Keith Carlson

Keith Carlson, RN, BSN, NC-BC, has been a nurse since 1996. He is the blogger behind the award-winning blog, Digital Doorway, a widely read freelance nurse writer, and motivational/keynote speaker. Keith is the host of The Nurse Keith Show, a popular nursing career podcast. Under the auspices of Nurse Keith Coaching, Keith's passion is helping nurses and healthcare professionals create ultimate satisfaction in both their personal and professional lives.

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Articles by Keith Carlson

• The meaning of the healthcare podcast revolution

  Friday, December 11, 2020

  When podcasts began appearing around 2004, capitalizing on the presence of MP3 players like the iPod, little did we know that they would eventually become a driving force in the wider culture, let alone in healthcare, nursing, medicine, and related fields. Podcasts have emerged as a leading technology for disseminating opinion, entertainment, and information. Through the expanding podcast sphere, laypeople and professionals are leveraging the power of digital audio to create content covering most every aspect of human endeavor.

• Where inequality goes, so goes health

  Wednesday, December 02, 2020

  A robust body of literature supports the thesis that inequality and health are inextricably entwined. The fight against deepening inequality in the United States and around the world is one which simply cannot be ignored in the 21st century. It is, in fact, our moral and ethical duty to address these issues and steel ourselves to resolve them, especially in this time of a historic and deadly pandemic.

• When politics and public health collide

  Tuesday, November 17, 2020

  Public health in the United States has been an intrinsic aspect of national well-being for more than a century. Without the mostly invisible public health machine, we would see all manner of preventable ills ravage our society. When cynically wielded, political power can wreak havoc with public health, and the COVID-19 pandemic is a timely example of how politics run amok can interfere with even the most basic protective measures. A negative or combative intersection of public health and politics costs lives, and this is where we must push back.

• Fiction and fact: The undermining of science and society

  Tuesday, October 27, 2020

  In these days of a tumultuous and politically divided country and a raging pandemic taking scores of lives each day, research is a cornerstone of the bedrock of public health, evidence-based science, and healthcare delivery. However, when determined efforts are made to undermine the importance of the truth of scientific inquiry and discovery, our society itself is lamentably and powerfully undermined. The very notion of how we as humans accept or reject the concept of facts has changed remarkably in the course of the first two decades of the 21st century.

• The power of curiosity and critical thinking in healthcare

  Thursday, October 15, 2020

  In healthcare, thinking critically is central to successful outcomes. In research, education, and other avenues of inquiry, it is the ability to examine a situation from as many angles as possible that drives innovation forward. Simultaneously, curiosity is a key factor in the unlocking of potential solutions. Curiosity is one driver of critical thinking, and the aptitude for thinking critically can lead to a never-ending positive feedback loop of discovery.

• For public health, a momentous collision and missed opportunities

  Tuesday, October 06, 2020

  The COVID-19 pandemic took a new and surprising turn as October began when the President of the United States tested positive for the virus, as did many of his associates and direct contacts. At a volatile time during a highly charged election cycle, the collision of this novel coronavirus with the leader of what some dub "the only superpower on earth" is one that cannot be brushed aside. Can this direct meeting of the virus and such an influential leader deliver an outcome other than more missed opportunities and misinformation?

• Telemedicine: Gains, losses, and debates

  Wednesday, September 23, 2020

  Telemedicine and telehealth are apparently here to stay, galvanized into intensive service amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. With approximately 20% of all medical visits in the United States estimated to be conducted via telemedicine during the course of 2020, and $29.3 billion in global revenue, we can see that this form of medical practice has truly taken hold. What are we gaining, who is losing out, and what might we be missing when more healthcare is delivered without patient and provider being in the same room?

• The 3 C’s of healthcare innovation: Curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking

  Thursday, September 10, 2020

  In the 21st century, myriad buzzwords and concepts have emerged within the healthcare realm, and one certainly stands out from the crowd in terms of its applicability in most any milieu or application, and that’s innovation. Three of the central engines that power innovation can be readily harnessed in the interest of progress and forward movement, and they are curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking — the three C’s of healthcare innovation.

• Healthcare providers, trauma, and the science of resilience

  Monday, August 24, 2020

  It is widely agreed that all healthcare providers can be exposed to all manner of work-related trauma. Whether it’s a pandemic, a serious disaster, witnessing a child’s suffering, or a grieving family’s pain, it can all add up to trauma. The terms secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, and vicarious traumatization can often be used interchangeably, and one thing can be deduced from much of the literature: developing resilience is one bulwark against the ravages of such intensely impactful stress.

• COVID-19, children, and existential fear

  Wednesday, August 12, 2020

  As the summer of 2020 wanes and the school year begins, there is understandable fear, confusion, and existential dread regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Myriad questions remain unanswered regarding how to keep our students, teachers, and staff safe amidst the desire to regain some semblance of a normal educational experience. Debates, lawsuits, and mixed governmental messages rage on, and uncertainty is the order of the day. Where do we go from here?

• COVID-19 and the power of the collective

  Monday, August 03, 2020

  The coronavirus pandemic has shed light on myriad aspects of the healthcare system here in the United States, including the good, the bad, and the painfully ugly. We have also witnessed the many faces of the public’s appetite — or lack thereof — for a coordinated national response, not to mention the scientific community’s deep dive into the heart of the pandemic’s causes and possible amelioration. If we are to prevail and save as many lives as possible in the coming months, the power of the collective must be more fully harnessed and realized.

• Uninsured during a pandemic? A homegrown epidemic

  Thursday, July 16, 2020

  The tentacles of the COVID-19 pandemic have reached into every aspect of U.S. society. As so many struggle to make ends meet and keep themselves and their loved ones afloat as best they can, we've learned that, as of early July, more than 5 million people have lost their health insurance since the pandemic-related recession began. How can we allow so many citizens to fall through the cracks when we face such an existential threat that makes us all vulnerable to critical illness?

• When COVID-19 remains front and center

  Wednesday, July 01, 2020

  During the first half of 2020, prognostications regarding the course that the COVID-19 pandemic would take were as diverse as the individuals, countries, and organizations debating what might truly come to pass. The pandemic has remained front and center on the world stage as economies teeter on the brink, millions are sickened, and thousands continue to die. Even so, the possible outcomes for one of the most challenging times in recent human history remain beyond accurate prediction.

• COVID-19 and national responses, part 2 of 2: The United States and around the globe

  Thursday, June 18, 2020

  As the summer of 2020 begins, the COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of abating. In fact, as many economies open up, spikes in infections are on the rise. While some attribute this phenomenon to increased testing, others also point to increased community transmission. Now that we find ourselves on the brink of six months of this global battle, what can we say about the pandemic response in the bigger picture?

• COVID-19 and national responses, part 1 of 2: Asia and Europe

  Wednesday, June 03, 2020

  When COVID-19 first emerged and the world began to take notice, each country naturally responded in its own way. These responses were based on many factors, including available public health resources, political will, governmental structure, scientific interest and rigor, as well as the expertise of virologists, epidemiologists, and other experts. How have some countries handled the outbreak, and what lessons can we learn from our relative failures, oversights, and successes?

• Digital natives, digital immigrants, and healthcare technology

  Thursday, May 21, 2020

  Twenty-first-century healthcare is replete with the unstoppable exponential growth of technology and innovation. From EMRs and medication-dispensing robots to digitally networked bedside devices and the inevitable emergence of medical augmented reality, the ability to adapt to new technologies is crucial for any individual seeking a sustainable career in medicine, nursing, and the broader healthcare spectrum. Will certain groups of healthcare workers fall by the wayside? When some individuals adapt and others fall behind, will healthcare technology Darwinism be at work?

• Telemedicine, webside manner, and barriers to care

  Wednesday, May 13, 2020

  Telehealth and telemedicine have been gaining in popularity for a number of years, and medical providers' ability to be effective in these very 21st-century roles has truly become a new expectation of practice. In this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for positive patient outcomes vis-à-vis telemedicine has never been so important, or so crucially put to the test. And when social and economic disparities loom large in terms of telemedicine reaching those most in need, we can experience a perfect storm of telehealth’s promises remaining largely unfulfilled.

• Nurses: The professional progeny of Florence Nightingale

  Monday, May 11, 2020

  Florence Nightingale, the founder and progenitor of the modern nursing profession, lit a spark several centuries ago that burns within millions of nurses to this day. The lamp that she literally — or metaphorically — lit during the Crimean War continues to illuminate nurses’ paths forward, and her legacy is one that strengthens with age as her offspring continue to advance the profession. And in difficult times such as the current coronavirus pandemic, nurses fight the good fight around the clock.

