On The Show: Nurses keep up the fight for RN to patient ratios...we should all be very glad they do! We thought we’d check in with our friends in Massachusetts who are working on legislation—so Casey and Dan visit with RN and president of Massachusetts Nurses Association, Donna Kelly Williams. Donna brings us up to speed on current issues---with a central focus on staffing ratios.

Expert says compassion is key. Have you ever witnessed a parent or guardian verbally or physically abuse a child in a public setting? Did you walk away because you didn't know what to do...or did you intervene? Find out what our expert has to say about what you should do. Cyndy Doherty, executive director of Marin Advocates for Children joins Casey and Dan to talk about what her organization is doing to help and prevent this epidemic. You won't want to miss her advice and insights.

Yes! a non-profit subscriber supported magazine, with in-depth analysis, tools for citizen engagement, and stories about real people working for a better world recently published The Yes Breakthrough 15 their list of people transforming the way we live.

Dr. Deb. Richter made their list for her advocacy of single… Read more

Have a listen to our newest segment, In My Day, with comedian Lynn Ruth Miller.

I have been thinking a lot about death and funerals today. Missy’s best friend’s father died, and also her first boss at her first real job after college. I listened to her order flowers for each of them, and talk to their family members on the phone last… Read more

Rallies Tuesday, 12 Noon, Kaiser Oakland, Kaiser South Sacramento

OAKLAND—Registered nurses and nurse practitioners at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics across Northern and Central California will honor the picket lines Tuesday in sympathy and solidarity with other frontline Kaiser staff who will hold a one-day strike Tuesday to protest Kaiser… Read more

Does your life feel like a tug-of-war? Nurses continuously juggle the demands of their personal and professional lives. At work, they provide high touch-high tech care for sick and dying patients. In addition, many nurses perform ‘double duty’—caring for friends and family members when not at work. Being pulled in so… Read more

Oh what a day, a day to just relax…very rainy and dark here in Newburgh Indiana.

Last night I had a bad Alzheimer’s night. I was very tired this morning, so I knew it had been a long night. Missy told me I was upset over not… Read more

Dan and Casey say they have really made an effort to stay away from the presidential primary but sometimes it’s hard. Roll clips of two presidential hopefuls with one having more hope than the other! We’re just sayin'---one of these men might need to look into “anger management.” Just sayin'. Check it out...on the show this week.

AND we talk with Rob Horgan. Rob is a recruiter for the University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions. Rob joins Casey and Dan in studio (true) to share about the Master's of Nursing Program USF offers at their Santa Rosa, California campus.

And as the assault on public healthcare workers continues---things are heating up in Fresno, California with major cuts proposed by that county's Board of Supervisors. RN Mary Morrison joins us to talk about the proposed cuts and how they're potentially devastating impact on yet another community.

And later we’ll visit with one of our favorite people Karyn Buxman RN, MSN. Karyn is a humorist who really does employ humor in the healing process. She’s here this week to talk about her new book “What’s So Funny About Diabetes.”

I’m super excited to tell you that my latest book, What’s So Funny About Diabetes? A Creative Approach to Coping With Your Disease is now available!

What’s so funny about diabetes?

Maybe nothing. Then again, maybe everything.

Especially if you understand the premise that so much of our humor comes from pain and discomfort—our… Read more

Vinnie Jones shows how hard and fast Hands-only CPR to Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees can help save the life of someone who has had a cardiac arrest. The Hollywood hardman is starring in a British Heart Foundation TV advert urging more people to carry out CPR in a medical emergency.

I was supposed to fly to Virginia on Jan. 13th with my son to be with my daughter, her husband and baby, (my 7 week old grandson) BUT I contracted strep throat and became quite ill rather fast on Jan. 12th. By 8pm on the 12th I was having bilat. ear pain, was feverish, chilled and… Read more

Kaiser nurses will be holding the sympathy strike on Jan. 31 to support their co-workers who are members of National Union of Healthcare Workers who charge that Kaiser Permanente, California’s largest HMO, systematically understaffs its mental health services in violation of California state law, leaving… Read more

California’s senate appropriations committee voted 6-2 to pass Senate Bill 810,   introduced by San Francisco Senator Mark Leno.

