Author: Derrick

Working in a medical facility, a registered nurse is a role model of good health and lifestyle. While most people think that working in a hospital instantly makes one healthy, it is actually far from the truth. Working in a hospital is a physically tiring and draining job.  That’s why, every nurse should make an extra effort to keep themselves healthy.

1.) Eat Breakfast

Never skip breakfast. Breakfast gives you energy and gets you pumped up at work.  Studies also show that those who skip breakfast tend to overeat during lunch or dinner, causing them to gain unwanted pounds.

2.) Have a Regular Eating Schedule

This may sound difficult, as there are times when you need to work on night shifts but it is essential that your body get a regular eating schedule. Having a regular eating and sleeping pattern allows your body’s internal clock to help you awaken naturally without having to curse the alarm clock.

3.) Choose healthier snacks.

It is very common to be craving for snacks in the middle of a shift.  And when it comes to snacks, most nurses go for sweets. While this can definitely give you some energy, it may not last long. Instead of eating sugar-rich food, try eating nuts or a slice of apple. The latter are healthier and can give you longer-lasting energy.

More than being a social responsibility, being healthy is about improving your own life and your career as a registered nurse.

Contrary to popular belief, nurses, too, enjoy junk food and anything sweet. That is why it is not surprising to see big nurses running around in the facility. As nurses, we all know what kind of food are healthy and what aren’t. However, because we usually have no time to prepare, we tend to rely on fast food which are loaded with tons of fats and oil.

So how do we change our lifestyle? How do we keep ourselves healthy? The first step is to switching from junk food to food and drinks that are nutritious and healthy. Below are some tips.

1.) Eat leafy greens every few days.

Eating vegetables improve digestion. They are also packed with the right nutrients and vitamins. Make yourself a salad the night before and just let it sit in the fridge overnight. Take it to your workplace for lunch. Make sure that you don’t use a salad dressing that is fattening. Greens like spinach, beet greens and Swiss chard are just a few of the many delicious leaves you should eat.

2.) Have a healthier breakfast.

You are probably aware that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But it is also important to note that what you eat for breakfast should still be loaded with healthy stuff. Instead of eating a muffin or a bagel, try eating a hard-boiled egg or canned sardines. Have brown rice or yogurt with some grains and fruit. Protein filled food gives you the energy to survive through the day. Simply relying on sugar filled food or drinks is not enough to keep you alert at work.

3.) Avoid pre-packaged food.

Pre-packaged food are usually loaded with salt, fat or sugar. Eating them everyday will only put more inches to your waistline. To keep yourself from eating fat filled food, you can prepare your food yourself. There are many healthy recipes that you can find online and I’m pretty sure it won’t take longer than 15 minutes.

Students taking courses like ASN Basics or Respiratory Therapy and other similar courses, as well as medical professionals must remember to keep their health in check. With a healthy body comes a healthy mind.

Being a nurse is a rewarding profession, but every nurse knows that it comes with a lot of stress. With the many tasks and responsibilities that nurses do, it is quite common to see others who burn out and get exhausted.

There are some days when we encounter patients who are in a bad mood or who simply do not like us. There are also other days when we get caught between the patient’s families and their doctors. These are just a few of the elements that stress us out. That is why many veteran nurses tell younger nurses to learn to manage their stress.

Being a nursing student is also big challenge. Students may encounter difficult experiences during their internship, or they may have so many projects in school that they can’t seem to manage. Demanding teachers can also be the reason for stress.

Below are some helpful tips that you can use, whether you’re a Paramedic to RN student or a professional nurse.

1.) Start your day with a smile.

Smiling never hurts. In facts, smiling makes you look younger. When you smile, you also get a smile from others. Doing this can give you more positive energy to survive the day at work.

2.) Know your tasks and responsibilities.

Be aware of your tasks and responsibilities. Coming to work without any idea of what to prioritize first can make your day terrible. It would also be helpful if you make a to-do list. This will give you an idea of which tasks to do first. Make sure that your first tasks are your biggest priorities. Once the biggest priorities are done, you will be more relaxed when you finish the less important ones.

3.) Avoid gossiping.

Talking about other people and listening about other people’s stories will not do anyone good. In fact, it will only make you a more judgmental person. By judging and defining others based on the gossips you hear, you give colors to those people when you see them. This will only change the way you connect with them at work. You do not want people to do this to you and vice versa.

4.) Exercise.

Exercise does not only keep you physically healthy, but it also releases endorphins, which give you more positive vibes and feelings. These are called happy hormones. By becoming more energetic and positive, getting through a workday becomes a piece of cake.

If you are considering taking up nursing, you need to be aware that being able to observe confidentiality in the workplace is important. Every nurse must know what kind of information should be kept in confidence. Recently, confidentiality and privacy rights are becoming a big issue in the medical field.