• The tragedy of hubris and the triumph of humility

  Thursday, April 30, 2020

  Healthcare, nursing, and the practice of medicine are peopled with a plethora of characters with a wide range of personalities, disguises, styles, costumes, and ways of conducting themselves on the medical stage. And since most aspects of healthcare are collaborative in nature — including patient care, research, and education, among others — a cooperative zeitgeist is most helpful in achieving both individual and collective success. However, when hubris (excessive pride) rears its ugly head, the curtain can be prematurely drawn on a scene in need of a great deal more rehearsal.

• Translating the COVID-19 information firehose as a healthcare professional

  Thursday, April 23, 2020

  In these days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us find ourselves wondering what evidence-based information we should follow and what news sources to avoid. We may first choose to do this simply to keep ourselves sane and focused amidst the noise so that we can function as both private citizens and healthcare professionals. Having said that, we are also likely to feel the heavy responsibility of skillfully curating information so that we can translate the firehose of pandemic-related information for our loved ones who turn to us for reassurance, education, and clarity. In this regard, where do we begin?

• Reflections on courage in the midst of a pandemic

  Thursday, April 16, 2020

  Public health crises have frequently arisen during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including SARS, MERS, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, H1N1, and now COVID-19. A pandemic of this magnitude has not reared its ugly head since 1918, and there are only a handful of living centenarians who remember that deadly year. Whether considering the current coronavirus response in terms of economics; local, tribal, state, or federal government; patient care; public health; mitigation; scientific research; essential services; acute care; or primary care, courage is a central pillar of our individual and collective efforts.

• Thinking critically about COVID-19, public health, and our erratic response

  Thursday, April 09, 2020

  In these days of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a great deal of commonly held focus on hobbled supply chains, widespread lack of PPE, the egregiously defunded American public health system, and other ills that negatively impact our ability to mitigate and respond to this existential crisis. While this writer in no way claims to have deep knowledge of healthcare economics and related policy, the obvious fact is that something is wrong when a country largely perceived to be a "global superpower" cannot effectively launch and sustain a concerted, cohesive response to such a threat. Something is indeed amiss, so how can we think critically about this lamentable turn of events?

• The COVID-19 pandemic: A reverse Wizard of Oz?

  Wednesday, April 01, 2020

  At the end of the classic film, "The Wizard of Oz," Dorothy, the naïve yet savvy heroine played by a young Judy Garland, wakes up in her bed on a bright morning following a frightening tornado and a grand, slightly nightmarish adventure of epic proportions. The sleepy Dorothy quickly realizes that it has all indeed been a dream, and she’s safe and sound at home. If only the COVID-19 pandemic was the same: a global nightmare from which we will all awake on a sunny Midwestern morning, surrounded by the people we love most.

• COVID-19 and the grief process

  Thursday, March 26, 2020

  The COVID-19 pandemic is encircling our planet and the entire human family is facing great distress. The deadly impact of the coronavirus can be felt throughout every economy in the world, as well as in villages, rural communities, cities, and suburbs the world over. From shortages of essential supplies to the demise of thousands of small businesses, the ripple effects of this pandemic are beyond imagination. Amidst the social isolation and the wide array of emotions elicited in most every individual, one concept stands out: the grieving process.

• COVID-19: Of Hercules and Sisyphus

  Thursday, March 19, 2020

  COVID-19 is ravaging the world, and the healthcare system writ large is struggling to maintain its hold on surveillance, treatment, testing, supply chains, personnel, and all manner of response to this unprecedented threat. We have not seen such a ferocious pandemic since the so-called "Spanish Flu" of 1918, and we are hard-pressed to hold the line as our interdependent and frequently flawed systems are taxed beyond capacity. How can healthcare providers be most effective in these frightening and chaotic times? Is our fight against COVID-19, this novel coronavirus, Sisyphean or Herculean in nature?

• Healthcare thought leaders: Who they are, and why we need them

  Thursday, March 05, 2020

  The notion of the thought leader is not necessarily new, but the term does continue to receive a great deal of attention in these early decades of the 21st century. A thought leader is sometimes self-identified or possibly recognized by their industry as an individual with their finger on the pulse of change. In that regard, why are thought leaders important to recognize in healthcare, nursing, medicine, and related fields?

• The 3 C’s of healthcare communication: Compassion, clarity, and coherence

  Thursday, February 20, 2020

  In healthcare, it can generally be agreed that one of the central pillars of the delivery of high-quality patient care is communication. It can also be readily agreed that communication is a central pillar of both inter- and intra-team cohesion and relationships. If this is truly the case, then why does communication break down so often and what can we do about improving it in the interest of staff satisfaction and retention, as well as the satisfaction of patients and their loved ones?

• When a pandemic tests us in healthcare

  Wednesday, February 05, 2020

  Pandemics regularly challenge the global healthcare system. SARS certainly taught us some lessons, as did the H1N1 outbreak. Enter, stage left, the 2019-20 coronavirus. As this current viral threat circulates around the world — mostly via those who have recently been to the Wuhan area of China — the World Health Organization (WHO) is grappling with public relations, epidemiology, containment and quarantines, travel restrictions (and some outright bans), as well as deciding whether this is truly a pandemic or not.

• Groupthink and healthcare: An unhealthy alliance

  Wednesday, January 22, 2020

  The term "groupthink" has been in popular usage since the 1970s, and its applicability to the multibillion-dollar 21st-century healthcare industry could not be more salient than it is today. Initially coined in 1974 by Irving Janis, a professor of psychology at Yale University, it is defined by Yale Alumni Magazine as when "a group of intelligent people working together to solve a problem can sometimes arrive at the worst possible answer." Those firmly ensconced in the healthcare ecosystem can likely agree that groupthink plays a larger role than we would like to believe.

• When the healthcare C-suite embraces the digital age

  Wednesday, January 08, 2020

  In the healthcare ecosystem, digital technologies have been gaining prevalence, market share, and clinical applicability for years. In the 21st century, the ubiquity of these innovative advancements is increasing. On the leadership front, many health systems have been lagging behind in terms of bringing the digital age into the C-suite, but that calculus now seems to be irrevocably changing.

• 2020 is the Year of the Nurse: Is your organization preparing?

  Tuesday, December 10, 2019

  On Jan. 30, 2019, the Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared 2020 "The Year of the Nurse and Midwife (YONM)" in commemoration of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. In terms of healthcare organizations employing nurses, the opportunity exists for nurses to be rightfully honored for their place in the global health delivery system, and for their employers to create a new vision of what nurses can accomplish in the 21st century.

• The successful healthcare career toolbox

  Monday, November 25, 2019

  Like any career, forging a way forward in the world of healthcare takes diligence, planning, and nurturing of your goals. For those interested in achieving their career objectives, the contents of your career-building toolbox should not be overlooked. For the healthcare professional, some essential building blocks are the resume or CV, cover letter, business card, and complete LinkedIn profile. There are others, but most everyone will agree that these are absolutely necessary.

• The nurse’s emotional bank account

  Thursday, November 14, 2019

  Nursing is an emotionally taxing career by any measure. By serving the infirm, the traumatized, the bereft, the dying, and the needy, the work of the nurse can take a toll on emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. We must also bear in mind the impact of chronic stress, secondary trauma, and the moral and ethical dilemmas that are part and parcel of healthcare. When the nurse's emotional bank account runs dry, they can get into trouble and fall victim to burnout, compassion fatigue, and spiritual distress.

• Healthcare career transitions: Why and how to make them happen

  Thursday, November 07, 2019

  Making a career change or job transition can be a big deal when you take into consideration the potential repercussions that may reverberate throughout all aspects of your life. For healthcare professionals, career transitions can be both exciting and tricky. Your "why" vis-à-vis a pending career change may be due to a variety of factors that impact you on a daily basis. No matter what the root cause, understanding the underlying motivations behind your desire for change is paramount.

• Groupthink: A danger to healthcare innovation

  Monday, October 21, 2019

  In the healthcare universe, we follow orders and policies and procedures because that is part and parcel of our clinical world’s rules. However, doing what you’re told can come at a price if you violate your own moral code and personal values or the orders have potential to cause harm to a patient. It can also feel the antithesis of evidence-based practice when you’re told to do something a certain way because "that’s the way we’ve always done it."

• Podcast: The 7 most dangerous words in healthcare

  Wednesday, October 16, 2019

  What are the seven most dangerous words in healthcare? In my universe, those seven words are "that’s the way we’ve always done it." Who are the people who resist change? They’re the ones who generally aren’t natural intrapreneurs or leaders. They’re more likely to be the people who just do their work and go home, with little investment in their careers or jobs. Such individuals may also be fearful of technology, which one would think is a stark difference between generations, but that’s not always the case — resistance can come from any nurse from any generation.

• Collaboration in healthcare: Beyond the silo

  Tuesday, October 08, 2019

  Silos are a common sight in the farmlands of the world, but what about the silos we inhabit as healthcare clinicians, researchers, academicians, and administrators? What would happen if the silos disappeared? What kind of collaborations might result and how would the face of medicine and healthcare change? Historically, nurses have been at the beck and call of physicians, relegated to tasks previously identified as "non-professional." Recently, the separate silos of nurses and doctors have become less pronounced, allowing for increased trust, collaboration, and shared practice.

