Welcome to our blog! Keith Carlson has worked as a nurse since 1996. He received an Associate Degree in Nursing from Greenfield Community College in 1996, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2001.
Monthly Archives: May 2012
Three Ways to Increase Your Connection to Your Patients
Working in health care, we can sometimes find that we’ve become calloused to the experiences of our patients (oftentimes unconsciously), and we have lost sight of their humanity and individuality. If you find yourself identifying your patients more with their … Continue reading
We Are Everywhere
It seems that nurses are indeed everywhere. Whenever I tell someone that I’m a nurse, I’m then very frequently regaled with stories about their mother, daughter, sister, husband or best friend who’s a nurse. Nurses are the recipients of a … Continue reading
What Keeps You in Nursing?
People decide that they want to be nurses for many different reasons. Sometimes, a family member was a nurse and this “nursing legacy” gets passed down through the generations. Meanwhile, some feel the call to help others, and still others … Continue reading
Three Ways to Advocate for Patients
Among the many things that nurses do, one of our foremost responsibilities is to act as patient advocates. Our advocacy does a great deal for patients on a variety of levels, and nurses must always keep patients’ well-being in the … Continue reading
Why is Nursing Theory Important to Your Practice?
Although many of us rolled our eyes and otherwise resisted learning about nursing theories when we were in school, nursing theories can be very useful structures from which we can draw inspiration and direction related to our professional practice of … Continue reading
Nurses Are Experts
Back in the day, nurses were viewed as unskilled handmaidens to physicians, doing the bidding of doctors and fulfilling a comfortably subservient role in the health care system. Now, nurses have truly begun to “own” their expertise, and nurses have … Continue reading
The Public’s Confusion About Nurses
“So, what hospital do you work in?” I’ve heard this question more times than I can count in response to my statement that I’m a nurse. It’s painfully obvious that the general public simply doesn’t know that nurses work anywhere … Continue reading
What You Should Receive For National Nurses Week
Every May, when National Nurses Week rolls around, it seems that facilities and employers are quick to offer mugs, candy, pins, and a plethora of trinkets to express gratitude to nurses for their labors. But, aside from the trinkets and … Continue reading
Three Things That New Nurses Can Demand
In my last two posts, I wrote about four reasons to support new nurses and five ways to support new nurses. Now, let’s discuss four things that new nurses can—and should—demand as they begin their new careers.
