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Nurse Tapes a Patients Mouth Shut

Two Utah nurses allegedly taped a patients mouth shut while under their care. Penny Artalejo was in the ICU after taking 20 pain pills due to extreme anxiety related to pain and nausea from a aggravated neck injury. As if living with chronic pain and anxiety weren’t enough, she was basically tortured when she was in the hospital.

This happened about a month ago, but I just noticed in on another bloggers site. Nurse Me | Silence is a Felony

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10 Tips for Nurses on the Night Shift

10 Smart Tips for Night Shift Nurses

If you’re scheduled to work the night shift as a nurse, you better start saving up on that sleep and getting ready for long nights that will switch between being arduously boring and tremendously busy, seemingly at random. Unlike the day shift in hospitals and medical clinics, the night shift often sees a less steady flow of traffic, though things can get really messy and hectic should an emergency occur overnight. Below, read through 10 tips that can be helpful to you as you prepare for the night shift routine, so you’re not instantly overwhelmed whether you’re rotating from the day shift or starting a brand new position entirely.

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Why HIPAA Laws Exist: Careless Disposal of PHI, RX pads, and Medications - ultrasoundhippa

Why HIPAA Laws Exist: Careless Disposal of PHI, RX pads, and Medications

While browsing the Goodwill tweeter @Potato_Chip found a box of Journal of American Medical Associations. A sweet find for an MD/PhD student right? Unfortunately, it turned out to be bittersweet though for the healthcare industry and patient advocates everywhere. In that very same box were discarded drugs, prescription pads, and ultra sound records. Many of these records, including ultrasounds, had patient identifiers or protected health information (PHI) intact.

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High Fives in Healthcare: Taking Time to Celebrate Your Victories

I sincerely hope you still feel the rush of endorphins when you get a successful IV stick. I encourage you to smile, be proud, and ask your co-worker for a high five (after a good hand washing of course) the next time you change a particularly challenging dressing. Turn to the side and tell the nurse beside you how excited you are that your patient made the transfer from the bed to the chair successfully. Heck, share with your patient how excited you are that their kidneys produced an adequate amount of volume of the shift. I can’t tell you how happy I’ve had patients get when I complement their kidneys and acknowledge their bodies success and our collective success of a productive and healing shift.

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Hop On Facebook and Review Your Nurse!

Didn’t you know it’s the latest trend in healthcare? You can sit in you family members room and make statements about the care your loved one is receiving on that hospital’s Facebook page. You can also mention specific nurses by name and discuss your like or dislike for them. Sure would be nice if there were headshots of each nurse on that Facebook page so you could just put a thumbs up or a thumbs down on the nurses. That would make the public degrading of them so much easier. Sure you can do this, but should you? With social

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They made me put my socks on with a stick

They Made Me Put My Socks On With a Stick

I find it interesting how the most grumpy, disgruntled people react to kind gestures. It’s been my experience that usually someone with an attitude has a pretty good reason for it. There are the occasional crapheads who are just crappy for no reason, but usually there is some sort root cause for most meaness I experience in my nursing practice.

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Why I am thankful I am a Nurse

Everyday presents me with new challenges and the opportunity to overcome them. My growth and development in my profession are limited only by my desire and will. I have the opportunity to be intimately involved in peoples lives and promote health and positive change. I am allowed ample opportunity to be creative and make things work. Every patient interaction is an opportunity for learning for both the patient and I. I get to talk about health, the patients, and often myself, if I like. Almost every patient I’ve had asks me about my child, and wants to hear stories about

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

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 to appreciate the wisdom and wit of little old men. I have learned to

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