• Resistance to change in healthcare: Our fatal flaw

  Wednesday, September 25, 2019

  It’s been said that change is the only constant in the universe, and that also pertains to healthcare. Since the days of Hippocrates, Florence Nightingale, and many others, medicine and nursing have continued to morph, and those individuals and organizations willing to do so have also evolved apace. But for those who resist or fight change, becoming an irrelevant dinosaur is the likely result. Are you and your organization willing to play along?

• Podcast: Be your very own nursing career detective

  Tuesday, September 17, 2019

  When it comes to your nursing career, you need to be your very own private eye or detective because good ol’ Sherlock or Columbo won’t be able to help you with this particular case. Your assessment of your nursing career is the gathering of facts and clues. And what are you looking for exactly? Here are some potential questions to ask yourself — this is only the beginning of the assessment, but you’ll get the picture.

• Are you a 2- or 3-dimensional healthcare job candidate?

  Wednesday, September 11, 2019

  When you have a stake as a job candidate in the healthcare employment marketplace, being able to differentiate yourself from the competition is key. Your future employer is going to spend a great deal of money and resources vetting, hiring, training, and onboarding you, so you need to clearly communicate that you’re worthy of this expensive and time-consuming process that constitutes a financial risk for any organization that chooses to hire you.

• Will AI and robots steal your healthcare job?

  Thursday, August 29, 2019

  Robots and artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly pervasive in most aspects of 21st-century life, including healthcare, medicine, and nursing. Fears abound that jobs are going to be lost to machines that can do our jobs 24/7 without needing to be paid or call out when the kids are home sick from school. Are these fears well-founded or are we looking down the wrong tech rabbit hole? The reality of healthcare technology in 2019 isn't necessarily a robot revolution, but things are changing and some concern is understandable.

• Podcast: Why your values matter as a healthcare professional

  Wednesday, August 21, 2019

  In this episode, Keith Carlson welcomes Jacob Morris, an expert in values-based applied research. Understanding the values that make you who you are can help you to live those values in a way that empowers and enriches both your life and your career. Morris founded the Discover Your Values program in a grassroots effort to bring the latest research on values-based development to the forefront of the coaching industry and the general public through the work of social psychologist Shalom H. Schwartz.

• Are you playing in the right healthcare sandbox?

  Thursday, August 15, 2019

  Within the healthcare industry, there are endless choices when it comes to carving out the career path that's right for you. Whether in medicine, nursing, leadership, or elsewhere, the world can indeed be your oyster if you play your cards right, network assiduously, make good choices, follow your values, and honor your intuition. We can, of course, encounter option paralysis when faced with too many alternatives; however, with a burgeoning healthcare industry facing an increasingly aging and diversifying population, the avenues for career success and satisfaction are legion. So, are you playing in the right career sandbox?

• Podcast: The state of medical education and physicians’ relationships to nurses

  Tuesday, July 30, 2019

  On this episode of The Nurse Keith Show, Keith Carlson discusses the state of medical education and physicians’ interface with nurses with guest Dr. Ted O’Connell, a family physician, educator, author, innovator, speaker, and founding director of the Family Medicine Residency Program at Kaiser Permanente Napa-Solano. He founded the Kaiser Permanente Napa-Solano Community Medicine and Global Health Fellowship, the first fellowship in the United States to formally combine both community medicine and global health.

• When clinicians become politicians

  Thursday, July 25, 2019

  It’s often been said that if you don’t have a seat at the table, you'll end up on the menu, and this could not be more accurate when speaking of nurses, doctors, and other clinicians vis-á-vis local, state, or federal government. So, what happens when healthcare workers run for public office, and who benefits in the end?

• Is your nursing career close to sunset?

  Thursday, July 11, 2019

  As the baby boomer generation ages into retirement or semi-retirement, many aging nurses are facing the potential sunset of their nursing career. Having potentially worked decades in the healthcare arena, leaving the work that has held so much meaning for you as a professional can be a painful crisis of identity. But what if your career as a nurse didn’t have to completely end and you could simply change channels and enter an entirely new iteration of what it means to be you?

• The psychic compost of your healthcare career

  Wednesday, June 19, 2019

  Does your healthcare, medical, or nursing career result in psychic, mental, emotional, or spiritual compost that can be used to feed your career and help it come to complete fruition? When a gardener looks at compost, she doesn’t just see dirt, worms, and slimy rotting veggies. Rather, the gardener sees the potential of that compost to become new soil that can nourish her garden and continue the cycle of growth and blossoming. The same can be said of your healthcare career: you can consciously choose for your gains, losses, and stories to feed your career, provide inspiration, and continue to clarify your personal and professional mission.

• Healthcare providers on the brink

  Thursday, June 06, 2019

  No one in their right mind would argue that healthcare careers aren’t stressful. Burnout, depression, stress-based illness, and even suicide are common in certain populations of healthcare workers. If our nation and the world depend upon nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and other professionals to provide care that millions of patients require, why are we ignoring the stressors that cause healthcare providers to develop debilitating symptoms, abandon their careers, or even take their own lives?

• Patriarchy and healthcare: A dying zeitgeist

  Wednesday, May 22, 2019

  Since time immemorial, men have dominated medicine. Nurses were historically viewed as subservient laborers who followed orders and carried no sense of personal or professional agency; in that same vein, female physicians were less numerous and not readily recognized for their contributions by their male peers. In many aspects of our lives, this paradigm is shifting for the better, and that same change is also underway in the healthcare sphere.

• Catching the common cold of healthcare: Leaders who don’t listen

  Wednesday, May 08, 2019

  Healthcare leadership is not for the faint of heart; it takes grit, determination, patience, and ambition, not to mention a healthy dose of high-level communication skills. However, some healthcare, medical, and nursing leaders just don’t understand how to listen; in this way, we can say that leaders who don’t really listen have truly caught the "common cold" of healthcare: a lack of understanding of the utter power of listening.

• Putting ‘human’ back in healthcare human resources

  Thursday, April 18, 2019

  When we think of healthcare industry human resources departments, we may readily think of the processes of hiring and firing, the doling out of benefits packages, and other such responsibilities of HR professionals. In the worlds of healthcare, medicine, and nursing, employees can feel like so much cannon fodder when corporate interests appear to override the personal needs of individual staff members and the public whom they serve. Thus, we need to reevaluate the role of human resources and consider once again reasserting more of the "human" side into the mix.

• Negativity: The mortal enemy of teamwork in healthcare

  Wednesday, April 03, 2019

  Teamwork in healthcare holds a place of the utmost importance when it comes to cooperation and the positive outcomes that both patients and providers desire to achieve. Collaboration and positivity need to be two of our highest-valued attributes in healthcare, and when negativity rears its ugly head on a consistent basis in any particular medical workplace setting, we see the mortal enemy of teamwork in action. Anyone can understandably have a bad moment or a bad day; however, when a bad day becomes a bad week, month, or year, that's another story entirely.

• Growing the muscles of communication in healthcare

  Tuesday, March 26, 2019

  In most every aspect of healthcare, communication is key to positive patient outcomes, stellar teamwork, and the seamless operation of organizations and facilities of every size and type. A Tower of Babel scenario in a healthcare-related circumstance is never acceptable. How, why, and when we grow our individual and collective muscles of discourse and conversation are of utmost importance. If you, your colleagues, your leaders, or your employing institution itself are lacking in this regard, it's not too late to change that calculus for the better.

• Teamwork: A crucial healthcare engine

  Wednesday, March 13, 2019

  Healthcare delivery revolves around the cooperation, coordination, and seamless teamwork of multiple individuals, many of whom are highly skilled and educated. Patients are not cared for in a vacuum, and every member of a robust team must play their part in order for outcomes to be as positive as possible. For optimal healthcare delivery, teams are at the center of the universe and each member is an essential star contributing their own light. Making those stars shine as one is the ultimate goal of any successful team.

• The importance of relationships to healthcare delivery

  Tuesday, February 19, 2019

  When a patient walks through the door of a physician's office, the success of that visit is largely predicated upon the relationship between the doctor and the patient. If a nurse is readying an anxious patient for surgery, the nurse's ability to connect with that individual and provide compassionate care is crucial. And when a school nurse tends to a disabled child's tracheostomy, the previously established trust between child and adult is central to comfort and a sense of mutuality. Healthcare is built upon a foundation of relationships; without those links, the provision of such care can feel sterile, lifeless, and devoid of any deeper meaning.

• When healthcare and politics intersect

  Wednesday, February 06, 2019

  Healthcare consumers and providers may not always speak of politics and healthcare in the same breath; however, these two powerful cultural and societal forces are often inextricably linked in multifaceted ways. For healthcare providers who want to have an impact in this regard, understanding politics and the political nature of medicine and patient care is paramount. A large swath of Americans may not be aware of the fact that many healthcare providers serve in local, state, and federal governments in a variety of positions.