At the request of millions of single-payer health care advocates, Leno authored SB 810, also known as The California Universal Health Care Act, “because it is the only health care reform that can… Read more

Photo: Nurses from Chicago's landslide vote to join NNU

Well, this week we continue with our little walk down memory lane. We’ll hear from a caller named Mary Ellen who by the end of the call was not very happy with us. She recently sent us an email telling us her legs still hurt and we are crackpots!

For more where this came from check out our Comedy Pharm at nursetalksite.com.

Joining Casey (Dan was excused to go to Chuck E. Cheese with seven 8-year olds) is RN Dorothy Ahmad. Dorothy is a CCU nurse at Stroger Hospital in Chicago. Recently registered nurses at Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center on Chicago’s South Side voted by 85 percent to join National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union and professional association of RNs. The Jackson Park RNs voted 94 to 16 to join NNU.

Casey then visits with Jennifer Gainza, the communications director for the Northern California chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. We asked Jennifer to come on the show and talk with us about MS, the signs the symptoms and current treatments.

We were recently prompted to inquire about Multiple Sclerosis when our Nurse Talk web producer Tonia McCallum's 20-year-old niece Austyn was diagnosed. Nurse Talk is sponsoring her team. Read more...

As a companion to their recently released comic book, M.I.T. health care economist Jon Gruber and illustrator Nathan Schreiber teamed up with the Center for American Progress to produce an three-minute animated explanation of how the health reform law works:

Originally posted at the Washington Post’s WonkBlog.

Around three hundred million people live in the United States. About three million of them are nurses. I make that one in a hundred.

This demographic worried me a bit when I first retired. Nurses just don’t share a shift or a workplace. They share a culture and a lifestyle. I wondered—and fretted—about what life would life be… Read more

Florence Nightingale advocated for her patients. Today, as in the day of Nightingale, the nurse is the patient’s voice. The nurse speaks for the patient, mediates between the patient and others, and/or protects the patient’s right to self-determination (Ellis and Hartley).

Too often competing priorities, the hurry to complete tasks, or to complete documentation, take precedence over

… Read more

Let's take a little walk down memory lane and listen to some old stories we told when Nurse Talk was first on the air. Not sure any of you remember RN and co-host Maggie McDermott. Maggie comes back to visit from time to time and she always has a story about a funeral she just attended or a "fender bender" that wasn't her fault. We think these Comedy Pharm clips are at least amusing---funny? Well, that is in the eyes of the beholder!

Moving on---Lost for many observers in last month’s end-of-the-year hullabaloo was the annual Gallup Honesty and Ethics Survey which by a wide margin again ranked nursing as the most honest and ethical profession.The survey found that 84% of Americans believe that nurses have “very high” or “high” honesty and ethical standards. RN and co-president of National Nurses United Karen Higgins is with us to talk more about the survey and what it means for the nurses, health care and social activism.

AND we share a wonderful story from RN, writer JoAnn Spears. JoAnn has generously contributed some stunning blog posts about her life and career as a nurse. On a recent post she describes what she learned from a mute patient in a chronic psychiatric ward. Read more...

REACH NURSES NATIONWIDE Affordable advertisng packages available. Great prices and coverage...Email Us.

Ah, the possibilities of an open mind.

Other rich countries have universal health care. FRONTLINE teams up with T.R. Reid, a veteran foreign correspondent for “The Washington Post,”   in “Sick Around the World,” to find out how five other capitalist democracies–United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland–deliver… Read more

Virtually every other consumer sale is taxed. Why not Wall Street’s?

