Not too long ago we experienced what at the time seemed like an unusually busy day. (Worth noting it had been a full moon the night before.) One patient was out of specialty supplies and we had scrambled to get some only to find out that morning that it wasn’t all that urgent after all.. The caregiver had found some in another closet. OK we could stop and take a breath and not be rushing around so much. However, about a half hour later we had a situation with a patient who was not scheduled to be seen that day. Suddenly this patient was reporting new issues with pain that…
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Help with Care Plans and Nursing Diagnosis
I was working on my own lens at Squidoo today and came across a site that I thought could be helpful to those of you just learning about, or struggling to master: Nursing Diagnosis, NANDA and Care Plans. You can also find more about the Nursing Process and other nursing theories at TheNursingSite.com. Hope you find this helpful.
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Demystifying Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking skills is a term nursing students and nurses will hear over and over again. They are an important aspect of quality patient care, the nursing process and a must in the list of qualifications for registered nurses. But sometimes they become very mysterious as nurses present them in publication such as white papers or a thesis and nursing students can become overwhelmed in trying to make sense of it all. It’s really not a complex concept, but is an essential one to understand. I have tried to demystify critical thinking skills. I hope this is helpful.
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Having a Boring Student Rotation?
So you’re bored with your Post Partum rotation. Well let this be your first lesson that nursing is not about YOU; it’s about the patients and the excellent level of care you are giving them! This rotation may not give you the adrenalin surge that you get in the ER or the ICU, but these patients are just as important. They need your help, understanding, education and caring. So rise to the occasion and meet this challenge. Not every patient will present you with a specific set of tasks or procedures to perform. You need to figure out what kind of care they need. If nothing else… where are their…
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Get Organized and Reduce Your Stress
Organizational skills are essential to nurses. In some areas they can be even more so such as for travel nurses, home health nurses, and advanced practice nurses with independent practices. Paper work is a huge nemesis and nurses who are not organized tend to struggle with the paperwork more than others. Paper work and documentation is a fact of life and the sooner you stop fighting it, the easier life can be. The better your organizational skills, the easier the paper work can be as well. The nursing process can help to organize nurses. Learning to prioritize tasks and patient needs is an excellent format for organizing the day’s work.…