• Bringing a stop to nurse cannon fodder syndrome

  Friday, January 25, 2019

  Nurses are virtually irreplaceable as the vital lifeblood and connective tissue of any healthcare organization or facility. From the emergency department and the ICU to home health and dialysis, nurses do the highly skilled work that keeps the healthcare engine humming. When nurses are treated as so much cannon fodder thrust on the front lines without appropriate support from an enlightened and forward-thinking leadership, things can go terribly awry. Being thrown under the metaphorical bus is unpleasant in any circumstance, but when nurses are left to fend themselves while healthcare outcomes and patient safety are compromised, such circumstances are morally and ethically unacceptable.

• Stemming the tide of attrition: A healthcare priority

  Wednesday, January 09, 2019

  Employee turnover is costly for any industry, and healthcare is no exception. Hiring new employees is a calculated risk, be they nurses, physicians, or other staff. Seamless, high-quality healthcare is key to successful outcomes, and staffing inconsistencies can be a powerful wrench in the system. Based on the importance of staff retention and the cost of attrition, stemming employee attrition and honoring the value of human capital should be top of mind for any healthcare administrator, executive, or manager.

• Stoking the healthcare leadership succession pipeline

  Tuesday, December 18, 2018

  In healthcare and other industries, keeping the succession pipeline filled is essential to organizational success and longevity. Healthcare institutions must bear in mind that a valued leader can retire, quit, be let go, or become ill or disabled at any time; thus, being ready for changes in leadership is both prudent and forward-thinking. In this particular endeavor, a proactive strategy is much preferable to a reactive one. If we accept the necessity of keeping the succession pipeline stoked, what are steps that a thoughtful healthcare facility can take in order to assure relatively seamless transitions of power and leadership at pivotal times?

• Putting the care back in healthcare

  Wednesday, December 05, 2018

  With the exponential increase of technology in the delivery of healthcare, we run the risk of dehumanizing healthcare in the interest of expediency and cost containment. At the same time, nurses in hospitals face untenable nurse-patient ratios, and even in milieus like home health and hospice we also feel the crunch of delivering as much care as possible in as little time as we can. Where will these trends take us and how can we put the notion of care back into healthcare?

• Healthcare’s crucial human capital

  Tuesday, November 20, 2018

  The healthcare system runs on people power. From nurses and physicians to food service and housekeeping, the hearts, minds, and hands of real people are the engines behind many aspects of healthcare delivery and organizational infrastructure. As the use of artificial intelligence and robotics increase, how we approach the management of human resources will say a great deal about our values, workplace culture, and the healthcare industry writ large.

• Nurturing positive nurse-physician relationships

  Friday, November 09, 2018

  When it comes to patient care, both nurses and physicians are crucial to the delivery of positive medical outcomes. In terms of the relationship between the members of nursing and medical teams, seamless cooperation and communication are what make the team approach truly successful. Thus, the nurturing of positive nurse-physician relationships is central to the earnest pursuit of high-level teamwork and results. In simplistic terms, poor relations between nurses and their physician colleagues can either be strengthened with respect or derailed by disrespect.

• Millennials at the forefront of healthcare

  Thursday, October 25, 2018

  As of 2018, millennials (those born between approximately 1979 and 1994) are now the pre-eminent generation within the American workforce. According to the Pew Research Center, a full third of American workers are members of the millennial generation, and this demographic shift is worthy of our attention, both inside and outside of healthcare. Every outgoing generation speaks negatively of the younger generations replacing it, and the baby boomers are no exception.

• The necessary work of disrupting healthcare

  Tuesday, October 09, 2018

  As in other industries, change is a constant in healthcare. New medications, treatments, and technologies continue to emerge at breakneck speed: robotics and artificial intelligence, EMRs/EHRs, video-based medical appointments, and other innovations have altered various aspects of healthcare management and delivery. Still, this particular industry can feel unadventurous, old, and out of touch when it comes to long lines in ER waiting rooms, the ubiquitously disappointing 15-minute doctor visit, and the cost of prescription drugs and health insurance.

• Visibility as a path to healthcare career success

  Thursday, September 20, 2018

  Being visible is a key to success that the savviest healthcare professionals adopt as their modus operandi. Visibility is multifaceted, occurring both within and outside your workplace, and the potential impact on your career trajectory is often woefully overlooked. Visibility within your place of employment creates new opportunities since those with influence may more readily take notice of your contributions. It also creates circumstances wherein you can leverage what you accomplish in your current position to curry favor with future employers.

• Avoiding the organizational pain of high nurse turnover

  Wednesday, September 05, 2018

  In healthcare and nursing, employee turnover can have an outsized impact on staff morale, the financial bottom line, and the retention of organizational memory and knowledge. In the 21st century, healthcare staff come and go for a variety of reasons; that said, prudent and forward-thinking organizations work diligently and consistently to combat inordinately high levels of nurse attrition. The University of New Mexico reports that hospitals stand to lose $5.2 to $8.1 million annually in direct relation to nurse turnover.

• Are happiness and a healthcare career mutually exclusive?

  Wednesday, August 22, 2018

  Those who have a good understanding of healthcare know that it is a stressful industry for doctors, nurses, and allied staff. From the rigors of education and loan repayment to the challenges of the 21st-century workplace, those who choose healthcare careers are at risk of losing their sense of balance and happiness. Must healthcare careers and personal happiness be mutually exclusive?

• The radical idea of the healthcare sabbatical

  Thursday, August 09, 2018

  In the stressful world of healthcare, nursing, and medicine, worthy staff members work themselves to the bone in service to the common cause. Nurses, doctors, physical and occupational therapists, radiologists, and others put out enormous amounts of energy day in and day out in a wide variety of healthcare milieus. With burnout widely prevalent, why don’t healthcare organizations offer sabbaticals for their most valued employees?

• Action vs. nonaction in healthcare

  Thursday, July 26, 2018

  In any situation we encounter, the choice to act or not act is almost always there. Do we help the little old lady cross the street or not? Healthcare, medicine, and nursing are built upon action: we jump into the fray, we take decisive action, and we save lives. But what does it mean when an organization chooses not to act? What are the repercussions when a hospital, surgical center, or other healthcare facility makes a choice to do nothing, even when the consequences could be dire?

• For healthcare organizations, mission is everything

  Thursday, July 12, 2018

  Healthcare organizations are not immune to the challenges faced by their brethren in other industries: the economy, staff development, lines of succession, liability, and competition exist across various fields of endeavor. The lack of a clearly focused mission can leave a healthcare facility or agency vulnerable and adrift without a collective vision of what it seeks to accomplish and what it seeks to be. Prudent healthcare leaders are aware of this, and thoughtfully work to create a mission that keeps their collective vision strong, vibrant, and open to change over time.

• A healthcare facility’s magic wand

  Thursday, June 28, 2018

  For healthcare facilities — hospitals, nursing homes, surgical centers, etc. — there are plenty of issues that impact the financial bottom line and an organization’s overall well-being. If you were a healthcare executive with a magic wand, what are the things you would want to pull out of the proverbial magic hat in order to ensure your organization’s survival and success? Here are some ideas to consider.

• Wanted: Meaningful nurse retention strategies

  Wednesday, June 13, 2018

  At a time in history when nursing shortages and nurse attrition can be devastating, healthcare organizations must find ways to attract and retain the best nurse candidates. We all know that high-quality nursing care and engaged nurse employees are crucial for patient satisfaction. With reimbursement often tied to patient satisfaction, the need to retain an excellent nursing workforce cannot be overstated.

• Nurses’ personal growth: A parallel focus

  Wednesday, May 30, 2018

  Becoming a nurse is a meaningful act with far-reaching impact. Nurses are the connective tissue of healthcare, and a nursing career can take an earnest individual down many roads, from the ICU and home health to academia, research, and entrepreneurship. If a nurse maintains an open mind and an eye for opportunity, the world is truly that nurse’s oyster. Meanwhile, the stoking of the fire of personal growth is essential to ultimate satisfaction and work-life balance.

• How to retain the indefatigable nurse

  Thursday, May 17, 2018

  When we use the word "indefatigable" in conjunction with the word "nurse," it is an almost perfect pairing of noun and adjective. Indefatigable can be defined as industrious, tireless or unflagging, and that is a powerfully accurate description of the majority of hard-working nurses who serve as the very mitochondria of healthcare. If healthcare employers want these nurse mitochondria to be their most effective, they need to double down on their nurses and put some skin in the game when it comes to retention.

• A strong nursing team makes the sound of a harmonious orchestra

  Tuesday, May 01, 2018

  The nursing team within any unit, department or agency could readily be compared to an orchestra. Here we’ll find the nurse manager/conductor, several lead players, many supporting players and those who remain even deeper in the background. In an orchestra, the smallest instrument can have an outsized purpose, and the instruments that only play occasionally are still crucial to a successfully executed performance. The same may be said of the nursing team.