A robust tax on Wall Street transactions would raise far more revenue – as much as 17 times as much – than more limited proposals, even accounting for the worst case scenarios of reduced trading as a result of… Read more

Founded by Christy Turlington Burns, Every Mother Counts is an advocacy and mobilization campaign to increase support for maternal and child health. They have created a new blog series called Tales From the Field stories from the front line where… Read more

Rep. Alan Grayson, former US Congressman, wrote in the Huffington Post this week, Rick Santorum is Wrong. As reported by ABC News, in a speach at Christian college, a student citing a Read more

By John Commins, for HealthLeaders Media, January 3, 2012

Lost for many observers in last month’s end-of-the-year hullabaloo was the annual Gallup Honesty and Ethics Survey which by a wide margin again ranked nursing as the most honest and ethical profession.

The survey found that 81% of Americans believe… Read more

Not a surprise that for the 4th year in a row the Gallup Honesty and Ethics Survey again ranked nursing as the most honest and ethical profession by a wide margin. Cheers to the nurses!

On the show this week...Casey reads from a blog post---a first hand account of what it is like to know you have Alzheimer's written by 89 year old Barbara Taylor Vaughan, Putting A Face on Alzheimer's. Barbara started a Facebook page to facilitate an open dialog about the disease.

AND...She has been hailed as the "Meryl Streep of nurse activism," our great friend and D.C. correspondent Donna Smith adds color commentary and perspective to our 2011 year in review.

If there were a radio jail...we'd be in it after comedian Lynn Ruth Miller gets together with Casey and Dan! The bleep button only goes so far. Read more...]]> http://nursetalksite.com/2012/01/05/a-personal-account-of-alzheimers-donna-smith-with-a-look-back-on-2011-comedian-lynn-ruth-miller-unplugged-and-out-of-control-hiatal-hernias/

The ER was in a rare state of calm…several patients being tended to but NO chaos!!  I was assigned to the patient coming in by Delta~ I prepped the room and waited. The patient arrived, awake but tearful.  His wife was with him. It seems the patient was having… Read more

A forest fire is destructive and dangerous, it wipes out all that is good and healthy and beautiful. It exerts its power and overwhelms everything in its path.

In nursing many of us come to a point in our career where the fire has overwhelmed our soul and we haven’t realized it or stopped to take a… Read more

Happy New Year. We wish you lots of laughter and renewal in 2012. Take on caring for yourselves as well as your patients. We liked a post by our Facebook friend, Nurses Interrupted with some ideas on how to make microchanges to help transform the workplace through transforming our relationships with one another:

"Ask yourself this question before you go in for a shift: "When was the last time I put my hand on someone's shoulder and told them thank you?" Its okay to nurse each other---it just takes a simple touch, making eye contact, a smile of reassurance---all those things take just a moment in time, but they have the power of changing your workplace...and your profession. You never know who might *really need* that reassuring human contact from a colleague..."

On the show this week we replay of our interview with Dr. Connie Mariano who was nominated to the rank of Rear Admiral by President Bill Clinton and eventually served as the White House Physician for President Clinton and President George W. Bush. She has written a wonderful book called The White House Doctor.

I cannot get into specifics but I have a question for all of you fellow nurses. What do you do when you have a patient that is young, experiencing end stage metastatic cancer and they do not know it. The oncologist has not given them the realistic and… Read more

Before I was a nurse, I had occasion to be a young patient.

I had a brief but painful procedure to undergo. My nurse was named Anne. She told me that if it hurt, I should just go ahead and scream.

It was nighttime, and all the other patients on the floor were… Read more

This week we have a special bonus podcast with Sharon Tobin, RN and 23 year ICU veteran at SUTTER MILLS PENINSULA HOSPITAL talks with Nurse Talk about the upcoming one day walk-out at Sutter hospitals in California. What has happened to big hospitals? Sharon says Mills Peninsula in Burlingame was once a wonderful community hospital, is now a shadow of its former self. LISTEN TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ONE DAY WALK-OUT AGAINST SUTTER SET FOR THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22.

