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Coffee & Pens & Pink with my White-coat and Stethoscope
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A snippet from Ocho Rios, Jamaica Such a breathtaking place to clear the mind...
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Pretty much!
I used to think that adulthood was one crisis after another. I was wrong.
as it turns out, adulthood is multiple crises, concurrently, all the time, forever
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(via FFFFOUND! | The Gastrointestinal System Represented As A Subway Map | Laughing Squid)
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To start off Birth Control Appreciation Day, I decided to make an informative masterpost on contraceptives! I hope this helps anyone who may want more information on their birth control or someone trying to decide what kind of birth control is best for themselves! Happy (birth control) hunting! - Paige
DIFFERENT TYPES OF BIRTH CONTROL:
Birth Control Pills - [x] [x]
Mini Pill (Progesterone-only Pill) - [x]
The Patch (Ortho Evra) - [x] [x]
The Shot (Depo-Provera) - [x] [x]
Birth Control Sponge - [x] [x]
Vaginal Ring (Nuva Ring) - [x] [x]
Spermicide - [x] [x]
Implant (Implanon and Nexplanon) - [x] [x]
IUDs (Mirena, Skyla, and ParaGard) - [x] [x]
Condoms (Male and Female) - [x]
Withdrawal (Pullout Method) - [x] [x]
Diaphragm - [x] [x]
Breastfeeding - [x]
Cervical Cap - [x] [x]
Sterilization (Male and Female) - [x]
Abstinence - [x] [x]
Fertility Awareness-Based Methods (FAMs) - [x] [x]
COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT BIRTH CONTROL:
Do certain medications make my birth control less effective?
Can I delay or eliminate my period with my birth control?
Will my pregnancy tests come out with an accurate result while I’m on birth control?
Can I use several birth control pills at once in replace of an emergency contraceptive?
Does birth control cause weight gain?
What should I do if I miss a pill?
What should I do if the condom breaks or slips off inside of me?
If I’m on the ring or the patch and I forget to replace it on the right day, do I need to use backup?
I’ve heard that the birth control ring can pop out. What should I do if this happens?
Can birth control increase my risk of getting cancer?
Can you change your mind after having a tubal ligation or vasectomy?
Is it normal to spot or bleed in between periods while on birth control?
Does certain hormonal birth controls affect my blood pressure?
Can being overweight affect my birth control’s effectiveness?
Can certain birth controls lower my libido?
EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTIVES:
Types of EC: Plan B / Ella / ParaGard IUD - [x] [x]
What are emergency contraceptives?
How do they work?
How well does it work?
What are the side effects?
When should I take an emergency contraceptive?
Are emergency contraceptives less effective the heavier you are?
If I am under the age of 18 in the US, can I buy emergency contraceptives without my parent’s knowledge or consent?
If I take an emergency contraceptive today, am I covered if I have unprotected sex tomorrow?
Will taking emergency contraceptives too many times affect my fertility?
To find more questions and answers about emergency contraceptives, you can go here.
Información anticonceptivos de emergencia es disponible en Español, aquí.
OPTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH ALLERGIES AND/OR CERTAIN
PREFERENCES:
Condoms for people with latex allergies.
Condoms for vegans. [x] [x] [x]
Other vegan contraceptive options.
Different types of birth control without estrogen.
Contraceptives without any hormones.
Birth control methods that are useful to people with religious concerns. [x] [x]
OTHER BENEFITS OF TAKING BIRTH CONTROL:
Taking oral contraceptives can help lower the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer.
Using birth control helps treat acne.
Birth control can help treat the pain caused by Endomitriosis.
Contraceptives offer relief to people with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).
Anemia can be avoided/treated by using birth control.
Irregular periods can become more regulated by using birth control.
The pill can lead to fewer ectopic pregnancies.
MYTHS ABOUT BIRTH CONTROL (All the myths below are dispelled
through the links given):
Emergency contraceptives and birth control pills cause abortions.
Free contraceptives and/or condoms makes people participate in risky sexual behavior.
The pill makes you gain a lot of weight.
Douching after sex prevents pregnancy.
You have to start your birth control on a Sunday.
Taking the pill for a long time can make you infertile.
Hormonal contraceptives protect you from contracting STIs.
You don’t need to be on birth control while breastfeeding.
I won’t get pregnant my first time having sex.
The Pill is effective immediately after you take it.
