International Nurses Association

Most people feel better when paperwork is organized and filed correctly. The last thing you want to be is frustrated over something as simple as paperwork. You can spend an hour one day organizing and setting up files to hold your paperwork and charts, and it can actually save you 4 hours over the next 2 months alone, where you are not searching for a paper, a chart, or a to do note.  In the event you want to keep costs of organizing supplies to a minimum there are some options.  Check the dollar stores for the manila folders.  Stick with good hanging files, and you can make your own labels from plain paper, and cut them out to fit inside the plastic tabs.  You don’t have to spend a fortune to get organized.  Paperwork Storage Container (files) The first consideration is, do you have access to a private file cabinet or other similar storage?  If you do, that’s great; it will enable you to have an actual method to your filing of paperwork.  Providi...

Nursing is a field that takes a special person to begin with, regardless of the age of the patients you work with.  Working as a pediatric nurse takes a special nurse that can tolerate the many pros and many cons of working with pediatric patients.  There are some downsides to working as a pediatric nurse that are worth mentioning.  You may give some thought and consideration regarding the pros and cons in this field; just to be sure you are making the best decision for yourself.  The biggest hurdle when working with pediatric patients is letting the job essentially gets to you.  You will need to have the ability to be strong for parents if there, and to not let your emotions overtake your position as a nurse.  That can be a bit challenging when there is a sick child involved, but it is a requirement that must be met.  When you consider all that a pediatric nurse is responsible for, and all that you do, it truly creates an added value to the position....

Which category do you fall into: are you more a people person, or an animal person?  If you are confused, you are probably not an animal person. Most animal lovers know that they fall into the category of being an animal person.  If you are a nurse, and have decided your love of animals is just too strong to deny, perhaps it's time you consider being a veterinary nurse.  A veterinary nurse generally works in an animal clinic, with and for a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, DVM.  There are obviously some significant differences between a nurse for human patients, and a nurse for animals; however both are very important, and in both case you have some important patients depending on your expertise and compassion.  Good with Animals Do you consider yourself to be good with animals? If you are walking down a sidewalk and pass a stranger, do you stop, engage them in interaction and converse with them because you want to get to know them?  Or if you are walkin...

Remember Your Self Worth Nurses are busy people, and no one will ever deny that.  Sometimes you get so busy caring for patients, running from room to room, administering medications, and of course a million other things.  So one good rule every nurse should practice remembering every day on the way to work is:  Being a nurse is more than spending countless hours of studying during school and training's.  It's more than a license, a pair of scrubs, or a 12-hour shift.  It's more than a person that takes orders from physicians, and its more than someone that administers medications.  Being a nurse means you can multi-task, you can understand complex details and instructions, and you can tell a family member good news, that their loved one is going to be OK.  You can deliver good news, and you can deliver bad news; you can offer comfort, while you can also offer support and understanding.  You can wish someone well as they successfully walk ou...

Stating the obvious, you can certainly use a nursing degree to obtain a job at a hospital.  You may also seek out, and probably find a position within, a private practice, or medical clinic.  Those positions are of course the common areas that nurse look to upon graduating nursing school.  There are however a number of areas that you may not think of, perhaps a little less common, yet viable places for a nurse to be employed. Private Companies Some large companies now employ nurses on a full time basis.  The job essentially involves relatively short visits with company employees that may be sick or have an injury.  As the on duty nurse, you would examine and evaluate the patient.  You would then offer recommendations based on their condition, making suggestions of over the counter medications and products, or a visit to their primary care doctor.  A position such as this can be very different than what most nurses do, as you are generally not surr...

Nursing is a highly profession and critical function in the healthcare sector. Being a nurse is not easy, as it means challenging yourself everyday, learning new skills, working under high pressures and for long hours. All in all nursing is not everyone’s cup of tea and only a few really make it big in this industry.

After 2-6+ years of schooling, nurses have thousands of pages worth of medical information crammed into their btains, not to mention life-saving critical hinking skills. Nurses have the smarts to act quickly and effectively.

There can be many reasons why you come to the realization that it’s time to move on from your current position.  While in some geographical areas this might not be a problem, in smaller cities or towns (those with fewer health care facilities) this could prove to be a problem. In this article, we explore a few of the reasons you might wish to change areas, and discuss why moving on isn’t always a bad thing. You’ve Lost Your Passion Although this is often associated with having done the same job for many years, it’s just as likely to occur in someone who has fairly recently qualified. It can be as simple as realizing that you have gone into the wrong specialty, and that there are other areas of nursing that interest you more; perhaps, having gone into pediatrics you have realized that you gained far more personal satisfaction from geriatric medicine. You may recently have taken part in some professional development courses which lead you to look into new areas of nurs...

Working as a nurse speaks volumes about you in the sense that it says you care about people and want to help them.  That being said, all nurses have different personalities, and different methods of caring for their patients.  Some nurses may be very nurturing, while other nurses, although good at their job, may not display that nurturing side as often.  It does not indicate one way is wrong, or one way is necessarily better than the other, they are just different.  With physicians it's often referred to as “bedside” manner, and the same could be said true of nurses, as not everyone offers the same level of compassion to the patient.  That in itself is not a mistake, providing the patient is receiving proper care and not being treated in a disrespectful manner.   A medical mistake should be covered extensively in your nursing trainings, as well as your medical facility orientation and ongoing trainings.  If you have any question as to whether some...