According to a recent article by US News and World Report, nursing is the number one job in 2012.
Nursing: The Best Job in 2012
CEUs and the Savvy Nurse
Well, it’s almost time to renew your nursing license again, and you realize that you have to fulfill your continuing education requirements before the year is up. Why are CEUs so important, anyway, and why are so many CEU courses so boring?
The Refreshed Nurse
Just recently, my wife and I went on a retreat, escaping the world and delighting in time to renew ourselves, our marriage, and our lives. We’ve now returned to the workaday world, and I am one refreshed nurse!
What Do Nurses Really Do?
On my personal blog, I’ve written a number of times about the ways in which the public doesn’t really understand what nurses do. Most people form their image of nurses and nursing through the media’s portrayals of nurses, as well as their own personal experiences. But we nurses can sometimes get frustrated when it feels as if people just don’t “get” what it takes to be a nurse and what we actually do on the job.
Three Steps to Taking Back Your Life
Nursing can really take over your life, and your job can eventually seem like it’s the only thing you have energy for. This is a sure sign of impending burnout, and it’s crucial that you act now if you feel like your job is eclipsing the rest of your life.
OCD and Nurses: Nature or Nurture?
While the title of this post is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, humor often is a thin disguise for truth. That said, is it truly the case that most nurses are obsessive-compulsive because their jobs make them that way, or are people prone to obsession or compulsion more likely to become nurses?
Take a Breathing Break
Speaking with a coaching client today, it became apparent to me that sometimes nurses just need to breathe. Just breathe. The breath can be the gateway to a refreshed mind, and sometimes our stress of the moment can be redirected with conscious breathing techniques. It’s not always so simple, but it’s magical when it is.
Nursing Out of the Box: 7 Steps to Success
As a nurse, do you have ideas that seem somewhat out of the box or contrary to what everyone else seems to be doing? Do you have innovative ideas for how to streamline workflows, make charting easier, or otherwise make nursing more efficient and effective? Many nurses may have these notions, but what keeps us from sharing them or attempting to make them a reality?
ADPIE And Your Own Well-Being
Remember those days in nursing school when they talked to you about ADPIE ad nauseum? Assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation? It seemed so simple, yet so foreign at the same time.
Whether you think about it or not, you use ADPIE constantly in your nursing practice—and probably in your day to day life. Have you ever wondered how you could use it in terms of your own well-being?
The Negative Nurse
Sometimes, there are nurses in your orbit who just seem to thrive on negativity. Many nurses are quite content in their work and simply complain when something very specific is bothering them, but then there’s the ubiquitous “Negative Nurse”, who seems to never have anything but negative things to say.

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.