• Healthcare and a diversifying world

  Friday, April 13, 2018

  ​As the 21st century matures, so too does our understanding of what diversity means in relation to the delivery of compassionate, sensitive and appropriate healthcare. The notion of diversity has expanded in recent decades, and nurses, physicians, allied health providers and institutions must keep pace with the societal changes that are continually underway.

• Politics and nursing: Strange bedfellows?

  Friday, March 30, 2018

  We live in a highly politicized time in the American national conversation, and nursing and healthcare are not immune from this phenomenon. At times it seems that everything is political in nature — and perhaps most things are in the 21st century.

• Organizational wisdom in healthcare

  Monday, March 19, 2018

  ​Every healthcare organization is a rich repository of accumulated wisdom that serves as the underpinnings of that organization's overall identity and values. While website mission statements are one aspect of identity for a healthcare facility or system, truly distinctive character and wisdom are represented by the memory, knowledge and skill of the individuals who are intrinsic parts of the collective whole. Intelligent healthcare leaders recognize this dynamic by actively honoring, valuing and preserving institutional memory.

• The power of mentors in nursing and healthcare

  Friday, March 02, 2018

  Throughout a nurse's career, the potential for official and unofficial mentors to make a significant mark is high. Many nurses benefit from the wise presence of a mentor-like figure in their lives; some are less fortunate to never experience such a relationship.

• Nurses and the emotional tightrope

  Thursday, February 15, 2018

  ​From the moment that an aspiring nurse enters school, the slings and arrows of a nursing career can begin to be felt. From study stress to the challenges of working in novel clinical experiences, the pressure is all too real.

• Serve on a board to make an even greater impact as a nurse

  Friday, February 02, 2018

  Nurses are leaders in every sense of the word. Leadership is ingrained in nurses from the moment nursing school begins, and as nurses’ careers advance, leadership and personal authority often grow apace. How else can nurses choose positions that provide the opportunity for true servant leadership in the interest of community groups, foundations, associations, non-profits, and other organizations? By serving on boards of directors and advisory boards where a nursing voice can add inestimable value.

• Nurses at the table or nurses on the menu

  Friday, January 19, 2018

  ​There's an old saying that if you don't have a seat at the table, you'll end up on the menu, and this could not be more true of nurses and the nursing profession. When nurses are busy looking the other way, others can fill the void and make decisions for them. But when nurses demand a seat at the table, they are making a bold statement that their voices are crucial components of the conversation.

• BSN or ADN? Nursing at a crossroads

  Friday, January 05, 2018

  The discussion over the preferred entry-level degree for professional nurses has been ongoing since 1964, when the American Nurses Association came out in favor of the BSN. Now the conversation is heating up again, and nurses everywhere are taking notice.

• Nurses and vulnerable populations: Ethics and social justice

  Thursday, December 14, 2017

  ​In a politically charged era when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is consistently on the chopping block, health disparities run rampant and the future of American healthcare is wholly uncertain, nurses must honor the American Nurses Association (ANA) ​Code of Ethics as powerful advocates for vulnerable populations and the rights of all patients.

• Nurses, mergers and the healthcare industry

  Friday, December 08, 2017

  ​With the recent announcement that pharmacy giant CVS is buying Aetna in a multibillion-dollar health insurance/pharmacy services merger, the consolidation of the healthcare industry has taken a giant step in a direction that can be characterized as both forward and backward, depending on your perspective. Doubtless, the landscape is changing for consumers and healthcare providers alike.

• Nurse-patient interaction: Not just touchy‑feely

  Thursday, November 16, 2017

  ​In nursing education, the quality of the nurse-patient relationship is stressed as an important aspect of care. While clinical nursing is indeed often largely task-based, the nurse-patient relationship can be critical to quality of care, patient satisfaction and successful outcomes.

• When healthcare environments aren’t healing

  Friday, November 10, 2017

  When a patient is admitted to a hospital, the hope is that the patient will improve and go home in short order. Those of us who work in healthcare know about hospital-borne infections and other potential complications of an inpatient stay, and improving a patient's chances of a successful hospitalization is a prudent goal.

• A new nursing shortage looms

  Friday, October 27, 2017

  ​A new study by Reuters reveals that a significant and troubling nursing shortage is currently impacting rural and community hospitals around the United States. With the rising costs of healthcare delivery and operations coupled with an aging population and an increasing number of retiring nurses not being readily replaced by new graduates, certain hospitals are struggling to keep their heads above water when it comes to nursing labor.

• Healthcare providers and the saber‑toothed tiger

  Friday, October 13, 2017

  When an individual suffers from an acute injury or a chronic condition, he or she enters into the healthcare system in pursuit of protection against uncertainty. That uncertainty arises from fear, which is a direct byproduct of living with illness.

• What if the nurses disappeared?

  Friday, September 29, 2017

  Imagine a hospital devoid of nursing care. Picture a nursing home without nurses. Visualize a healthcare system functioning without its very backbone and lifeblood. That is the world we build when we turn our backs on nurses.

• A spotlight on violence against nurses

  Friday, September 15, 2017

  Nurses have consistently suffered the slings and arrows of their professional service to society. As frontline healthcare workers, nurses are frequently the targets of belligerent (and often violent) patients and families, not to mention irate physicians and fellow nurses intent on bullying their nurse brethren.

• Nurses, volunteerism and public service

  Friday, September 01, 2017

  ​The nursing profession is grounded in the spirit of service to society. Nurses often speak of giving back to the community, contributing to the greater good and other laudable aspirations. Nurses give a great deal, and volunteerism often plays a part in nurses' life work and personal mission.

• Nurses, healthcare and tech innovation

  Thursday, August 17, 2017

  ​Nurses have embraced new media and digital technologies with varying degrees of enthusiasm since well before the turn of the century. Some nurses and nursing organizations utilize blogs, podcasts, social media and video as platforms for health promotion, entrepreneurship, leadership and career development. Such technologies can continue to be harnessed for the good of the nursing profession and the healthcare ecosystem in general.

• The nursing career trap

  Monday, August 07, 2017

  As a profession with an illustrious history and the great respect of the general public, nursing is a career that calls both men and women to its ranks. But even as nurses gain increasing clinical autonomy and the ability and vision to launch their own businesses, the nursing game hasn't necessarily changed for those who still feel stuck.

• The other end of the stethoscope

  Thursday, July 20, 2017

  ​Nurses are natural patient advocates, brokers of information and resources for optimal patient care, wellness and outcomes. The nurse can truly make a world of difference in the patient experience when proper attention is paid and crucial details prudently attended to.

• Nursing in times of uncertainty

  Thursday, July 06, 2017

  When political, cultural and societal landscapes are in upheaval, nurses often play the role of intermediary and counselor to patients feeling the stress of that upheaval. In these tumultuous times, how can nurses remain a steady and calming presence for patients seeking solace and reassurance amidst the storm?

• The effect of relationships on your nursing career

  Thursday, June 22, 2017

  When we consider what truly lies at the center of the world inhabited by most nurses, what we’re really talking about is relationships. For all intents and purposes, relationships are powerful tools that fuel a nurse’s career and professional satisfaction from the starting gate to the finish line. Most nurses work in some form of collaborative environment, and relating with others can be key to successful nursing.

• Creating a culture of safety in nursing

  Friday, June 09, 2017

  ​Contrary to what some may imagine, the construction and manufacturing industries do not have the highest rate of on-the-job injuries. In fact, hospitals hold this dubious distinction, and this should be great cause for concern among nursing and medical leaders.

• Remove the shackles of nurse martyrdom

  Thursday, May 25, 2017

  ​Nurses love to be of service and provide care to those who need it most. Some nurses also seem to experience secondary gain from playing the role of the martyr. Martyrs give and give until they have nothing left, sacrificing themselves for the good of others. Nurses can fulfill this role easily if they choose to do so.

• Cultivating nurse employee engagement

  Wednesday, May 10, 2017

  ​Every nurse leader and nurse executive knows the nurses within a healthcare organization are worth their weight in gold. The nursing staff (nursing assistants, LPNs, RNs and APRNs) is the lifeblood of any organization involved in the delivery of high-quality healthcare.

• Don’t get nursed into a corner

  Friday, April 28, 2017

  In nursing, a professional trajectory can take many forms. A nurse's career can be like a long straightaway across the open plains or a meandering trek across the mountains. No matter how many choices a nurse may have at her fingertips, she may feel like she's nursed herself into the proverbial corner with no idea how to change course. This is a spell that needs to be broken so the nurse can expand her vision and find a more satisfying path.

• The nurse who plays well with others

  Thursday, April 13, 2017

  ​When a nurse gets a performance review from his or her manager, playing well with others may not be high on the priority list, but it should be. In the days of elementary school report cards, playing well with others can be a hallmark of being a good student. The well-behaved school-age kid shares crayons, waits patiently in line to use the water fountain, and cooperates at the pencil sharpener. Playing well with others is an important life skill to be learned.