Happy holidays to you all. We are rewinding one of our best this week while wield the hot glue gun with care to finish up our last-minute gifts. Plus, we think its important to keep asking, "Who's Your Doctor's Daddy?"

Our friend and Capitol Hill correspondent Donna Smith (legislative organizer for National Nurses United) says that while healthcare giants buying up hospitals is not new...now they're also buying up the doctors.

AND we have powerhouse medical paralegal and co-author Corine Mogenis with us to talk about a new book she and partner RN, MBA Patricia Raya have written called Medical Tips from the Inside: Things You Need to Know. ]]> http://nursetalksite.com/2011/12/21/this-week-bonus-podcast-on-sutter-california-and-long-beach-memorial-walk-out-and-best-of-nurse-talk/

Sharon Tobin, RN and 23 year ICU veteran at SUTTER MILLS PENINSULA HOSPITAL talks with Nurse Talk about the upcoming one day walk-out at Sutter hospitals in California. What has happened to big hospitals? Sharon says Mills Peninsula in… Read more

We live in a world of constant pressure and stress, which seems to be getting more challenging all the time. Especially in healthcare, organizations are forced to do more with less, putting pressure on the staff to exceed the superhuman pace that they are currently working at. Nurses are especially vulnerable… Read more

As nurses, you are certainly aware that stress is one of the major medical problems of our times. Studies show that nurses are the single sickest group of workers in the workforce. Ouch! This is appalling. When I worked nights in the PCU, I noticed that there were many more obese nurses working… Read more

Walkout to Target Bay Area Sutter Hospitals, Long Beach Memorial
Nurses Cite Patient Care Issues, Cuts in Healthcare Coverage

Nurses are poised to hold a one-day strike at California’s second largest private hospital, and one of its most profitable corporate hospital chain December 22.

The strike will affect 2,000 RNs at Long… Read more

Separated at birth? Nancy Reagan and our resident funny lady Lynn Ruth Miller pictured with the legendary Mr. T as Santa.

We wish you a warm and peaceful holiday with loved ones and friends (and maybe a cruise if you were good).

We can't thank you enough for your support of Nurse Talk. We've had all kinds of fun and visited with some amazing people. We covered the Madison, Wisconsin rallies, talked with nurses while they marched on Wall Street, Main Street and every street in between.

ON THE SHOW this week, Dan got run over by a reindeer, so we are airing last week's wildly popular show again. Who says there are no second chances? Listen to RN Jean Ross, co-president of National Nurses United, The Yoga Nurse, The Teen Doctor and our research on under-the-radar nurse behavior. Read more about this show and look for all new shows in the new year...and a great line-up of topics and guests. Read more...]]> http://nursetalksite.com/2011/12/15/from-our-house-to-yours-happy-holidays-from-nurse-talk/

‘Twas the night before Christmas and the nurse is at work

Many a creature is stirring, including a jerk.

All the IV’s are hung by their poles with care

In hopes that 7am would soon be there.

The patients are snuggled all safe in their beds

While drug induced dreams… Read more

I had the awesome privilege of being able to speak to an Associate RN class on my experience with nursing, burn out, self-care and Reiki the other day. As I stood in front of the class and reflected on my 21 years of experience it struck me… Read more

From our friends at the Massachusetts Nurses Association:

Our  allies at Massachusetts Jobs With Justice are taking nominations for  their annual “Scrooge of the Year” competition, an effort to shine a  light on those policymakers, institutions or corporations that have  undermined the interests of working people in our state and the nation.   OK,… Read more

Our Facebook friends, Compassion for the Elderly shared one of their friends with us. Her name is Barbara Taylor Vaughan. She is 89 and in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. She started a Facebook page to help chronicle her illness and put a face on Alzheimer’s.… Read more

The Show is jam-packed this week. There is something for everyone, so make time to join us!

