It was a morning shift, my first day as a nurse. We were in the nurses' station of a 30 bedded medical-surgical ward...listening to the handover that the night staff was giving in a low soft tone voice. From the corner where I'm standing, trying to understand every jargon their are saying More...

I come from an emergency department background and I don't think asking every person who presents to triage if they are HIV positive is a good idea. As nurses, we need to treat every patient as if they are infected with HIV, Hepatitis or some other blood borne disease. This generally comes out in More...

I once worked with a nurse who, when I asked "How did you decide to do orthopaedic nursing?" she replied, "what? I haven't decided anything, I'm still not sure what I want to do when I grow up!" (This nurse was in her 50's). When I finished university I was offered a place in More...

In my 21 years of nursing I have been fortunate to have been on Workers Compensation only twice due to a strained back. Subsequently I have only had a couple of days off to rest my back and then strengthened it using exercises from a physiotherapist. I won’t pretend to be any sort of an More...

I recently had the experience of being able to teach my sister how to care for her daughter when she was hospitalised recently. This was good for the following reasons: my niece enjoyed and preferred to be cared for by her mother, my sister felt empowered as she was able to help in a direct way, More...