• Non-nursing knowledge and your nursing career

  Friday, March 31, 2017

  As a nurse, you have a breadth and depth of specialized knowledge that spans both the clinical and nonclinical. Whether you work in the ICU, hospice or school nursing, you hold significant expertise in your nursing brain. A nurse is more than just her clinically related knowledge. Have you ever considered how your non-nursing knowledge can feed and empower the nurse you are and make you a more effective clinician, researcher or educator?

• Listening leads to superlative nursing care

  Thursday, March 16, 2017

  ​It's been said that we have two ears and one mouth so that we'll listen twice as much as we talk. As nurses, we work with patients at their most vulnerable and frightened. So, are we listening enough or talking too much?

• Protect your nursing brand on social media

  Friday, March 03, 2017

  Nurses use social media just like any other members of the workforce. As a nurse, how you use social media can have an impact on personal branding, so it's important to maintain awareness of your virtual presence and your position within the online world of professional nursing.

• Nurse practitioner hospitalists in the 21st century

  Friday, February 17, 2017

  Not long ago, nurse practitioners seemed mostly to be employed in physician offices, community and university health centers, and so-called "minute clinics." In the midst of a growing shortage of primary care physicians, there is much in the news these days about NPs moving even more deeply into primary care. Concurrently, the growing presence of APRNs in the acute care setting is raising eyebrows among physicians and providing patients with more opportunities to receive hospital-based care from highly qualified nurse practitioners.

• A calm in the storm: Nurses and the ACA

  Friday, February 03, 2017

  As 2017 moves into February, all eyes are on the Donald Trump administration in relation to the promised repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Nurses, physicians, hospitals, insurers and patients are all feeling the uncertainty. How can nurses navigate the shifting sands of American healthcare and insurance coverage?

• Nurse practitioners gaining ground

  Thursday, January 19, 2017

  In the early 21st century, nursing remains the vital backbone of the healthcare industry. Simultaneously, nurse practitioners (NPs) are a growing cohort of nurses who are ascending to a central role in the provision of primary care throughout the United States.

• Your nursing career New Year plan

  Thursday, January 05, 2017

  ​The start of the year is an auspicious time to evaluate the state of your nursing career, examine your motivations and feelings, and formulate a plan for the year to come. We all need to periodically take stock of our career, distill the meaning of where we are, what we've accomplished and where we think we're going. By assessing and planning for the next iteration of your nursing career, you can take inspired action, seize the moment and not allow your career to simply happen to you.

• Perfecting your nursing elevator pitch

  Thursday, December 01, 2016

  If you've never heard of an elevator pitch, it's prudent to understand what they are and how to use them in the interest of your nursing career. Every nurse should be able to distill his or her career and professional mission down to a 30-second blurb that gets the point across concisely and effectively.

• Want to grow your nursing career? Join a workplace committee

  Tuesday, November 22, 2016

  ​Busy, hard-working nurses may not readily acknowledge that membership in a workplace committee is a strategy for nursing career growth and professional development. However, committee work can lead to many positive outcomes for nurses seeking a novel way to dig deeper into their career trajectory and involvement in healthcare leadership.

• 3 signs you’re ready for a new nursing job

  Friday, November 04, 2016

  ​There are many potential signs that it's time to leave your current nursing job and seek another position. It can be difficult to throw your career into transition, but the following three signs are sure bets that you need to make a move.

• 5 winning strategies for thoughtful nurse leaders

  Thursday, October 20, 2016

  ​Nurse leaders face a challenging environment in today's world of healthcare and nursing. Rapidly changing technology, a volatile economic healthcare climate and other seismic shifts point to ways in which nurse leaders must be willing to pivot when necessary while offering strong support to the nurses whom they supervise and lead.

• New nursing job? 5 strategies for your first month

  Monday, October 10, 2016

  ​When you land a new nursing position, your first month is an important time to make a good impression and initiate good habits that set you up for success. The following list is not comprehensive, but these five items will certainly elevate your performance and help you integrate painlessly.

• Empowering nursing care with emotional intelligence

  Wednesday, September 21, 2016

  Emotional intelligence (EI) can seem like just another buzzword to nurses who have not yet encountered the plethora of literature supporting the crucial aspects of EI in nursing, medicine, career and personal life. First mentioned in the 1960s, EI was brought into the mainstream by author Daniel Goleman with his 2005 book, "Emotional Intelligence." A person's emotional quotient (EQ) and IQ are viewed by many as equally important to both success and happiness.

• Nurse leaders: Creating an optimal workplace culture

  Thursday, September 08, 2016

  ​Workplace culture is regularly discussed as an important concept in the world of 21st-century corporate life. However, we can sometimes feel most organizations — including those in healthcare, medicine and nursing — are paying lip service to the idea.

• Nurse leaders: Manifesting a vision

  Thursday, August 25, 2016

  The 21st-century healthcare and nursing ecosystems are complex, consistently impacted by the shifting sands of economics, politics and other factors. Nurse leaders cannot afford to remain complacent in this climate, and they need their employers' support to manifest their visions in times that call for frequent change and innovation.

• Nurse leaders: Bridging the gaps between generations

  Thursday, August 11, 2016

  ​In 2016, there are three generations at the heart of the American nursing workforce: the baby boomers, Generation X and the millennials. These nurses interface daily in myriad settings, and the quality of that interface is crucial to patient satisfaction, nurse satisfaction and the creation of a positive workplace culture.

• How nurses help underserved communities

  Friday, July 29, 2016

  ​Nurses have a rich history of contributing to the welfare of underserved populations. As the backbone, lifeblood, and connective tissue of the healthcare industry, nurses interface regularly with citizens who are most in need of compassionate care grounded in nursing science. When Lillian Wald founded The Henry Street Settlement in 1893, she was doing what nurses do best, which is recognizing a problem that can be mitigated by the nursing process and nursing intervention.

• Investing in the future: Positive workplace culture in healthcare

  Thursday, July 14, 2016

  ​The healthcare workplace environment has a deep impact on staff experience, including satisfaction, productivity and institutional loyalty. Workplace culture is a crucial aspect of the workplace environment, although it is less obvious than physical aspects such as cleanliness, air quality, safety concerns, ergonomics and layout.

• APRNs enjoying increasing autonomy

  Thursday, June 30, 2016

  Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) have been enjoying steadily increasing autonomy, and their importance to the smooth operation of the overall healthcare system cannot be denied. Shortages of primary care physicians in a variety of settings has emboldened the rise of APRNs; meanwhile, even the Department of Veterans Affairs is finding broad support in their push for APRNs to practice autonomously within the VA system.

• Nurses and the transgender patient community

  Friday, June 17, 2016

  In the 21st century, increasing acceptance of transgender lifestyles is allowing many transgender individuals to more readily interface with health care providers and institutions. However, transgender individuals still face humiliation, judgment, intimidation and gross maltreatment within the health care industry, and recent lawsuits corroborate that fact. Nurses can be at the forefront of providing the transgender community with comprehensive, sensitive and compassionate care.

• Nurses must embrace our place in healthcare

  Friday, June 03, 2016

  Nurses are highly respected professionals — the annual Gallup poll ​has demonstrated this time and again. Since we nurses may not always be able or willing to verbalize our own importance and value, it is crucial for us to find ways to empower ourselves to own our expertise and acknowledge our central role within the healthcare industry.

• Nursing leaders modeling positive communication

  Friday, May 20, 2016

  ​Healthcare and nursing are built upon communication. Whether collaborating on patient care, research or education, we use communication in the course of our work. Practicing positive communication is paramount, and nurse leaders are no exception.

• Inspired nursing career development

  Thursday, May 05, 2016

  Nursing careers can become stale when nurses feel uninspired and disempowered. Our positions and specialties can feel like straightjackets, and we can feel beset by ennui, malaise and professional claustrophobia. When nurses feel stuck in a box or painted into a corner, it's time for inspiration and empowerment, but where can they be found?

• The nursing shortage reality: Helping prenursing students succeed

  Friday, April 22, 2016

  ​In an era of ​nursing faculty shortages and a highly competitive job market, supporting prenursing students in preparing for successful careers is crucial. We've all heard stories abound about individuals who are lucky enough to get accepted into nursing school, graduate in good standing and then can't find a job for months.

• The nursing shortage reality: A clear need for more faculty

  Thursday, April 07, 2016

  ​In an era of nursing shortages, high nurse demand and qualified applicants being turned away from nursing programs, there is a need for action to stem the tide. Nursing has long been touted as one of the best professional career paths for those wishing to enter the healthcare sector. The Bureau of Labor Statistics extolls 16 percent job growth for registered nurses and 31 percent for nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists and nurse midwives between now and 2024.

