers whether they’re new to the profession or the job. It happens to young and old nurses alike. My Nurse Bullying Experience Lateral violence is a soapbox of mine here. It is the reason why I started this blog in the first place. I was severely bullied by an experience LPN on my nursing unit. This nurse sought to destroy every ounce of confidence I had along with my professional reputation. As a new …

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Code Brown, not Nearly as Exciting, but Often More Enlightening than the Blue Variety

By / March 8, 2019 / 4 minutes of reading

How much poop can an old man poop if an old man hasn’t pooped in a week? A buttload. It was inevitable, don’t you think. I am after all, a floor nurse. Many of my patients have had bowel surgeries, or are attempting to avoid them. How long could I have possibly gone without writing at least one post about poop? In  my experiences as a nurse I have had the pleasure, and sometimes disappointment, of dealing with a wide range of characters. I have learned …

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Nurse Staffing Math Doesn’t Make Cents

By / March 8, 2019 / 3 minutes of reading

What does a low census mean? For us it means high acuity patients, low staffing, and horribly busy nights. I must say, I am a bit apprehensive about my impending shift. Apparently the less patients you have, your patient to nurse ratio increases, and you don’t get a tech to help do vital signs. Once I’ve finally gotten everyone settled, its been 4 hours, I have to go around, wake everybody up, and start the process all over again. I try my very best to chart …

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APA Formatting is the Scholarly and Professional Way

By / March 8, 2019 / 3 minutes of reading

I hate formatting a research paper. The research portions and drafting of a paper, of any sort, have never bothered me much. What I hate is the absurdly strict punctuation and citation rules associated with them. By the time I am done with most of my papers, they look more like algebra equations than scholarly works. I also have a pretty big disdain for not being able to include myself in my work. By that I mean, no opinions, just the facts, and attempting to leave …

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“There is nothing Golden about the Golden years”

By / June 7, 2020 / 4 minutes of reading

“There is nothing golden about the golden years”. These words are softly spoken to me as I attempt to start an IV on a very confused, agitated patient.  His wife stands beside the bed, looking exhausted and remorseful. They’ve been married for 25 years. He has no idea who he is or where he is at and she is overwhelmed at his current state. I calmly caress his arm, I tell him where he is and who I am. I tell him I am here to …

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