I won’t get pregnant if I shower or pee after sex.
My body needs a rest from birth control at least once a year.
Emergency contraceptives are affected by alcohol.
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Doctors Without Borders call on the Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to launch an independent investigation in to the US bombing of the hospital in #Kunduz.
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Wayfaring’s Menstruation Fun Facts, pt 3: Tick Tock
- The 28 day rule is not a rule. It’s an average. Normal menstrual cycles are 21-35 days. 3-7 days is standard for a period.
- 97% of menstruating people will start having periods by age 16. If you are 16 and haven’t had a period, it’s time to see a doctor.
- If you are within 2 years of menarche (the start of menstruation), irregular or skipped cycles are common. Many people do not ovulate monthly for several years after menarche, so periods may skip months at a time. 2/3 of y’all will develop normal monthly periods within 2 years of menarche.
- Skipped periods happen for loads of reasons: PREGNANCY, rapid weight loss or weight gain, drastic change in diet, disordered eating, increased stress, change of environment (hello dorm life!), medications, birth control, polycystic ovarian syndrome, or being peri-menopausal.
- Individual periods may vary a bit from your normal. Some may be heavy (especially during the winter) and some may be light. Periods that last longer than 6 days for at least 3 cycles should be investigated (or earlier if you have symptoms of anemia).
- Bleeding between periods is not normal and has many causes including, but not limited to: overly thickened endometrium that has outgrown its blood supply and shed (either from endometrial hyperplasia, endometrial cancer, anovulatory cycles, or simply a hormonal birth control with too much estrogen); a thinned “raw” endometrium from recent procedure or progesterone-only contraceptives; infections; miscarriage; fibroids.
- The only normal mid-cycle spotting is that which can occur with ovulation.
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This post was shared in our Psych2Go Facebook Group by Izze Francesca Eshman. What do you guys think of it?
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(Pic from William’s Obstetrics, 16th Ed)
Leopold’s maneuvers, aka “how to get the FHT quickly and accurately every time” and also something that’s happened in my experience with conventional care approximately 0 times.
How to do it:
Step one: feel for the bits at the fundus.
Step two: figure out which side the spine is on.
Step three: figure out what’s in the pelvis
Step four: the head will wiggle without moving the spine but the butt won’t.
FHT are then taken over the spine by the head where a heart should be.
Why is this useful to know?
-Well, first off it makes FHT a lot less miserable because there’s not goo everywhere and you’re way faster if you know where to try.
-getting an orientation to position without relying on an ultrasound will save a lot of time. And in event that you’re somewhere without electricity or ultrasounds, it gives you a lot of information. You can feel if there’s enough fluid, if there’s something wrong with head size, things like that. Or if the baby just wiggled away from the monitor, a simple orientation check will help you get the monitor back on.
-bonus, you won’t annoy the hell out of the midwifery student on the table through clear dependence on the electronic monitoring system. FHT can be taken with a stethoscope or a fetoscope. It’s not hard. (Getting confined to a bed for 3 hours for a 20 minute strip really annoyed the hell out of me, particularly as both babies were clearly not in distress and I’d had a clear BPP a few hours before.)
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Hello, Dr. Cranquis, I will be a junior intern in the coming days. I am nervous, scared, excited and a bunch of other feelings. Are there any words of advice, tips you could give me? Thanks!
Greetings, Slave Labor!
Oh man, I feel your pain — or at least, I can vaguely recall it (it HAS been almost 7 years, after all). Yes, you have a nerve-wracking and exciting year ahead of you. In the words of many many movie trailers: Expect the Unexpected. You will learn things about medicine, people, society, and yourself that you could not have imagined and will find hard to believe.
I suppose it’s only right that I put together a Internship Survival Guide to accompany the Med School Survival Guide that I wrote a couple months ago. So thanks for prompting me/giving me that opportunity. Here goes!
Do your prep-work early — You’ve made it through the 3rd and 4th years of medical school, so you may assume that you’ve got the rhythm of hospital-based life figured out. You don’t. Your life as an intern is going to be busier and more stressful than anything else you’ve experienced so far. So, do as much as you can to “prepare” your life for intern year now. Get your finances figured out (pull your tax papers together, consolidate your med school loans, consolidate your credit cards, setup an auto-bill-pay function for as many of your monthly bills as possible.) Get your relationships/family life stabilized (Intern year is not the best time to be planning a wedding or getting pregnant/having a baby; try to avoid scheduling any major events during this year, since you will be almost powerless over your schedule). Get your licensing paperwork/classwork rolling asap (do as much as you can towards getting your BLS/ACLS/PALS/ALSO certifications, if applicable; get the paperwork for your DEA and medical licenses now so that you can send them in as soon as you qualify.)