• APRNs and geriatric primary care: A golden opportunity

  Friday, March 25, 2016

  ​With superlative clinical preparation grounded in time-tested nursing skills of assessment, diagnosis, communication and patient support, advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are in an excellent position to powerfully impact the availability of high-quality primary care to a rapidly aging population.

• Leveraging the wisdom of older nurses

  Friday, March 11, 2016

  As the population continues an aging process that will peak around 2050, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the nursing profession will itself continue to age. With a nursing shortage being reported in states around the U.S., retaining and leveraging the skills of older nurses is worth examining.

• Nurturing nurse intrapreneurs is crucial

  Thursday, February 25, 2016

  The concept of entrepreneurship is currently widely understood — even the notion of nurse entrepreneurship has recently gained acceptance. However, nurse intrapreneurship receives little attention, and the nurturing of nurse intrapreneurs should be a central focus for organizations seeking innovative growth in a shifting healthcare landscape.

• Nursing and the collective genius of healthcare

  Thursday, February 11, 2016

  As an intrinsically collaborative profession, nursing lends itself naturally to multidisciplinary cooperation and the recognition of multiple voices and opinions. Even nurses who practice autonomously will find themselves leaning on colleagues for support, ideas or professional camaraderie.

• Advanced nursing education and practice: An individual choice

  Friday, January 29, 2016

  Advanced practice nursing is growing, and nurses are reading the writing on the wall. APRNs can practice autonomously in a growing number of states in the U.S., and the potential for increased earning and job security is attractive. Deciding whether advanced practice is for you is an individual decision that only you can answer.

• The power of collaboration in healthcare and nursing

  Friday, January 15, 2016

  ​Healthcare and nursing are collaborative by nature, and collaboration is fueled by communication. A collaborative modus operandi greases the wheels of healthcare, improves outcomes and ultimately impacts the "double bottom line" of people and profits.

• Nurses must take our good publicity and push forward

  Monday, January 04, 2016

  The votes are in. Nurses have once again been named the most honest and ethical professionals in the United States, beating out pharmacists by 17 percent and physicians by 18 percent. The 2015 Gallup poll demonstrates nurses' personification of honesty and ethics in the eyes of the public, and nurses have no one but themselves to thank for their continued high ranking.

• Thoughtful nurse leaders are the key to functional teams

  Friday, December 04, 2015

  Nurse managers and leaders carry a great deal of responsibility for creating a container in which their nursing colleagues can safely and happily practice. A nurse manager must keep her eye on many aspects of a healthcare environment. In a complicated healthcare milieu, how does a thoughtful nurse manager ensure the nurses under her charge are working in an environment that is balanced, functional and healthy?

• Standing up to nurse intolerance

  Thursday, November 19, 2015

  ​The adage that nurses eat their young may sound like old news, but it still rings as true today as it did 20 years ago. From internalized oppression to the power of patriarchal medical dominance, there are many reasons given for the egregious ways in which some nurses treat one another.

• Nurse leaders must engage the left and right sides of the brain

  Friday, November 06, 2015

  ​There are many types of nurse leaders within the nursing ecosystem, and leadership styles can vary widely. For nurse leaders seeking to offer a balanced style of leadership that meets a wide variety of demands, considering both the left- and right-brain aspects of leadership is one good place to focus.

• Nurses: Grab your seat at the table

  Friday, October 23, 2015

  There's a saying that if you don't have a seat at the table, you're likely to end up on the menu. For nurses and the nursing profession, this could not be more true. Nurses need a seat at the table, and if it's not being freely offered, we need to elbow our way in, grab a chair and sit right down.

• Why keeping nurses happy pays off in the end

  Friday, October 09, 2015

  When Nurses Week rolls around each May, healthcare employers order a plethora of mugs, pens, pins and other schwag for distribution to their nurses in order to show appreciation for their contributions. This is all well and good, but what types of engagement do nurses really want and deserve? And how can employers use these tools in order to retain nurses over the long term?

• Using positivity when speaking out about nursing

  Friday, September 25, 2015

  ​Most everyone has caught wind of the firestorm that erupted when Joy Behar of The View denigrated nurses by mocking a heartfelt monologue performed by a contestant during the Miss America pageant. A recent MultiBriefs E​xclusive by Joan Spitrey, RN, adroitly encapsulates the situation, offering a balanced assessment of the reaction to Behar's faux pas.

• How to leverage your ‘nurseness’

  Friday, September 11, 2015

  ​The average layperson holds a positive image of nurses in his or her mind. Ask them about their experiences of nurses, and most will likely say something along these lines: "When my mom was in the hospital, the nurses were amazing," or "My aunt was a nurse, and I respected her so much for her compassion and dedication."

• Nursing and the power of touch

  Monday, August 31, 2015

  Since the early days of nursing, touch has been an intrinsic tool used by nurses throughout the world. From an encouraging hand on a shoulder, to a cool hand on a feverish forehead, to Reiki delivered at the bedside, touch is a hallmark of caring, healing and compassion. Even as technology becomes more central to healthcare, skin-to-skin contact is an art that must remain a central tenet of nursing care.

• Once again, the media got it wrong when it comes to nurses

  Friday, August 14, 2015

  A great deal is written about nursing, and the public can hear many mixed messages about nurses. On one hand, a Gallup poll shows that nurses are voted the most trustworthy professionals every year. On the other hand, the public watches "Nurse Jackie," potentially forming opinions that nurses are rule-breaking mavericks who pop pills and have sex in the pharmacy.

• The key to building cohesive nursing teams

  Friday, July 31, 2015

  Nursing teams have the potential to be dynamic and powerful entities, and creating and maintaining them is a process worthy of considerable attention. When we think of teams, our minds may quickly consider the notion of an athletic team as a prime example. A sports team trains together, travels together and competes as a coordinated unit whose mission is to act as a collective entity.

• Nurse entrepreneurship is exploding across the US

  Friday, July 17, 2015

  Plenty of enterprising nurses have owned businesses over the years, but entrepreneurship and business savvy among nurses is veritably exploding in the early 21st century. With an increasing number of states within the U.S. allowing advanced practice nurses (APRNs) to manage patient care without a supervising physician, APRNs are realizing that they can serve the public as independent medical providers.

• Do we listen enough to our nurses?

  Friday, July 10, 2015

  Nurses walk this earth as the holders of specialized knowledge. They are educators, researchers, caregivers, leaders, healthcare providers, managers and entrepreneurs. The nursing process instills in nurses the practice of critical thinking, as well as the ability to reassess an outcome, deeply examine an entrenched way of thinking, or re-evaluate a previously-agreed-upon course of action. These are profoundly useful skills.

• Healthcare fraud and blowing the whistle

  Friday, June 19, 2015

  On June 18, The Dallas Morning News reported in an article that 243 healthcare workers from around the nation were indicted on federal charges of Medicare fraud by The Medicare Fraud Strike Force, the largest such bust in history. Healthcare fraud — especially Medicare and insurance fraud — is more common than we think. Healthcare professionals who find themselves potentially entangled in a fraudulent situation should immediately report the suspected abuse to the appropriate authorities.

• The link between patient satisfaction and nurse satisfaction

  Friday, June 05, 2015

  On April 17, The Atlantic published an article entitled, "The Problem With Satisfied Patients." The subtitle of the article — "A misguided attempt to improve healthcare has led some hospitals to focus on making people happy, rather than making them well" — makes the focus of the piece quite clear.

• Empowering nurses to be their best

  Thursday, May 21, 2015

  As a nurse manager, I am constantly wondering if we provide our nurses with the most empowering environment possible in which they can grow and thrive. We all want nurses to feel empowered, but are we doing enough?

• Driving the bus of your nursing career

  Monday, May 11, 2015

  ​In our nursing careers, we can often feel buffeted by winds over which we feel little control. We can feel like we "should" do this or that, make choices that others feels are best for us, or take paths that feel prescribed for us, not chosen by us. This career paradigm can indeed feel uncomfortable.

• The secret to creating nursing teams that soar

  Friday, April 24, 2015

  ​As a relatively new nurse manager, I'm considering the ways in which I can powerfully inspire my team of nurses to be as functional, dynamic and cohesive as possible. It's clear that 21st-century nurses love strong leadership, but they also like to feel trusted and empowered. It's up to a nurse manager to walk a line that provides both.

• Fixing the gender gap in nursing pay

  Thursday, April 09, 2015

  ​For decades in the United States, there has been keen awareness that women earn less than men in a wide range of industries. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, full-time female workers earned 78 cents on the dollar as compared to their male counterparts in 2013. So-called "pay parity" has long been on the minds of many stakeholders, but the rate of change in this regard has been woefully slow.

