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.
In addition to clinical nursing roles, Keith has held the position of Adjunct Professor of Nursing for a small LPN diploma program in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and has served as clinical preceptor for a variety of nursing students pursuing their education.
As a well-known and award-winning nurse blogger, Keith has maintained “Digital Doorway”, a popular nursing blog, since 2005. He currently practices nursing in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Keith also offers expert professional coaching for nurses and nursing students — including health, wellness, career, work-life balance, and burnout prevention and recovery — under the auspices of Nurse Keith Coaching and NurseKeith.com.
Well, we’ve done it again.
It seems that nurses have now been chosen as the most trusted professionals in America for the 12th time out of the last 13 years in the annual poll conducted by Gallup. The only time we’ve come in second place was in 2001 following the September 11th attacks and firefighters were in the public’s consciousness based on their incredible bravery and service.
Conflicts in the workplace are inevitable, and how we handle them can influence the quality and tenor of our workplace relationships. Here are a few hints to assist you in handling those inevitable moments of tension at work (although some of these strategies are equally useful at home!)
Long shifts are part and parcel of many nursing positions, and many of us can find ourselves working shifts of 12 or more hours on a regular basis. Surviving those shifts in a healthy way is an important skill to develop.
In the midst of our busy days, we sometimes forget to take a fresh look at our patients and see them as individuals, rather than as a conglomeration of diagnoses, problems, and tasks that need to be completed and documented. As much as nursing strives to fulfill a niche as a “caring profession”, it’s easy to lose touch with the “care” when we’re focused on tasks.
Nurses work hard. Period. Well, most of us, anyway. And we all know that all work and no play can make us nurses a dull and resentful, burnt out bunch.
Many nurses clearly feel that there is little more to nursing than finding a suitable job and working for a facility or agency of some kind. While mainstream nursing does offer many options—including hospitals, clinics, physician offices, nursing homes, schools, the military, summer camps, home care, case management, private duty, hospice and myriad others—there is a breed of nurse that wants something different.
At this time of year, many nurses end up working on special days when they would just rather be home celebrating with family and friends. Christmas, Hannukah, Kwaanza, New Year’s Eve—the special days come fast and furious during the winter, and many of us are with patients who themselves would also often rather be elsewhere.
The other day, I posted the following tweet on my Twitter feed:
“Finish this sentence: Nurses need _________________.”
I posted this tweet because I truly wanted to gauge what it is that nurses—and those who love and admire them—feel that they need. I was also open to hearing from those who are not fans of nurses (who that would possibly be I haven’t a clue since nurses are the most trusted professionals in the United States in poll after poll).
Due to the close relationships that nurses often build with patients and their families, interpersonal boundaries are often a gray area that needs attention. And at holiday time, this can be even more important when families and patient wish to bestow gifts upon nurses from whom they have received their care.