Approach intern year with the right attitude — Listen, let’s get this straight right now: If you are lucky, you will run into 3 or 4 residents and attendings who will treat you with respect, motivate you to higher levels of performance and skill, and model a well-balanced “doctor lifestyle” for you. The rest of the residents and attendings you meet will be just going through the motions, and a few of them will be downright toxic to be around. But if you go into this intern year with a big “everybody owes me everything and I’m the smartest intern since William Harvey" chip on your shoulder, you will ruin your interactions with even the few “good” potential mentors you may encounter! For these 12 months, you certainly may believe that you are a smart person, a good person, a bundle of unrecognized potential genius, even — but don’t go into those 12 months expecting everyone else to automatically agree with your analysis. You’ll be disappointed by their lack of applause and adoration, and you’ll just make life (more) miserable for everyone on your team… including yourself. Humility and persistence are the two non-scholastic keys to a successful intern experience.
Devise and revise a system of keeping track of your patients and your to-do list — As a MS3 or MS4 student, you might have occasionally been on a really busy medical service, where you were expected to “manage” 3 or 4 patients with the assistance/oversight of an intern or resident. Now, as an intern, you can expect that number to double… or more! And for each of those patients, you will be responsible for keeping track of lab and test results, upcoming procedures and studies, changes in status, medication adjustments, discharge planning, family meetings… and more! So you need to adjust (or revamp) your “patient-tracking” system ASAP to handle this increased load. It doesn’t matter if you use index cards, a 3-ring binder with daily/weekly progress pages for each patient, a crumpled handful of printed-out labs and prior progress notes, a patient-tracking app on your phone, permanent marker on the back of your hand — whatever system you use, you’ve got to make it work for you! If you are spending most of your time digging through all your data, trying to figure out what’s old and what’s new and what’s irrelevant among the piles of information you’re carrying around: your system isn’t working. If you can’t quickly and obviously demarcate the Top 3 Things I Need to Do Next for each patient in your list: your system isn’t working. If you have to spend more than 5 minutes/patient transferring important data from today’s list to tomorrow’s list: your system isn’t working. You will likely need to revamp, redesign, or even completely-reinvent your system a few times during your residency, as your responsibilities change from team to team and hospital to clinic — so be open to constantly fixing what isn’t working. Share patient/list-management ideas with your colleagues — they’re in the same boat as you are.
Don’t be a hermit or a cut-throat — Unless you got into the most exclusive residency ever, you’re gonna have at least a few fellow interns traveling along The Trail of On-Call Tears with you. Despite their outward confidence, they are all nervous, anxious, and/or downright scared too. So don’t make their lives even more miserable than they’re already gonna be: be a team player. Offer to help. Don’t make them look bad in front of the residents/attendings. Take the time to get to know (at least some of) them on a “friend” level. Trade around tips on who the “good” and “bad” attendings are. Don’t be a conniving weasel when it comes time to schedule your (meager) vacation times. Be a good example of professionalism and ethical conduct.
Keep your head down while you’re under fire — As I’ve hinted, you will run into some truly Machiavellian characters during your internship/residency. You will spend at least a few weeks or months under the thumbs of snotty residents, passive-aggressive secretaries, puffed-shirt attendings, inept and incompetent department chiefs, selfish and slothful chief residents. Simultaneously, you will often here phrases like, “If you feel you are not being treated properly, let someone know,” or “If you don’t provide feedback, things will never change.” These phrases are true — and deadly if obeyed at the wrong moment. My rule of thumb regarding “providing feedback on toxic people” is: Don’t do it until you are out of their reach. If you play your cards too soon (i.e, at a half-way rotation evaluation meeting with the attending of the service), you may find yourself getting maligned, slandered, and abused by the very jerks about whom you naively complained during that “confidential” evaluation. (Yes, I speak from experience). Don’t NEVER speak up — just be wise about your timing. Wait until that rotation is over and your evaluation paperwork is safely filed into your record — then provide a factual, rational, as-emotion-free-as-possible evaluation of what the sniveling jerk-tard (resident, attending, whoever) did and didn’t do right. If you NEVER speak up, you just consign all your colleagues to suffer the same idiocy.
