Nursing Blog with Expert Insights

Some people look at the role of a nurse as entirely "customer service", but the reality is customer service is a only part of the role of a nurse, and certainly not the priority. While it's important to make patients and family as comfortable as possible to aid the healing process, there are plenty of inconvenient aspects to healthcare environments that patients just have to put up with or leave against medical advice (AMA). Overhead announcements for emergencies, safety prot

Essential Equipment and Supplies for New Graduate Nurses Note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase through my links. As a new graduate nurse, stepping into the clinical environment can be both exciting and overwhelming. Having the right equipment and supplies is crucial for providing high-quality patient care and ensuring your own efficiency and comfort. Here’s a list of essential ite

Note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase through my links. Working the night shift challenges your body and mind in unique ways. Adjusting to a reversed schedule can disrupt sleep patterns, affect wellness, and strain your brain and body over time. Whether you are new to night shifts or have been working them for years, knowing how to cope with these challenges is crucial for maintain

I've talked about IV drug use and endocarditis before, mainly about how these patients get a new heart valve and then very often end up ruining it by continued IV drug use after discharge. However, this one night was the first time I saw a patient manage to do drugs in the hospital and get away with it. And it all started with a policy change I'll never understand. It used to be that patients with a history of IV drug use (IVDU) were mandated to have a one-to-one sitter with

Long shifts at the bedside can leave nurses physically drained and emotionally exhausted. The constant demands, fast pace, and emotional weight of patient care make self-care not a luxury but a necessity . Nursing students are also susceptible to burnout from schoolwork and clinicals. As the nation's biggest body of caretakers, it is imperative that we remember we, too, deserve care. Neglecting self-care is the first step towards burnout, and finding effective ways to relax a

I used to be skeptical about the idea that comatose or actively dying patients could actually will their body to keep fighting until something they're waiting for happens. I mean, how often do we see people die unexpectedly in this world, never getting a chance to say goodbye or live a full life? But after this past weekend, I'm convinced even comatose, actively and imminently dying unresponsive patients can sometimes find the strength to stick around until they decide they'r

A while ago, I wrote a couple of posts about night shift, especially about how patients can get at night. On my unit, many of our patients are older and very sick, and because of that, they often become confused and combative overnight. Usually, that looks like throwing things, scratching, swinging, or kicking. It’s unpleasant, but it’s generally limited to the patient’s room. We can usually dodge it or simply leave the room. If a patient is a danger to themselves, we’ll call

Check out part 1 where I talk about the general good and bad of working night shift here. Talking about the patients at night is a whole new discussion. There are a handful of difficulties and patterns I've noted over the years, mostly just in the very sick/elderly patients. For example, if a patient passes away at night, it almost always seems to happen between 3 and 6am. I don't know if I'm the only person that thinks that or not, but most of the time in my experience, they

Hi again! I thought I'd write a post about the good and bad of night shift, since I see people ask on forums what it's like and all. I've been working nights exclusively since almost the start of my career six years ago, and there are distinct pros and cons to it. It's definitely not for everybody, and frankly it's not great for me considering my narcolepsy history, but I still love it and can't get myself to switch to days. There are several things I like about night shift.

They say love is blind. Grief is just an expression of love, and it can be just as blind. When people grieve, there are many ways it can manifest itself. In this case, it manifested as a desperate need to find someone to blame in an attempt to explain something that doesn't make sense to the person grieving. A while back, nurse Jenny had a patient suddenly go into cardiac arrest. We (the nurses) weren't really surprised because he was very sick, and we had been seeing signs h

Understanding Endocarditis and Its Challenges On a cardiac unit, I see all types of heart and vascular diseases. Many of them appear in the same "type" of patient. Peripheral vascular disease usually affects diabetics or smokers. Coronary artery disease often shows up in people who are a bit heavier than is healthy. And then there's endocarditis. This condition is often found in young people with a history of IV drug use. Endocarditis, an inflammation of heart tissue, is freq

This story is special to me because it was one of the times I had the opportunity to help family through a patient's passing. Most of the time, family isn't around at night. So if someone passes on my shift, pretty often the family isn't there. Sometimes at work we joke about how things tend to unravel or descend into chaos at shift change. Whether it's a rapid response, a code, multiple admissions, or suddenly every patient needs something, it seems like shift change is ofte

Wow, I've been out of work for 3 months now. I have suffered from narcolepsy for almost 10 years, but this year for some reason, my body decided to start having cataplexy episodes. It's been a long, long road, but this post is about describing my experience as a patient on my own unit. At the beginning of May, I arrived at work like normal for the first of 3 in-a-row night shifts. I got report on my patients and stood up to go meet them. After taking 3 steps away from the nur

This is actually a continuation of Larry's story from my previous post,"The night I was Shelley." I made it a separate post because if I included this part, I wouldn't be able to tag the first one as humorous. Unfortunately, his story ultimately has a sad ending that I struggled with for a little bit. I took care of Larry at least 5 times and grew quite fond of him. He was very kind and patient, very grandfatherly. I've lost all of my grandparents by now, so feeling the grand

Over the last 6 years, I had never had a "funny" rapid response until this one patient several weeks ago. Larry was a COPD (lung disease) patient presenting with acute respiratory failure, and he was definitely one of the kindest patients I've ever had. He was in the hospital for several weeks, so I ended up having him as my patient at least 5 times. He was fully alert and oriented and always remembered me, greeting me with a delighted smile when I'd reappear at his door. He

Okay, you got me. This one is more of a rant based on a couple short stories. For background, the hospital I work at used to accept doctor's notes for calling out sick. So, if I contracted COVID from one of my patients and was so severely ill that I ended up in the ER overnight, the ER doctor could write a note for work explaining why I was not at work. Seems logical, right? I mean, doesn't that just seem like the humane way to treat employees constantly exposed to illness? W

As I mentioned in my "About" section of the Nurse's Refuge website, there was a particularly troubling code at work lately that took me almost a week to process. I remember feeling angry and sad about it, while also feeling ashamed about the fact it was troubling me days later. After all, I've been a nurse for over 5 years now. I've been in enough codes by now to be a little more used to it, right? And honestly, usually they don't hang around in my head for days. But this one

I have a lot of respect for doctors, both residents and attendings. I especially respect the ones who recognize the fact nurses can have valuable insights on their patients since we spend significant time face-to-face with the patients, implement their treatment plans, and do most of the hands-on stuff. We are very familiar with our patient's baseline, needs, preferences, history, etc. In my experience, most doctors recognize and utilize that, and even express appreciation di

Sometimes patients, both confused and oriented patients, think we do things just for the heck of it. Or for money, or for control, or for power, or even, according to some, it's straight up that we don't know what we're doing and we're idiots. Usually it's confused patients making these claims, but I see oriented patients making these claims too. However, this story was a confused patient. Believe it or not, we do tend to do medical interventions for a reason... In this case,

Nursing isn't just about saving or improving lives. Sometimes it's also about helping patients die with dignity. So many times, I've seen patients decline to the point they are mentally gone and physically suffering, but their legal decision-makers can't accept death as an outcome. They refuse hospice and push for painful, risky interventions and surgeries. Don't get me wrong. I understand the pain of losing a loved one. I know it's hard to let someone you love go, and it oft