A segment every nurse needs, brought to you in partnership with Nurse Together.com, Annette Tersigni RN, The Yoga Nurse, and founder of Yoga Nursing. Nurses are often the last to realize the toll stress is taking on them and to take the time to do something about it. She has some great ideas on how the restorative principles of yoga can empower you to continue serving as the nurse hero that you are.

We'll talk with RN Jean Ross, co-president of National Nurses United. Jean is a frequent guest on Nurse Talk and she updates us on recent U.S. rallies organized by nurses to support nurse counterparts in Great Britain.

IT’S THE HOLIDAYS! Calling all parents of teens! You won’t want to miss our visit with Dr. Barbara Greenberg, a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of teens and families. She writes a regular column, The Teen Doctor, in Psychology Today. Her recent article focuses on why teens can be so competitive during the holidays. She has some good ideas about what to do when you are about to cancel Christmas. ]]> http://nursetalksite.com/2011/12/08/rally-britain-learning-to-speak-teen-nurse-behavior-revealed-yoga-nurse-heals/

Nurses are the backbone of any successful healthcare facility and are prone to crippling stress. Stress related chronic anxiety is now the major medical complaint of our times. Stress is a killer, literally. Constant thinking, planning, worrying, wanting, and doing is literally burning our brain cells, releasing toxic hormones into the blood stream, causing harmful… Read more

I recently bit the bullet and started text messaging. It’s not like face time and it ain’t Hallmark, but it has its advantages. It was an added bonus to discover that a career’s worth of nurses’ notes was the ultimate preparation for a would-be texter.

I avoided texting… Read more

Nursing is hard emotional, physical, and spiritual work—it is also very rewarding and satisfying. Tension and turmoil come with the territory of being a nurse. Are your feelings of frustration simple stress or something more serious? Decide for yourself: is it stress, burnout, or compassion fatigue?

Stress—Life’s Storms
Stress is a… Read more

Occupational violence is not a new concern here in the nursing world but it is getting worse. The dept. of labors 2011 report states that being a nurse in the ER or in the mental health unit or community is ranked top highest job for violence. A nurse in the… Read more

More than three million embattled British nurses and other public employees were on strike (11/30/2011) to protest attacks by the British government on pensions and retirement security.

Like their U.S. counterparts, British officials want to slash public worker pensions to cut public deficits — even though, like Social Security in the… Read more

With up to two million British workers expected to join the biggest strike in the United Kingdom in a generation, the National Nurses United announced that it will hold support rallies for British nurses and other workers in six U.S. cities on Wednesday, Nov. 30.

National Nurses United has created… Read more

How many nurses have been patients a time or two? What do you recall from your experience in the hospital? Well RN and author Bobbi McCarthy is a contributing writer on the Nurse Talk blog and has written a great article called Through the Eyes of a Patient | What Will Your Patients Remember? It’s a great story and reminds us what it is like to be a patient.

And, check it out...as a nurse do you ever shy away from researching new medical information? It’s a time issue and a lot of nurses “run for the hills” from diving in to the medical journals—including our Nurse Talk hosts. Well, maybe those days are over. Dan and Casey visit with entrepreneurial RN, Stephanie Modri. Stephanie has just introduced a new medical research app called Precision RN.

Our friend RN Deborah Burger updates us on all things "Occupy," progress on the financial transaction tax, the invisible SUPER COMMITTEE AND MORE…]]> http://nursetalksite.com/2011/11/29/coming-up-on-nurse-talk-this-week-dan-raps-casey-snacks-rn-deborah-burger-rocks-research-ready-bobbis-blog-cabin/

From our friends at National Nurses United:

With up to two million British workers expected to join the biggest strike in the United Kingdom in a generation Wednesday, Nov. 30, the largest union of registered nurses in the U.S.… Read more

Most of the time, nurses are also employees. We go to work, and we leave work. While we are at our workplace, we practice nursing. Does that mean that I am only a nurse when I am on the clock and cease being a nurse when I am not at… Read more