• Promoting nurse resilience

  Friday, March 27, 2015

  The Me​rriam-Webster online dictionary defines resilience as "the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens," or "the ability of something to return to its original shape after it has been pulled, stretched, pressed, bent, etc." Nurses regularly face situations where they are "stretched, pressed and bent," and they also frequently find themselves in situations where "something bad happens." Thus, we can readily draw the conclusion that resilience in nurses is a quality to be promoted and championed by nurse managers and leaders throughout the profession.

• Using social media to advance the nursing profession

  Friday, March 13, 2015

  In the 21st century, it's a given that social media is a ubiquitous tool used equally by professionals, businesses, corporations and laypeople. While many forms of social media may be perceived as being superficial or lacking in depth, the nursing profession has seen a veritable explosion of salient and powerful social media use by individual nurses and nursing organizations.

• Nurses and the culture of injury on the job

  Friday, February 27, 2015

  A recent investigative series by National Public Radio (NPR) highlights the lack of on-the-job safety faced by nurses around the United States. According to the NPR reports, nurses suffer more work-related injuries than construction workers, and the situation is only getting worse.

• Business education for nurses?

  Friday, February 13, 2015

  ​While the words "business" and "nursing" have not often been used in the same sentence, 21st-century nursing demonstrates that these two terms are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Many nurses shy away from the financial aspects of healthcare, but those nurses in management and C-level positions already understand that healthcare is a business that necessitates our understanding and involvement.

• An enlightened nursing ecosystem

  Thursday, January 29, 2015

  ​The 21st-century healthcare environment is a challenging one. Whether nurses work in home health or the ICU, caring for nurses while they're on the job is the responsibility of the employer utilizing those nurses' expert skills.

• The breadth and depth of nursing

  Friday, January 16, 2015

  The nursing profession has grown astronomically since the days of Florence Nightingale. While we may have once served as handmaidens to the whims and needs of god-like physicians, the definition of what it means to practice as a nurse is light-years away from the era of our diminutive status and relative servitude.

• Nurse coaching on the rise

  Monday, January 05, 2015

  The profession of coaching has been in existence for a number of years. While life coaching is the form of coaching with which the public is most familiar, nurses are now entering this burgeoning field in large numbers, in various aspects of the profession.

• The nursing job outlook for 2015

  Friday, December 05, 2014

  ​With 2015 poised to begin, economic forecasts for the new year are beginning to make themselves known, and the employment outlook in healthcare is a crucial aspect of those prognostications. A recent report from CareerBuilder.com places the position of registered nurse as having the third-best employment outlook of the site's top 10 chosen occupations.

• Nurses in the news: As we speak up, the world is listening

  Thursday, November 20, 2014

  With nurses rated by more than 80 percent of the American public as the most honest and trustworthy professionals in the United States in every Gallup poll since 2005, we nurses are in a golden position to leverage our voices for the good of the profession and society at large.

• Prevention is key: Workplace violence in the hospital

  Thursday, November 06, 2014

  ​​With the recent news of several nurses in a Minnesota hospital being injured by a patient wielding a metal bar, the issue of healthcare workers facing violence in the workplace is again receiving media scrutiny. Hospitalized individuals are certainly under significant stress when facing recovery and treatment from acute illnesses or injuries, and intense emotions may often be at play.

• The nurse speaks: Making our voices heard

  Friday, October 24, 2014

  When there's a major public health crisis, doctors are generally the experts sought out by the media to provide commentary on television, radio and other venues of mainstream media. This is how it has always been, and it will continue to be this way without a major shift in nurses' self-awareness and media-savvy assertiveness.

• Nurse management: Open source or old school?

  Friday, October 10, 2014

  Just like any industry, there are "old school" and "new school" approaches to nurse management. In the 21st century, many managers still cling to old ways of thinking that are, to a great extent, based on top-down, hierarchical corporate structures steeped in 20th-century patriarchal culture.

• Lost in translation: The nurse as a conduit

  Friday, September 26, 2014

  ​As nurses, we are trained to bridge the gap between physicians and patients. In fact, we often serve as conduits of information, translating medical jargon into lay terms while simultaneously maintaining the integrity of the original message.

• The future of nursing: A 10,000-foot view

  Thursday, September 11, 2014

  Nursing and healthcare in the United States are at a crossroads. A broad view of the issues at hand are required in order to address the future of the nursing profession, the American healthcare system and an aging population.

• New nurses and the med-surg mythos

  Friday, August 29, 2014

  ​Every nurse has probably heard this statement (or something like it): "Without two years of med-surg, your career is going nowhere." While medical-surgical is indeed a wonderful grounding in the challenges and skills of modern nursing, many new nurses simply can't find med-surg positions.

• Time for change? Mid-career options for nurses

  Friday, August 15, 2014

  ​Many mid-career professionals desire career change and new experiences, and nurses are no exception. Just this past week, I spoke with a nurse who is looking for change, but she's not exactly sure what she wants. Deep down, she knows that change is inevitable, and she wants to proactively meet it head-on rather than wait for it to find her.

• The Nurse Licensure Compact: Is expansion inevitable?

  Monday, August 04, 2014

  Nurse licensure is an idiosyncratic beast, and many American nurses struggle with the fact that obtaining a license in another state can be a laborious process. Innumerable nurses are unaware of the fact that the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) has been in existence for years.

• Finding work-life balance: Chore or joyful pursuit?

  Friday, July 18, 2014

  ​Work-life balance is a topic of frequent discussion on blogs, social media and in the academic literature. As the speed of life increases, is it possible that the dogged pursuit of balance can actually become just another treadmill upon which we unwittingly run ourselves ragged?

• Nurses learn to work through generational diversity

  Wednesday, July 02, 2014

  At this time in history, there are four generations currently working within the nursing profession. Although this diversity can be seen as a very positive aspect of our collective culture, it is easy to understand that there is also room for misunderstanding and mistrust between the generations.

• Replacing horizontal violence in the nursing profession

  Thursday, June 19, 2014

  ​Nurse bullying and so-called "horizontal violence" are rampant in our profession. Nurses bully and harass one another, using intimidation and other tactics as they jockey for power in a healthcare system that does not proactively attempt to prevent such disruptive behavior.

• Nurses: Burning out or burning bright

  Friday, June 06, 2014

  The words "burnout" and "nursing" are all too often mentioned in the same breath. If you talk to enough nurses, you'll hear plenty of stories of burnout that could make your hair stand on end. Sadly, many nurses feel that burnout is unavoidable.

• Moral distress in nursing

  Friday, May 23, 2014

  ​Moral distress may not be a concept on the lips of many nurses, but it is an issue with which a significant number of nurses grapple on a regular basis. Whether in the ICU, the ER or other milieus, nurses can find themselves faced with morally-distressing situations that may easily lead to feelings of burnout, compassion fatigue, cognitive dissonance, depression, anxiety and dissatisfaction.

• Nursing and the critical art of being present

  Friday, May 09, 2014

  During the celebration of Nurses Week 2014, I have been giving a great deal of thought regarding what it means to be present when engaging in the delivery of nursing care. Having said that, what exactly is presence? And how do we nurses actively cultivate it while performing the tasks associated with our work?

• Nursing careers: Building a robust professional network

  Monday, April 28, 2014

  Whether you're a satisfied nurse or a nurse who's totally burned out and ready for change, there's no time like the present to develop and maintain a robust professional network.

• How nurses can help with the challenges of the ACA

  Monday, April 14, 2014

  ​The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has now swung more fully into action as the first major deadline has come and gone. As the ACA continues to become implemented more robustly, what responsibility do nurses carry vis-à-vis the education of our patients regarding the promises and challenges of this historic legislation?

• The key to improving nurses’ employee engagement

  Friday, March 28, 2014

  Employee engagement is a buzzword that gets a fair amount of attention these days, and savvy nurse managers and executives would be wise to give this notion its due. According to a 2004 study by Gallup, hospital nurses rank significantly below other professionals in terms of employee engagement.

• The calculus of nursing education and patient outcomes

  Thursday, March 13, 2014

  With the publication of a new study in The Lancet in February, it appears that the call for more baccalaureate-prepared nurses just became louder, and the results of said study appear to carry a great deal of weight in both the academic and clinical worlds.

• The role of nurses in an aging population

  Thursday, February 27, 2014

  It's no secret that the population of the United States — and the world at large — is aging rapidly. The Baby Boom ended around 1964, and since those heady days of relative economic prosperity and population growth, the birth rate hasn't kept pace with the rate of aging.

• Nurses and their health: Forging a path forward

  Friday, February 14, 2014

  ​A recent study by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles reveals that the number of American nurses who smoke decreased significantly between 2007 and 2011. The results, published on January 8th in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), has certainly produced echoes of optimism when it comes to the health of nurses and the example that they are able to set for patients.

• What exactly is the job outlook for nurses?

  Monday, January 27, 2014

  ​As 2014 begins, there is a great deal of discussion regarding the job prospects for nurses, especially those just entering the profession. With confusing opinions and projections about the reality of a nursing shortage in the United States, nursing students and recent graduates are understandably concerned.