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.

13 12, 2019

Grieving and Coping After a Patient Death

December 13th, 2019|Nurses Corner, Research|

Coping with the death of a patient is a topic that is very rarely discussed among health care professionals, yet it is an important one that affects your day-to-day stress levels and perception of success. Dealing poorly with death can lead to more perceived stress in your work and may lead to burnout over time. If you have never been taught what to do with your emotions when a patient dies, you may instead turn to negative habits to help [...]

13 11, 2019

Smoothing Your Path When Dealing with Angry, Hostile and Confused Patients

November 13th, 2019|Advanced Nursing, Education, Nurses Corner|

Patients who are going through health crises are often filled with fear, which can leach out of them as anger. People who are usually calm and collected may suddenly be blowing up at the least provocation. As a nurse, you may be the person directly in an angry patient’s path. Although the majority of your patients will most likely be able to control their tempers, you may occasionally come across an angry, defensive, violent or otherwise difficult patient who will [...]

8 11, 2019

What Is Mindful Nursing and How Can It Help You Thrive in Your Career?

November 8th, 2019|Advanced Nursing, Education, Nurses Corner|

The term mindfulness has become a hot topic these days with many wanting to know how they can improve their daily lives as they pay more attention to themselves. It has been said that you cannot take care of others until you take care of yourself. Mindfulness allows you to do just that in your nursing career. Although you might think that mindful nursing would take up more of your day, it actually requires no extra time but allows you [...]

16 10, 2019

Fall in Love with Your First Nursing Job by Choosing the Right One

October 16th, 2019|Career Programs, Nurses Corner, Research|

While choosing nursing as your career may have been a simple decision, your choice of nursing specialization may not be so easy. After all, there are dozens of areas where you can work in any health care organization as well as numerous specialty organizations that offer home health and hospice care. You could even put your nursing education to work behind the desk at an insurance company or in case management. With so many choices, you may be worried [...]

11 10, 2019

Pros and Cons of Working “Only” Three Days Each Week

October 11th, 2019|Advanced Nursing, Career Programs, Education, Nurses Corner|

Today, the majority of nurses, particularly newly licensed nurses, end up working 12-hour shifts rather than the traditional 8-hour shift. This often makes staffing easier in hospitals, and hospital managers argue in favor of the great continuity of care for patients. However, even though some love the flexibility of the 12-hour shift, it is not all glamor and downtime. For many nurses, this dreaded shift can pose many real problems and distinct health dangers. Pros and Cons of a 3/7, [...]

20 09, 2019

Building an Incident Response Team in Your Emergency Room

September 20th, 2019|Advanced Nursing, Education, Nurses Corner|

Today, many of the largest organizations and businesses have incident response teams that are designed to respond to unusual and dangerous situations quickly. Some businesses may have incident response teams to deal with unexpected computer system failures or major electrical outages. Large hospitals should also have carefully planned teams that can deal with mass injuries and casualties. Of course, in a health care organization, this team would be institution-wide and would include many different leaders in all departments. However, [...]

7 12, 2018

Stress Management

December 7th, 2018|Education, Nurses Corner|

Do you feel stressed at your job? Well, you aren’t alone in feeling this way. According to the American Attitudes in the Workplace survey, 80% of Americans feel stress in their job and more than half feel that they need help in learning to manage their stress. What is stress? Stress is defined as an experience a person is exposed to through a stimulus or stressor; disruptive forces, a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse [...]

10 10, 2018

Helping Patients with Urinary Tract Infections

October 10th, 2018|Advanced Nursing, Career Programs, Classes, Education, Nurses Corner|

In this week’s edition of the Heartbeat Blog, we will begin a discussion on urinary tract infections as a precursor to our upcoming lecture series on “The CNA role in identifying patients at risk for a UTI.” […]

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