Change of Shift

A year ago I was still in nursing school and in total awe of all the nurse bloggers I was reading when I should have been studying. Now not only am I working my dream job, I am hosting Change of Shift! It is such an honor to be counted among the ranks of all those nurse bloggers I am still so in awe of.  I hope you all enjoy reading this edition.

We’re starting off with Mother Jones and her commentary on Change of Shift: The Art of Giving Report.  It really is an art, especially at the end of a 12 hour shift to be able to pull enough brain cells together to make coherent picture of our patients to hand off to the next nurse.  Mother Jones talks about “dumping.” It is bad form to do this, REALLY bad form.

Another thing that is REALLY bad form is introducing infections in the hospital. Tess submits her friend, Lynn’s post with some very wise advice “Don’t disconnect IV administration Sets”. Well, DUH! but how many times have we done this very thing to get our patient changed, or even let them go to the bathroom! Great reminder Lynn, we all know this is bad, but our rush to get stuff done often finds us using this shortcut.

Rehab RN reminds us that the words that are routine for us, are life-changing for our patients. We must remember to listen through their ears sometimes and be compassionate as they wait for their Prognosis. Thank you for this glimpse into the waiting.

While I am short on experience, I am long on compassion and that is what keeps me going. That and the faith that I am having an impact on my patients now that I am In the swing of things as mamatrauma in my dream job in the ER.  I hope I can keep that going as the years go on….

…..and on.  We think our current way of thinking will never change and we tell ourselves “I will never fill in the blank“, we are so sure.  Kim over at Emergiblog talks about her experience with this in her post Five Years On… All I can say is never say never, I always end up eating my words.  Kim mentions that it was getting into blogging that inspired her, we are so glad you did ’cause your blogging inspires us as well!

Some may say that social media has no place in medicine but Not Nurse Ratched entertains us with her story about a patient and Facebook. NNR never fails to entertain me, she is funny and full of useful information for all us nursing geeks. Check out her post Facebook in the ER and you’ll have a good head shaking chuckle.

Are you considering a change? Thinking about travel nursing? David Morrison at Travel Nursing Blogs has some things for you to think about as you choose which assignment to take. Read  Ask a Travel Nurse: What should I look for in a first travel nursing assignment? before you sign on the dotted line.

Speaking of advice, Dr. Dean has financial advice for Nurse Millionaires. Well, I am not one of those yet, but at least now I am getting paid to work instead of paying tuition to be allowed on the unit!  Read about how to protect yourself from identity theft in Scam, Spam, Phishing/Thank you Ma’m:How Millionaire Nurses Protect Themselves.  Looking for a career change that will use your nursing skills? Look at what Victoria Powell has to say about Nurse Life care Planning as a field. It just may be your thing.

When it comes to the blogosphere there are lists galore. It is heaven for those in search of information. I bring you lists of interest to health professionals. First, because we are enamored with how the body works from the Nurse Nut, 50 Incredibly weird facts about the Human Body. Amazing and bizarre, check it out.  At the risk of stirring up debate, here is Miranda’s list of 25 Little known facts about the National Health System in Britain. Lots of facts I didn’t know, 30% of their workforce is nurses and they are one of the largest employers in the world! That’s a lot of nurses. Pretend you are in the check out line in the grocery store and read about The 10 Scariest Celebrity Malpractice cases. The sad part is this is just the tip of the iceberg in medical errors. The fact that they happened to celebrities doesn’t make it worse but it does get people’s attention.  And finally for those of you who tweet,  25 Twitter Accounts every Nurse Practitioner Should Follow according to Linda at E-MED News.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have enjoyed this edition of Change of Shift as much as I have enjoyed pulling it together. If you want to submit for the next edition, it is being hosted at Nursing Student Chronicles. Send your submissions to laney1210@gmail.com  or by using the carnival submission form. Past and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.