We all get curious once in a while. It’s natural in people to feel the need to know. However, this is something that should not be practiced by nurses. Anyone in the medical field, from paramedic to RN and doctors, know that patients expect them to keep their information in secret. Patients put their trust on their nurses and doctors.

There are news of confidentiality breeches once in a while. Celebrities are usually the victims of these breeches, as many people, including nurses, deem their lives intriguing.  Some nurses get curious about their home address or medical condition. In these kinds of situations, nurses who are caught getting information without permission are disciplined or even terminated.

With the popularity of social media and social networking sites, some people can’t help but tweet or talk about their work. While it is okay to post status updates about one’s job, stating a patient’s name or names of doctors and putting them in a bad light is very much discouraged. When superiors or coworkers see this, you may be in big trouble at work and may get fired for it.

It is also important for nurses to be careful with sharing patient information with visitor. Before answering questions about the patient’s condition or contact information, you need to make sure that the visitor is a friend or family relative of the patient. This also goes the same with sharing files or documents with outsiders. You also might want to suggest that he or she ask or see the patient himself to know their situation.

If patients allow you to share their status or medical information, make sure that you only share it with people whom the patient permitted.

It is so easy to get any type of information from patients without their permission.  However, when you are caught red-handed from this, you could ruin your career.  You do not want to lose your job simply because you were curious to find out what a certain celebrity is in the hospital for.

Always remember to respect people’s privacy, as you want them to respect yours.

Being a nursing student is very challenging. Those who dream of becoming a nurse need to be ready for such a career. With a job that affects lives of people, it is not surprising that studying nursing requires a lot of hard work. It is also important to note that one does not simply need intelligence to pass nursing exams. One must also possess qualities that will allow him or her to use intelligence wisely. Here are some of the most important attributes that every student should possess.

1.) Have good study habits.

When you study the arts and science of nursing, you will be given a huge wave of strange, difficult terms. You are expected to know them by heart. That is why you need to have good study habits. One does not simply memorize nursing terms by looking at them during class.

You need to set aside some time every day for a study session. If you remember things more easily through group study sessions, then find classmates who also feel the same way. If you work best by yourself, the library would be a good choice to study in.

2.) Know how to manage your time.

You may have a hectic schedule, juggling school life and social life together. However, these should not be a reason for you to skip studying. Remember that your main goal as a student is to study. Make studying an important part of your daily schedule. The best way to find time to study is to plan out your day-to-day activities. Make studying a routine. Know which time of day gives you optimum performance in terms of retaining information.

3.) Be sociable.

This is something that most of your teachers will not share with you. But in the real working world, the more people you know, the more chances you will have of landing a job. Remember that there are so many nurse hopefuls like you out there. Aside from your knowledge and license, connections will give you an edge over the others. You do not have to be overly friendly to your professors. All you need to do is to do well in the class, so your professors remember you and your skills. If you have any clarificatory questions about the lesson material, do not be shy to ask your professors. Little things like that can help your professors remember you.

Going to nursing school is one of the toughest times of your life, but it is also going to be the most rewarding one. If you have the abovementioned attributes, you will surely get to have a smooth sailing student life.

The responsibilities of nurses not only involve physical assistance to patients. Nurses also need to empathize with patients and learn to talk in ways that will not harm patients emotionally. Although nurses can never be in another person’s shoes, they still need to be understanding of the patients’ situation.

Whether you are a BSN nursing student or someone taking a paramedic to RN program, teachers will always remind you to be patient and understanding of your patients. That is why Psychology is integrated to the nursing school curriculum.

But how can we, as nurses, try to help or support patients emotionally. You would think that asking them the oft-used question, “How are you today?” seems like a good idea. However, the answer you will most likely get is a short, “I’m okay.” This makes it harder for you to know what the patients are really thinking. So instead of asking that, perhaps you could ask them what’s on their mind that day. That will give them the opportunity to truly verbalize how they feel about their situation.  If patients start to pour out their feelings, remember to be truly interested in what they say. Sometimes, all they need is a good listener. Perhaps their families or loved ones do not have time to chat with them. A simple chat would suffice.

A nurse’s body movements also matters in communication. When a nurse crosses her arms, looks at her watch or looks away, patients feel as if they were not being paid attention to. To be present in the conversation, nurses should always establish eye contact. The simple movement of leaning in and smiling are signs that you are actually listening to their story. Nurses have to be physically and mentally present when they interact with patients.

Most of all, try not to be distracted. Distraction will break the flow of the conversation. If you remember that you have to do something urgent, politely interrupt the conversation and excuse yourself with the promise of coming back later.

The bottom line is, nurses should always make patients feel emotionally and physically better. If you are a nurse leader, make sure that you advise your staff to have caring presence.