When I graduated nursing school wayyyyyy back in 1991, I was hired immediately by the hospital I currently work for. I began my nursing career on a med-surg floor working the day shift alongside the nurse who was chosen to be my preceptor, Laverne Pellitier. I had never met Laverne prior to… Read more

Republished from National Nurses United’s Blog
By Rose Ann DeMoro
November 10, 2011

Amidst the scourge of inequality sweeping the world, marked by continued profits, pay-outs and record levels of cash hoarding — the spoils of the 1% — one group has come forward with a remedy,… Read more

AND NOW—drum roll please—it’s time for a new feature on Nurse Talk! Out with the old and in with the new—-it’s time for THE GOLDEN BEDPAN AWARD! That’s right—EACH WEEK OUR GOLDEN BEDBAN AWARD GOES TO A DESERVING PERSON OR ORGANIZATION THAT HAS SOMEHOW PUT THEMSELVES IN THE NEWS OR OTHERWISE COME TO LIGHT FOR… Read more

We are thankful for...the smell of rain in the desert. Vicks VapoRub. Waking up to find a snowy morning. Supportive shoes. Belly laughs. A trail to follow. Authenticity. Relationships that get better with time. Chocolate in any form! A starry, starry night. Crickets. Random kindness from a stranger. Love. Coffee. Movie trailers. The distant sound of a train passing by. Scrubs with a lot of pockets. Friends, listeners and sponsors who make this show happen.

All of us here at Nurse Talk wish you and your loved ones many reasons to be thankful this holiday season. Casey and Dan are off to grandmother's house this week, so we are playing a Best of Nurse Talk to inspire and delight this weekend.

Lynn Ruth Miller stops by and shares home remedies we do not recommend to anyone. We get the lowdown on retaliation against nurses at Washington Medical Center from RNs Raj Rajini and Peggy Dinkel. Then, Greg Allen tells us all about how to travel the world while you work doing travel nursing. ]]> http://nursetalksite.com/2011/11/23/we-are-thankful-for-and-coming-up-on-nurse-talk-nov-26-27-2011/

Living in Tennessee as I do, I hear a lot of country music.  It occurred to me recently that no one has ever written a hit country song about nurses.  I trolled the internet to confirm my suspicion, and it seems to be true.  I think this is an egregious omission.

Nursing as… Read more

A nurse rolls her eyes at a co-worker as she picks up the assignment sheet that was created by a younger charge nurse. An ICU nurse pretends not to see her co-worker is drowning and ignores her request for help saying she is ‘too busy’. A newly hired RN who was previously a… Read more

Oh dear it is almost Thanksgiving! We at Nurse Talk wish all of you a wonderful holiday with family and friends---and DO remember---laughter is the best medicine! Yes of course we all love our families---but---we know too much about each other and that can lead to---well---o.k. fill in the blank. We say that with love and affection.

Massachusetts RN Karen Higgins joins us. Karen is a good friend of ours and she always takes time out of her busy schedule to talk with us. Karen weighed in on the Financial Transaction Tax, a.k.a. the Robin Hood tax that nurses and others all around the world asked the G-20 leaders to adopt.

And we’ll talk with the author of Critically ILL: A 5-Point Plan to Cure Healthcare Delivery. Dr. Frederick Southwick, author, teacher, respected researcher and decades-long medical practitioner, is an advocate for change to our country’s current healthcare practices, which cause thousands of hospital deaths and complications each year.

How many of us nurses have been patients a time or two?  What do you recall from your experience in the hospital?

I have been a patient only a handful of times in my life~ thank you Jesus!  I have had 2 children that were delivered in the hospital…one experience,… Read more

Walk into any nursing home today, and you’ll see them: The aging lonely. They are easily recognizable. Look for the sadness on their faces, the pain in their eyes. With a television on for company, these men and women sit alone in their rooms. Their shelves are bare,

… Read more

Nurses led the fight at last week's G20 Summit protests in Cannes, France at several events and at simultaneous rallies in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles, garnering national and international press coverage. According to The Nation's John Nichols, "The nurses aren't just making noise. It looks like they're changing the debate, altering the policies of the most powerful players in Washington--and perhaps the world."