Be aware of the Holiday Blues — The hardest time-period within intern year, emotionally/psychologically speaking, is the 2 months around the Christmas season, approximately from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day. At this point, you’ve survived 5-6 months of brutality — and you’re just starting to realize that you have 6-7 months of More Of the Same to come. Plus, you probably got scheduled to be on-call for at least one (if not all) of the major winter holidays, so you feel a little more put-upon than normal. This is the crucial survival time of your intern year — if you can make it through January, you can make it through the rest of the year (well, from a psychological standpoint, if not a scholastic one). :)
Make time for the important things — You will need to devote 98% of your awake time to your internship duties. But use that other 2% wisely. Make time for physical exercise, emotional/psychological recreation, and spiritual renewal (if you are so inclined). Try to eat healthy at least once a day. Drink enough water every day (carry a water bottle around, like I mentioned for 3rd year med students). Make your bed, clean up your room, brush your teeth, how many times do I have to remind you that money doesn’t grow on trees? (Oops, sorry, got a bit carried away there.) :)
Those are some of the things I learned along the journey myself, Slave Labor. As you learn valuable survival tips for yourself, go the extra mile and pass those tips along to those who travel behind you. It’s called “contributing to the grand art of medicine,” and it’s important.
Good luck!
EDIT: Want to hear this Survival Guide read aloud by Cranquis? Check out these audio posts!
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A classmate posted this on our Facebook group. It’s scary but oddly reassuring… also good motivation for me (as someone who has to struggle a bit to get “into” clinical medicine.
“I may have been a pretend doctor, but it finally struck me that I was a pretend doctor on very real patients.”
…
“at any moment, you may go from being “just” a student, to being the only medical provider in the room.”
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2nd week OBGYN
I really want this to be over... The sooner the better... I'm soaking in whatever I could learn. Not taking a VE (vaginal exam) for face value anymore. I'm surprised how much I've learnt over the past week but the atmosphere is a toxic one. I'm probably having a bad emotional week. 6 more weeks to go
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Interviewing patients with disabilities
We had a day dedicated to teaching us how to interview people with disabilities. The most valuable part was the practice. Most of the advice was really obvious (don’t be a jerk!) but it is still something we need to practice. The sort of prevailing wisdom in society is to not bring up disabilities, ever, so I’m glad we had this opportunity. Cause you’re gonna sound awkward and ignorant talking about something you never talk about.
Some takeaways from the day:
Use patient centered language, i.e. “person with paraplegia” not “a paraplegic”
Don’t ignore the elephant in the room. Don’t pretend you didn’t notice they are in a wheelchair.
Don’t assume that every problem they have is related to their disability but view their problem in the context of their disability.
If they are with a caregiver, you still need to direct your interview to the patient. If you need to clarify something the patient can’t answer, you still need to ask them, “if you don’t remember which pill helped your pain, can I ask your Mom what it was that she gave you?”
The social history is really important. Their living situation, whether or not they need assistance, etc. But also, don’t assume that they do need assistance.
There was a good session on sexuality and intellectual disability too. People with intellectual disabilities still mature sexually. You may need to be their sex ed teacher because no one else is willing to talk to them about it - no one may have even taught them the correct names for their body parts. They suffer from the myths of being either “god’s innocent children” or sexual predators (neither of which based in reality, both harmful).
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3rd Year Struggles: How to Look Less Stupid than You Are
.thedisagreeabledoctor:
Dear rising MS3s,
Welcome to the big show - sorta. Third year is this magical time where you are expected to know how to take care of real patients. Rather than worrying about that, I am sure you are busy taking selfies with your white coat on and stethoscope around your neck while tweeting about how early you have to start getting up, #medschoolproblems.
This may come as a shock, but you are a clinical moron. The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can move on to improving it. I don’t care if you are coming off your 260 step 1 score, real patients don’t present with multiple choices. All that score means is you are good at diagnosing and treating paragraphs of words, not people. I am only saying this from experience.
When you start your first day on the wards you are going to realize you got pushed into the deep end of the pool, sans floaties. Like someone truly drowning, you will be tempted to flail about, reaching out for anyone to save you. Don’t. No one has time to hold your hand, and you will quickly make people hate you if you constantly beg for advice/help/guidance, etc.