One ways of advancing your nursing career is to get promoted as one of the staff leaders. Being a leader is a challenging position to have. One must have the right leadership skills and the right characteristics. If you have just started your managerial position at work and are still confused as to how to become an effective leader, here are some tips.

1.) You need to have good organizational skills.

You want your desk and the whole work atmosphere in general to be organized. By organizing your documents, the staff responsibilities, staff schedules, you are able to have better management at work.  Try to have a planner or a calendar where you can put all the necessary things that you need to do for the coming days or weeks.

2.) You need to communicate well.

Sometimes, in our minds, we feel that we have relayed all the information needed for a particular issue but in the end, we discover that none of the staff understood what we talked about. It is always important to be concise in delegating tasks and sending out information.

Leaders should also communicate well with the staff. The staff should feel that their leader can be relied on when it comes to problems with work and personal problems that may affect their job.

3.) You should be a good listener.

It is always easier to talk than to listen. That’s why it takes more effort to be able to listen and to listen with your heart. In staff meetings, leaders should lend their ears and open their minds to the staff member’s opinions and suggestions.

4.) Be a good role model.

Being a good leader means that you should practice what you preach. Nobody wants to follow a leader who is habitually late, forgets tasks and doesn’t do the necessary paperwork.  Leaders must show that they are deserving of their position, that they have skills and qualities that sets them apart from the others.

While the aforementioned tips can help in molding people to become better leaders, experience is the best way for leaders to become more effective.

It is very common for nurses to suffer from varicose veins. These are very unsightly and can be a cause for embarrassment. From a paramedic to RN, most of those working in the medical and healthcare field usually have varicose veins. Although some researchers say that the cause of varicose veins appears to be heredity, there are also some other factors that may cause them.

If your parents do not have varicose veins, then the causes may be from ageing. As we age, the valves in our veins may not be as strong making the veins bulge and become more visible.

So how do we avoid varicose veins? Below are some tips.

Start doing leg exercises.

Having leg exercises allow better blood circulation in the body. When you have good circulation, you have lesser chances of getting varicose veins. Doing calf raises, squats or leg ball raises are a few examples on how you can work out your legs.

Put your feet up when you get home.

By simply putting your feet up, you can help facilitate blood away from your feet and legs, which allows for good circulation. You can do this by placing your legs on top of a pillow.

Avoid standing in the same position for a long time.

Get your legs moving. Standing in the same position with legs locked in position is not only tiring but it’s also a cause for getting such veins. Raise your leg a little every few minutes or bend your knees slightly.

Keep yourself fit.

You want to keep your weight down. If you are slightly overweight, chances are your body will find it difficult to have good circulation.

Do not sit for too long.

This has the same logic as standing for too long. If you really have to sit for long hours, make sure to stretch your legs from time to time.

Wear support hose or stocking.

This is very helpful in terms of blood circulation. The hose prevents the blood from staying in the feet and legs and help the veins return blood to the heart.

Going to a job interview is always daunting. We can never get used to it. Interviews make us more self-conscious. It is nerve wracking and terrifying. If you are preparing for an upcoming interview, here are some useful tips that you might want to try.

1.) The part when they ask you to talk about yourself.

They really do not want to hear your life story. What they want to hear is your educational attainment, career objectives, professional experience and your idea of what your personality is.

2.) The part when they ask you about your previous job.

This is not the part where you say something bad about your previous employer. Tell them what the hospital or medical facility is like and how it has helped your career experience.

3.) The part when they ask you about what you know about their company.

This will help them find out if you’ve done your research about them.It would help if you know a bit about their company history and their reputation.

4.) The part when they ask you why you want to work there.

Have an earnest answer for this question. Tell them your reasons for choosing to apply for them. Let them know how your career goals match their mission, vision and goal.

For nurses, it is very important to find a good working environment. Make sure that you choose the right facility to apply for, as this will make your job less stressful and more exciting.

 1.) Having a wide range of vocabulary:

The medical field has one of the most colorful vocabularies in the professional world. Being a nurse gives you an opportunity to be aware of such vocabulary and even use them at work.

2.) Having a job that is indoors:

With the rising temperature, aren’t you glad that you work indoors?  Working indoors allows you work without feeling uncomfortable about the temperature or worse, your body smell.

3.) Having the opportunity to meet different people:

Patients come and go, but the experiences that you have had with them will not. They will affect you and how you look at life. They will serve as life lessons for you. Meeting different kinds of people makes you more at ease with socializing and improves your self-confidence.

4.) The nursing profession is never boring:

No one can ever define nursing as boring. Most would say it’s stressful, demanding and rewarding, but it is never boring. The nursing world will continually excite you and keep you looking forward to experiencing something new.

 5.) Nursing a life-long learning process:

Learning doesn’t even after graduating from nursing school. Most of the things that you will learn about nursing are from your work experiences.