Tag: nursing
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What Your Oncology Nurse Wishes You Knew Before Starting Chemotherapy
Starting chemotherapy can feel overwhelming—physically, emotionally, and mentally. As an oncology nurse, I’ve cared for patients at every stage of treatment, and one thing is almost always true: what people expect is not what it actually is. Expectations are based on ideas or stories or movies. Or what happened to your mom’s second cousin. But…
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Unreasonable Hospitality in Healthcare: Applying Hospitality Industry Ideas to the Healthcare Experience
It’s something that’s been coming up for a while. Will Guidara’s book, Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect, is inspirational and food for thought, whatever industry you’re in. If you haven’t read it, it’s the idea of going above and beyond, tailoring someone’s experience specifically to them. He talks…
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A Change for the Better
It can be hard to make a change. I graduated nursing school in the middle of COVID, having gone back after my kids were older and my ex and I had separated. I worked full-time in retail and then hospital pharmacies, going to nursing school part-time. After working for about a year on my unit,…
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Pandemic Adaptations
I graduated from nursing school in the middle of the pandemic. Started my nursing career working on a PCU unit, watching people yank their bipap masks off in the middle of the night because they were so confused by hypoxia. To say that I adapted would be somewhat accurate, I suppose. Like everyone, I coped…
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Understanding
“What’s something most people don’t understand?” Something most people don’t understand is how much things can change in an instant. Or maybe it’s more like people choose not to recognize this. It’s easier to think that “it will never happen to me.” I see a lot of patients on a weekly basis who are getting…
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Lost… And Getting the Essentials
“What activities do you lose yourself in?” I admit it, I’m a serial hobbyist, particularly in the journal-y, bookish, paper craft kinda way. Have you heard of journal ecosystems? Yeah. That’s me. I have journals about my journals! Okay, maybe it’s not that bad. But I’m getting there. There’s my main journal, the craft-y/junk journal,…
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Change/Theory Part II
If you work in healthcare (or even if you don’t), you have most certainly seen your share of changes in the workplace! In the last article on change theory, I talked about the different reasons why people resist change. There are many. Like this one- I DON’T WANT TO! (insert temper tantrum/crocodile tears). This time,…
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Change/Theory-Part I
This past week in school we focused on change theory in organizations. Riveting stuff, I thought to myself, getting into the assigned scholarly journal articles on the subject. But then I started thinking about it more, especially in the context of my work. Change is a part of life, as everyone knows. It’s the constant,…
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What Happens After a Cancer Diagnosis?
Getting a cancer diagnosis can be overwhelming. Patients need time to process all the emotions around the diagnosis. More appointments quickly add to the schedule. There is much to do. If the person is still working, that is another piece of the puzzle to contend with. How do you fit all these appointments into your…
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Significance… and Perspective
There are 4 or 5 events that have a lot of significance to me. The birth of each of my 2 kids. My marriage. My divorce. The day I graduated nursing school in the middle of a pandemic. Those are the big ones. More than anything, those events show me how much I have to…
Writing RN 