Have no fear, I am going to give some tips to make the transition easier and help you look semi-competent. Behold my list of life-saving resources for third year.
1. Scut Sheets (http://www.medfools.com/downloads.php) - you will likely follow 1-5 patients while on the wards. This sounds easy, but things move fast and you don’t want to be presenting old data on rounds. Scut sheets allow you to organize your patient information in a way that is easily accessible and portable (iPads are great, but in my experience you can’t beat good old paper). Further, the H&P sheets help to remind you of all of the things you need to examine/inquire about. You don’t want to be the student who comes back to report on a patient with epigastric pain in whom you never examined the cardiopulmonary system. Print a couple of each style to find one you like.
2. Stanford 25 (http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/index.html) - remember that time before step 1 studying, when you had to practice actually touching people? That was called the physical exam, and you are expected to actually do that… on every patient… everyday. Better refresh on it so you don’t look like a fool palpating the thyroid over the thyroid cartilage. Go to the website, click “The 25″ button and see the 25 physical exam skills every student should know, along with detailed explanations.
3. MedCalc (http://medcalc.medserver.be)
Enough said. Qx Calc is also worth downloading (http://www.qxmd.com/apps/calculate-by-qxmd).
3. Journal Club (http://www.wikijournalclub.org/wiki/Main_Page) - I guarantee that during the year some jerk-off attending is going to ask you, “what is the best NOAC for atrial fibrillation?” Obviously, like most, you will stutter because all you know to use in Afib is warfarin. Then he or she will smile, knowing they have established their superiority, and tell you to look it up and do some sort of presentation. Welcome to the best tool ever for such scenarios. This wiki is run by a team of physicians who synthesize large trials into digestible snippets. The app is well worth the money too. (The answer to the above question is apixaban, by the way, as determined by the ARISTOTLE trial; not that this scenario is based on a real event that occurred to me or anything).
4. Smart Medicine (http://smartmedicine.acponline.org) - this app is amazing. Seriously. It is free to American College of Physician (ACP) members; and membership is free to students. You should join just for this app. This is much less cumbersome than UpToDate and will will make you shine when you present your assessment and plan (also, rumor is that DynaMed and ACP have teamed up to create an even more amazing tool that is coming out in August, also free to members).
5. Medscape (http://www.medscape.com) - this is an awesome resource that is free. Medscape is one of my go to apps for understanding disease pathophysiology. Another feature, which most students don’t realize, is the articles on surgical procedures. This is HUGE for your surgery clerkship. You can read over the procedure, see relevant anatomy and know just enough to be one step ahead of this guy:
Plus you get updates on medical news, have access to practice questions, etc. Get it, use it, love it.
6. Online Med Ed (https://onlinemeded.org) - aside from learning real medicine, third year is about preparation for the step 2 of the USMLE. I advise finding a question bank and organized program to keep your studying on track throughout the year. Enter God’s gift to med students. This is one man and a mystical dry erase board that will make learning clinical medicine easier than cooking a Totino’s pizza. And it is one of the few things cheaper than a Totino’s!
So there you have it. You now are better equipped for the coming onslaught of pimp questions. My suffering is your gain. Below I will list a few other apps I have used this year that were less important to my success. Happy studying.
ASCVD Risk Estimator (http://tools.cardiosource.org/ASCVD-Risk-Estimator/) - I believe there is an app in the app store as well.
Anticoag Evaluator (http://www.acc.org/tools-and-practice-support/mobile-resources) - see the risk factors for coagulation
CDC vaccine schedules app (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/schedule-app.html)
Read by QxMD (https://www.readbyqxmd.com) - allows you to get medical articles directly to your phone using your institutional access.
Sensitivity and Specificity (http://lifeinthefastlane.com/techtool-thursday-055-sensitivity-and-specificity/) - link to the app and review
Pap Guidelines (http://appcrawlr.com/ios/pap-guide) - a free version of the ASCCP app and a life saver while on Gyn.
This is obviously an excellent list of resources I don’t want to miss out on. Probably going to head over to the physical exam website and learn some things while I sit around watching crappy reality TV.
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Stigmas is Nursing
(Things we may sometimes forget to take into consideration).