See the 3-minute video where nurses aid an ailing World Economy with the FTT.

On with the show. When the cats are away...the best of Nurse Talk must play!

Coming up this week Casey and Dan visit with Texas RN Monica Sanchez about the union vote that recently occurred in Texas and made history as the first of its kind.

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
-George Washington

At a recent legislative meeting, as I was physically encouraged to stop speaking and leave the premises.  I have been an outspoken and passionate patient… Read more

I had two pieces of furniture delivered yesterday:  a really nice lingerie chest and a basic nightstand.  They joined two pretty little tile stands that I bought for bedside use a few weeks ago.

I did not buy the basic nightstand to use at the bedside; I bought it to put under my internet… Read more

Note: Registered Nurses Linda Hamilton, Bernadine Engeldorf and Jean Ross wrote this column for the “Labor Voices” featured in the October 2011 edition of The St. Paul Union Advocate. It also appears on the blog at www.nationalnursesunited.org.

From Madison to Wall Street, from St. Paul… Read more

Apparently I always wanted to be a nurse.

I got home from work last night and on my counter was a book, “All About Me,” my mother had sent in the mail. It was one of those kindergarden through 12th grade books (including pictures and comments!) about friends and aspirations, grades and boyfriends.

My… Read more

Heal the world economy!

John F. Kennedy said, “One person can make a difference and every person should try.”

National Nurses United is making it easier with a mobile app called Payback.  It provides information about vital political issues for nurses such as the Main Street Contract and Occupy Wall Street. Plus tells you how to support nurses fighting to keep patients… Read more

I think we made a mistake. You know how sometimes when you gain a few extra pounds you feel like you have to let the seams out of your clothes? Well, this week on Nurse Talk we had so many topics we wanted to share we got a little carried away and packed the show to the point of bursting our time clock!

We visited with two of our friends from CNA/NNU (California Nurses Association, National Nurses United) RN/Communications Specialist Liz Jacobs, and Colette Washington, On-Line Communication Specialist. Colette shared about a new mobile app that NNU has created that makes it possible to be involved in shaping national and international policy and politics without leaving the comfort of your own home. Check it out by texting the word "payback" to 53000 from your mobile phone.

AND Casey and Dan talk with author and EMT Kim Kircher. Kim has written a book called The Next 15 Minutes: Strength From the Top of the Mountain. When she wasn’t rescuing wounded skiers as a member of the ski patrol or bombing snow-congested mountainsides to control avalanches, she and her husband, John, were proving to the world that a full life was possible in spite of each living with an autoimmune disorder. Kim shares her inspiring story with us.

Are you ready for Thursday? That’s when nurses and other community activists are going to press President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for a meaningful financial transaction tax. Nurses from four continents, including a delegation from NNU, will be at the opening of the G-20 summit in France to demonstrate… Read more

If you haven’t seen that little musical that took us all by storm a few years ago–Menopause The Musical–here’s your chance to see it in concert.

I’m telling you it is so much fun and some of us at Nurse Talk have seen it –well too many times to count. It’s… Read more

In this photo, a National Nurses United volunteer nurse provides first aid to a protester at Occupy LA, one of several stations set up at protests around the nation.

Casey and Dan check in with our friend and NNU Legislative Organizer Donna Smith. They talk with Donna about the Occupy movement, the nurses' participation, the upcoming Day Of Action on November 3rd, the G-20 Summit and the nurses demands for a Wall Street Transaction Tax and continuing movement on the state by state single payer healthcare efforts.

RN Maria Fehlig, a Las Vegas nurse calls in and gives us an on-location report from NYC Occupy. By the way...she says she sees no "hippies" there and in fact a lot of people don't even know what a "hippie" is. Very interesting times we are living in. Spoken like a true "old person!"

