Project Heartbeat

Nurses Corner

Written for nurses, by people who understand the job. These posts go beyond certification to cover the human side of nursing — managing compassion fatigue, coping with patient loss, finding meaning on difficult days, and building a sustainable career. A space for the parts of nursing that don’t show up in a textbook.

28 03, 2026

BLS, ACLS, and PALS in Los Angeles

March 28th, 2026|ACLS, BLS, Nurses Corner, PALS|

BLS, ACLS, and PALS in Los Angeles: Navigating Certification Requirements Across a Fragmented Health System Los Angeles is unlike any other healthcare market in the United States. With over 80 general acute care hospitals scattered across a county twice the size of Delaware, the region's health system is defined by fragmentation. County facilities, large integrated networks, academic medical centers, community hospitals, and independent practices all coexist, each operating under distinct credentialing expectations. This guide is written for nurses, physicians, respiratory [...]

23 03, 2026

Demystifying BLS, ACLS & PALS Certification in Portland – Vancouver Metro Area

March 23rd, 2026|ACLS, Advanced Nursing, BLS, Education, Neonatal, Nurses Corner, PALS|

For nurses, paramedics, EMTs, and allied health professionals in Portland, Beaverton, Oregon City, and Vancouver, WA I n May 2025, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and Legacy Health announced they were ending their proposed merger after an extended period of negotiations and regulatory review. As a result, the two systems continue to operate independently within the Portland–Vancouver healthcare market. The deal would have created the largest health system in the Portland metro area; instead, the systems remain [...]

4 03, 2020

The Yearly Influenza Shot for Nurses

March 4th, 2020|Nurses Corner|

Increasing numbers of hospitals and health care organizations started requiring certain professionals, such as doctors and nurses, to have the vaccine or risk being fired. Although a huge majority of workers opted to get the vaccine rather than lose their jobs, some simply did not want to be forced and chose to leave their workplace. But should it be required?

26 02, 2020

Gratitude in Nursing Impacts Your Body and Mind

February 26th, 2020|Nurses Corner|

Whether your patients are neonates, the elderly or somewhere in the middle, you want to give them the best care you can. While that often means gaining Continuing Education certifications, learning new skills or improving on the ones you have, it also means something much more basic. […]

29 01, 2020

Nipping Nursing Station Negativity in the Bud

January 29th, 2020|Nurses Corner|

Whether you like it or not, you spend a great deal of your life at work. In fact, it is estimated that the average person will spend over 13 years of her life at work. Because this is such a huge part of your life, you want to feel happy and fulfilled while on the job. No matter how much you love your career, the people with whom you work can quickly bring you down if they tend to be [...]

8 01, 2020

Creating More Connected Relationships with Health Care Colleagues

January 8th, 2020|Advanced Nursing, Nurses Corner, Research|

The health care profession is known for being a high-stress place in which doctors, nurses and other professionals are often put into uncomfortable situations. Disagreements between doctors and nurses are common, and nurses often struggle to create positive relationships with difficult patients. On very hard days, nurses may even find themselves at each other’s throats as their stress threatens to get out of hand. Creating healthy, connected relationships requires focus and determination. It will never happen by chance. These five [...]

3 01, 2020

Improve Your Workplace Environment: Improve Your Job Satisfaction

January 3rd, 2020|Advanced Nursing, Classes, Nurses Corner, Research|

Job satisfaction is at an all-time high this year according to The Conference Board, a non-profit research group. In 2019, 54 percent of surveyed workers said they were happy in their jobs, which was up from the 49 percent measured several years ago. These higher numbers today can generally be linked back to improved job security and better wages especially for younger workers. However, satisfaction with the job environment and with coworker interactions do not rate quite so high. While [...]

1 01, 2020

Understanding Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare

January 1st, 2020|Advanced Nursing, Nurses Corner, Research|

Because health care deals with both life overall as well as the quality of one’s life, ethical issues are sure to arise. Patients often struggle to know which treatment they should opt for and who they should tell about their health care crises. Even more difficult is the ethical dilemmas that health care providers face. The struggle to keep patient confidentiality high while still getting informed consent and advocating for a patient’s best interests is often great. While the laws [...]

20 12, 2019

What Is Compassion Fatigue and What Can You Do to Prevent It?

December 20th, 2019|Advanced Nursing, Nurses Corner, Research|

Compassion fatigue is an emotional and a physical state experienced by those who have been caring for one or more individuals for a lengthy time. It certainly refers to a state of tiredness and exhaustion while also pointing to tense feelings and overall distress. Some may refer to it as burnout while others refer to it as a type of traumatic stress. While some people discount these feelings of compassion fatigue and their physical effects on the body, those who [...]

18 12, 2019

Focus on the Whys of Your Job During Your Next Rough Day

December 18th, 2019|Advanced Nursing, Classes, Nurses Corner, Research|

A rough day on the job may lead you to pull a pint of ice cream from the freezer in the evening. However, a string of rough weeks and months may be causing you to rethink why you even chose your health care career in the first place. After all, the long hours, stressful work environment and mounds of paperwork may be causing you to feel more exhausted than energized most days. If you are struggling through a tough patch [...]

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