1. “ICU nurses are snobby, elite.” Where does this come from? Any Med Surg nurse can probably attest to feeling a little fearful about upgrading a patient to critical care, to the “scary ICU nurses”. Here’s the thing. ICU nurses have gotten a bad rap; they’re intense because the patient’s life is in danger. They may have only two (or three) patients but their work is tenfold; scrutinizing every detail that may be the key to saving a life. The pressure is extraordinary, they are managing multiple invasive lines, countless drips with intricate knowledge of math and safety parameters for each and every drip rate. Additionally, they are expected to be involved in invasive bedside procedures, even though they have other patients who are just as critical next door. On top of that, they’re often required to leave their patients in the care of others (many times with nurses who already have an assignment, making it unsafe for them to juggle four or five critical patients), while they respond to cardiac arrests in the hospital. They’re caring for patients in the most intense moments of their lives, and it’s exhausting even though it’s two people. Every second counts when they’re critical status. ICU nurses move fast and ask a lot of direct questions in report because they require the minuscule details other areas may dismiss. It’s not personal when they’re digging for information. They are focused on the patient. If there is a condescending ICU Nurse, it’s likely they’re an unkind person in any speciality - for every one of those, there’s also just as many kind ICU nurses who inspire the rest of us to be caring and unbeatable at critical care.
2. “Med Surg isn’t a specialty.” Any nurse who has worked about a day in Med Surg will understand it takes a well rounded and brave soul to be in this area, and yes, it’s a specialty. There’s certification in this field that supports this. On any given day, a Med Surg Nurse will have patients who are at critical status; with no beds available in ICU for upgrade, so they are accountable for them, in addition to the sometimes up to 10 (or more), additional patients, many confused, climbing out of bed, intubated, coming and going from MRI, CT, Nuclear Stress Tests, admits coming from ER, Pacu, direct from OR, Endoscopy, other floors - often all at the same time. Med Surg nurses are hard core, and they’re focused on surviving the marathon shifts they need to endure every damn day.
3. “Psych Nurses; They have no skills, they wouldn’t know what to do with a patient in distress, or they’re just slow.” Perhaps there aren’t Triple Lumen Catheters, Swans, invasive bedside procedures, but these nurses have an extraordinary amount of patience for the combative, a knack for decoding a patient’s silence, and an instinctive awareness to liars, manipulators, and especially when a patient is in serious danger of harming themselves long before anyone else has realized. They’ve learned the importance of developing a patient’s trust, significant with women who have been battered and fear opening up to anyone - but may trust a nurse who has learned the right questions to ask, created a safety zone, and found a way to to see past the outside world’s judgment of mental health issues to see the human; while prioritizing their rights to compassion & care. Psych nurses deal with patients in distress all the time, just because it isn’t physical, doesn’t mean it isn’t distress. They’re slow when needed, as they’ve learned to be deliberate in their actions - observation is often one of their greatest tools.
4. “ED nurses never clean patients, and they never complete orders before racing upstairs and dumping their patients.” Read the Acronym again. What’s it mean spelled out? These nurses are responsible for stabilizing patients at the most critical point, and once that’s established or a bed opens up, they move them. Simplicity. If they happen to miss a messy diaper or a colace pill is it worth arguing? It doesn’t mean they aren’t frustrated by the limits of their job, it doesn’t meant they wouldn’t do the full care if they had the time or space. They move fast because as soon as they move that patient out, there’s an ambulance pulling up ready to deposit the next critical patient, and somewhere in between they’re dealing with all the chaos in the lobby/waiting area. It’s understandable that you don’t want to clean a patient you just received, every floor is busy - but consider this; They may miss some small details, but they’re the frontline of care in a hospital and every second counts when it’s a stroke patient, major trauma, or heart attack.
Commonalities; All nurses have passed the same licensing exam. Each and every nurse is accountable for human life, and makes clinical decisions that contribute to quality patient care. All nurses make mistakes, many of which they wish they could take back. Each nurse is continually learning, regardless of age, or level of experience - it’s not a profession that’s mastered. Each of us have taken care of patients in distress - it doesn’t matter the specialty. All nurses experience daily pressures, and all nursing disciplines have unique skills. Each nurse shares this common goal - Caring for their patients to the best of their abilities on any given day. Nursing is the ability to understand what it feel like to walk in another person’s shoes; our patients as well as our coworkers.
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