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Coming up on the show: A salute to teachers, great advice for parents of babies, defining lollygag and other popular sayings plus Donna Smith and Marsha Podd.

Donna Smith, our National Nurses United D.C. correspondent brings us up to speed on all things Washington. Donna also shares a bit of personal news about her own health. Donna Smith is best known as one of the documentary subjects of Michael Moore’s 2007 movie, “SiCKO.” Donna now works as a national single-payer healthcare advocate and community organizer for National Nurses United. Read more about Donna.

And, it’s always a treat to have our friend RN Marsha Podd with us in the studio. A.K.A. the “Baby Whisperer.” When Marsha comes to the studio we all go to sleep. We mean that in a good way, as Marsha has one of the most soothing voices you’ll ever hear. Marsha, is the author of Secrets of a Baby Nurse. The book is getting rave reviews and if you know of anyone that is expecting a child, has babies or toddlers already, has looked at a child or even thought of a child–you need this book!

Being a nurse is hard work! There are the perennial issues of not enough…staffing, time, appreciation. But on the blog this week, Love Your Nursing Life RN author Bobbi McCarthy writes about one of the ways nursing renews the spirit in The Gift in Room 3.

Win FREE TICKETS to RN Alison Whitaker’s play “Vital Signs” at the Marsh Theatre in San Francisco June 8 thru July 21. Read more…

I met her as she ran into room 1 carrying his little grey body…the triage nurse was just ahead of her with scared eyes. The mom, carrying the little grey body, was not crying. I wanted to. I took the little grey body from her, he was heavy and stiff, and laid him on the bed. The triage nurse ran to get more help. I grabbed the Pedi bag mask and began rescue breathing—actually there was nothing to rescue but I couldn’t not do it. There was no pulse and no activity but asystole on the monitor…he was gone.

“Please don’t do that…it’s his time to go and I don’t want him to come back. He has had a bad life, and we have a Do Not Resuscitate order.”

The nurse in me began screaming, “I’m supposed to save him…do CPR…intubate him…not give up!”

My mind heard her but my heart couldn’t take it in. I continued until the doc came in. The boy still had no pulse and he was mottled and grey. His eyes were open.

“What happened?” the doc asked.

“I just found him this way when I went to check on him.” She answered. No tears. Read more…

Sitting in the waiting room I watched the others as we passed the time…were they waiting for a loved one, like I was? Or were they just the driver waiting to pick up the patient post- test? The elderly woman sitting by the large fern in the corner sat staring straight ahead, no expression, just staring. She had on a clever little outfit; navy blue track suit with red trim, white slip on sneakers and a Vera Bradley bag (pink and light blue…didn’t really match her outfit) and she was alone. The elderly man sitting a few seats over was watching Judge Judy on the TV (Why is Judge Judy so popular anyway? The little woman annoys the crap out of me…) and biting his fingernails…he had on faded jeans, old Nike sneakers and a hoodie (just in case you were wondering). And then, there was me. I sat in the corner, near the bathroom away from the others. I was situated so I could watch the door of the exam room in order to see the nurse come out to fetch me. (I had on jeans, a new navy and tan stripped short sleeve shirt and my red nursing clogs…and a Tommy bag that was black…lol.)

I sat in that waiting room, waiting on my husband who was having a procedure, (can you imagine that I had to wait in the waiting room and not in the procedure room…whatever!) and I prayed. Read more…

I usually write an inspiration to nurses on my blog and who knows maybe that is what this will end up being, but I feel the need to write about my experience yesterday and the decision that is solidified for me. I work in the ER, in case you hadn’t gathered that from my blog already, and have done so for the last 11 years. The ER can be a roaring beast that devours all in its path…or at times can be a gentle beast that lets those working there stay alive to come back another day.

Yesterday was one of those days that just makes you want to find a corner to cry in. We had 2 nurses call out—so we were short staffed from 7am -7pm and the patients just kept coming. Our supervisory staff were all off to conferences so there was no physical help available from them. The rest of the hospital was dealing with their own issues and had no nurses to spare…(which makes me think of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine is in the public bathroom and asks the women next to her if she could spare a square…and sure enough the woman says NO!) Any way…

Our amazing team that worked yesterday pulled together and we got the job done and we did it very well! Read more…

I was watching the show Undercover Boss the other night and it made me a little emotional. The show has a wonderful concept, the CEO of the company goes undercover and becomes a worker in 2 or 3 different areas of the company to find out how the company is really functioning…and to see how the employees function in their positions. In this episode, 3 exceptional employees of the company, 7 eleven, were highlighted and awarded for their excellent service.

