Archive for the ‘Nursing’ Category

Just over 10 years ago, I had my first article published. Telehealth nursing was the topic. I guess that was a bit of foreshadowing to the direction my writing career would take. Now, a decade later, I’m here learning and writing about the wide world of health information technology, and telehealth has grown by leaps [...]

As human beings, we often think we are each unique individuals with his or own personal story to tell.  As I have often said when encouraging other parents not to compare their kids to other children, “Babies are like snowflakes, none of them are exactly the same.” Healthcare providers often think this about their patients, [...]

“No, cellphones at the dinner table!” My husband said this to my daughter a few weeks ago. She’s not a teenager (she’s 20 months old), and it wasn’t a real cellphone. It was a hand-held Tetris game that she likes to hold up to her ear and say, “Hello? Hello? K, bye.” Nevertheless, no cellphones [...]

I have always been drawn to Lean business concepts and how they seem to cut to the chase, literally going after the waste in process and looking at facts rather than feelings. Coming from a behavioral health background, I understand how change can create feelings that may be confused with facts, and I wanted to [...]

Of all the social media options out there Pinterest is by far my favorite. I’ve been using Facebook since 2007, long before it became a mainstream thing. At that time, I used it to talk (OK, make sarcastic jokes back and forth) with the four other friends who used it. Now that it has evolved, [...]

Ask a group of nurses why they chose their particular career path and you’ll get the following answers: “I was always helping my pets/friends/siblings when I was a kid.” “I wanted to help people.” “I read Cherry Ames books.” “I just always wanted to be a nurse.” “I was born to be a nurse.” These [...]

We’ve all heard it. Nurses loathe, despise, resist (your adjective of choice) EMR and HIT. It’s been said so frequently that it’s often taken as fact. Heck I’ve even written, on this very blog, about how to get resistant RNs on board with new technology. So I was simultaneously surprised, embarrassed and proud when I [...]

Like many first-time parents, I put a great deal of thought into what my daughter’s “going home from the hospital” outfit would be. It had to be cute but not too girly. And since my due date was in May, which in Chicago means you never know what the weather will be like, I picked [...]

I can’t stand Facebook’s new timeline design. When I say can’t stand, I actually mean despise. When I say despise, I actually mean I hate the thing. OK, it took me a while to say how I really feel, but I’m a Midwesterner so I’ve been trained to be polite. When they’ve made changes in [...]

The way to a nurse’s heart is through chocolate. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Next Halloween drop your excess bags of candy off at the nearest nurses’ station and see what happens. You’ll probably be reminded of the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. And we’re not particular. Three pounds of M & M’s is just [...]