stethescope

Category Archives: General Nursing Stuff

Nurses getting older

credit: tanakawho
 
It’s been well reported particularly in the last few years that we are experiencing a shift to an aging workforce in the nursing profession. Gradually the average age of nurses has crept up, and this trend is not exclusive to Australia or America - many countries around the world are seeing similar patterns.
Laura [...]

Now that I’m here, when can I leave?

There’s a certain group of patients that come to emergency, mostly vague historians with vague complaints, who don’t want to wait around to see any kind of resolution to their presenting complaint.
credit: adjustafresh
Many of these people don’t have problems that can be diagnosed, solved and cured within a reasonable time frame, they have chronic multi-dimensional [...]

When patients aren’t funny

credit: dotbenjamin
There are always patients who try and have a funny comeback for every question that you ask them.
Often after delivering the supposed ‘witty and amusing retort’, they look at you as if they were the first person ever to come up with such an amazing line. The problem is, we hear these lines [...]

Public perceptions of nursing

Recently I was involved in a situation where we were left short staffed for a night duty in emergency due to some last minute sick leave. This meant there were three nurses off sick, and only one was able to be replaced.
credit: guillaume.payen
Working one down is achievable if the department is not overly busy, [...]

Quick, hide the softdrink!

Last week one of the major (nameless) health facilities in Queensland decided that it would be important to raise their standards in terms of what food and drink they provide.
credit: Accidental Hedonist
This healthy choice type promo is aimed at practicing what they preach, ie: why promote health and healthy lifestyle if you’re giving people junk [...]

Acopia

One thing that gets me about many presentations to hospitals is that they involved the dreaded ‘acopia’

credit: Jacob Rickard
Not sure what acopia means? From Wiki: “Acopia means “inability to cope” and is often used as a euphemistic medical term which is used to denote psychosocial inability to function in a person’s usual home environment”.
The [...]