What struck me about these employees was their true love of the job…they brought their A game every day and they didn’t bitch and moan while performing their job. These people did not have cushy positions with a window overlooking the ocean!! These people had the menial jobs that make companies run smoothly…an elderly woman who works the coffee machines…She knew every customers name and served them with a smile…a night delivery man, who is an immigrant—smiling and so happy to have a job that supports his family and an ex-military man who works on a dessert assembly line…who was smiling and encouraging to the “new” guy. All of these people were given this “new” guy to train. Not one of them bemoaned their job or their employer…they were encouraging to him and didnt make him feel like he was bothering them…

This brings me to the thought…What would the CEO of my company see if he went undercover in the ER? Read more…

“Perhaps our real work, whether offering or seeking care, is to recognize that the healing relationship–the field upon which patient and practitioner meet–is, to use the words of the mythologist Joseph Campbell, a ‘self-mirroring mystery’–the embodiment of a singular human activity that raises essential questions about self, other, and what it means to heal thy self.”

–Saki Santorelli

There is an old Celtic tale about 5 sons of the Irish King Eochaid.  The sons were out hunting and got lost. They became tired and thirsty and set out in search of water. Each went a different way but all ended up, at different times, to the site of the woman beside the well.

The tale tells that the woman guarding this well was hideous.  Blacker than coal was every inch of her. Her hair was a grey, wiry mass of substance that compared to a wild horse’s tail.   This hair appeared only attached at the top surface of her scalp.  Her nose was awry and held wide nostrils. Her eyes were red and smoke blurred.  Her center was a wrinkled and freckled belly that overtook warped, crooked shins, garnished with massive ankles and a pair of capacious shovels for feet and knotted knees.   Read more…

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 having a hard time swallowing. By the time 330am on the 13th rolled around and I was supposed to get in the shower and get ready to leave, my fever was 102 and I ached all over! Needless to say I’m still home and NOT with my beloved children and grandchild in Virginia.

The lesson learned you ask? Stress and lack of Self-care WILL make you sick…and you WILL end up missing out on life’s fun during that time!

Prior to going back to college to obtain my BSN, I had not been introduced to the subject of nursing burnout and self-care. I have since been educated on the crisis of burnout in our nursing profession and one of the biggest weapons against burnout being self-care. Nurses as well as women (double jeopardy if you are a female nurse!) tend to put other people’s needs ahead of their own. Read more…

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 pain in an area that he hadn’t had pain in a while—his cancer treatments had been over for several months—he is awaiting a second opinion. His complaints were pain, loss of appetite, and dry mouth.

As I cared for him he talked to me. He told me of his life, many children and several new grandchildren, how he and his wife cared for his ailing father who recently had passed away.  He cried, a lot.

He began to tell me how he felt failed by the caregivers in his cancer care.  He shared with me that he only saw the primary doc 4 times in his many months of treatment and that he was seen by varying other PA’s or NP’s.  He was very upset over the “many times the doc would see him in the waiting room and just walk by, without a handshake or a how are you?”  We talked about this…he told me that very few of his doctors and nurses had the “gift” of bedside manner.   Read more…

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 total picture of their disease process NOR have they been given the tools to deal with the fact that the treatment they are undergoing IS NOT WORKING.

I worked in hospice many years ago and I had a bitter taste in my mouth then, as I do now, when the oncologist continues to throw one chemo/radiation therapy after another at a person who is just getting worse… and then they die in the midst of treatment and everyone around them, including often times their children and spouse are left with the thoughts of “but they were getting better….the doctor said the treatment was hopeful.”

While I was a nurse in the hospice world I had a voice and I could council my patients as they directed me to…I could also have a voice with the team that was treating the patient. I often feel left out in the wind while working these people in the ER. 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 how easy it had been to just go along with the motions of every- day life and let the memories fade away.

As I drove home from that day I thought back to nursing school. I made a couple of really long-lasting friendships from those long study days…shout out to Robin and Kim!! I also still have close contact with 2 amazing instructors who touched my life in many ways…shout out to Terry and Lynn… I recalled the excitement of imagining being a “real nurse” and the fear of not knowing all I needed to know.

In fact I was sooooo green that on my first day of clinical I walked into a male patients room and the side rails of his bed were up, and his urinal was hanging off the side rail…I picked up the urinal and asked him if he would like me to fill his water jug! Yup…I thought the urinal was a water jug—for real. Read more…