Then we chat with Judy Farrell the Assistant Director of Enrollment for University of San Francisco's Master's in Nursing Clinical Nurse Leader program. With Judy is RN Kristina Smith who is a manager of the ICU Unit at Santa Rosa, Calif. Kaiser Hospital and a student in the USF Master's program.

Don't miss the special discount for nurses for Menopause the Musical in Concert! Code "SG" or "Super" for Santa Cruz.

NNU Midwest Director and RN Jan Rodolfo appeared on Keith Olbermann’s show on Monday, October 24 to talk about the Occupy Chicago arrests on Sunday. If you missed it, here’s the clip.

And here’s a powerful video that shows nurses getting arrested early Sunday morning. At the 3:40-minute mark, you see the nurses… Read more

I lost my keys the other day. Most boomers would chalk it up to a senior moment and move on. Most boomers are not nurses. Nurses can be weird about keys. It was the beginning of a compressed, forty-eight hour, Kubler-Ross, Five-stage experience.

Denial
The keys were not lost at all, I reasoned—they… Read more

When Shelli was a new scrub nurse with only six months experience, she failed to anticipate that the surgeon would need a particular scalpel. Immediately, her preceptor deftly slapped the correct blade into the impatient surgeon’s outstretched hand with a glare in Shelli’s direction. The surgeon said nothing, but a look of disappointment briefly… Read more

NNU’s co-president Jean Ross talks about our first aid tents at Occupy actions and the need for a financial transaction tax.

New aid stations have been set up on San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington DC. You can volunteer to help.

This week on the show...we rewind. Hey you know you don't listen every week (but you wish you could) so here's your chance to catch something you might have missed. Enjoy our show.

Casey and Dan talk with a delightful woman named Judith Stark Frost. Judith was a second grade school teacher for 30 years. She loved teaching her kids how to read but even more than that she loved the humorous things they said. She wrote a very funny book called Priceless Proverbs From the Tongue of the Young. How about these: “A penny saved is…not much” and “He who marries for money…better be nice to his wife.” We all know how funny kids can be without even knowing it!

And later in the show RN Rita Batchley talks about her career as a labor and delivery nurse in a southern California public sector hospital. Rita has written an inspirational book for all nurses called Labor Pains, about authentic power and finding your true purpose. A very interesting perspective on connecting with your “inner nurse,” health care reform and social change.

How many legacies are you creating today?

You need to know this as a nurse: you’re not treating one patient at one particular moment in time. You’re leaving a legacy. Your actions are woven into the patient’s lifelong health tapestry.

As a lifelong patient, trust me on this one. Forty years of close care… Read more

The Vermont legislature has pioneered a bill creating a path for a universal, publicly funded healthcare system. James Haslam from the Vermont Workers’ Center is coming to California to share their story and inspire Californians to do the same. Donna Smith, featured in the movie “Sicko”, is a community… Read more

You could say that Ol’ Arthur beats my butt, or that I have a hitch in my git-along. In short, my back hurts.

Since the lifetime prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries among nurses is as high as 80%, I am guessing you are sympathetic, but not impressed. Your back probably hurts… Read more

This week on Nurse Talk Casey and Dan talk to RN Jill Furillo. Jill spent several days last week with Occupy Wall Street and will give us a firsthand account of her experience and what the Occupy movement is all about. To learn about how and why nurses are taking action listen to this show and go to www.nursetalksite.com/Nov3. In the carefully chosen words of Vice President Joe Biden, "In the minds of the vast majority of the American – the middle class is being screwed.”

And author and sex addiction therapist George N. Collins is with us. What we think we know about sex addiction is ...well...not particularly helpful or accurate. Mr. Collins has written a book, Breaking the Cycle, Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession, and Shame and developed some techniques to help turn the energy of negative compulsions into positive life changes.