Animal Therapy In Hospitals?

Posted on 02/14/2017 by NurseBridgid

There are service animals, emotional support animals, and animals that are your best friends at home. Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could have a little mixture of all of them and they could come visit with patients at the hospital, as well as give staff a little mid-shift morale boost? Granted, not all people like animals, but those who do, really, really do, and how great would it be to get them a few minutes with man’s best friend?

Che at home

There have been lots of articles about animals at Nursing Homes and long-term care facilities, but there isn’t a lot out there about animals brought to the in-patient setting. Animals are almost always allowed when they are working service animals, which are animals trained to perform a specific duty task for a person in need of assistance (like a seeing eye dog, seizure alert dogs, etc.) as part of maintaining Americans with Disabilities (ADA) requirements. However allowing therapy pets, is a little more controversial.

Peer Support: How much do I really need it?

Posted on 02/08/2017 by NurseBridgid

This is for my fellow healthcare colleagues!

If you are a nurse, or any kind of health care practitioner, you have had a shift where you walk out of the hospital and you dread ever having to walk back through those doors. It doesn’t matter if it is because you had a really heavy assignment, an unexpected death of a patient, or bad news you had to break to a long-term patient, the end result is the same: you dread going back. What if there was a way to debrief your feelings before you walked out, throwing your stethoscope out the window?

Due to the burnout rates of our profession, and because administrators are starting to realize the impact of the everyday physical, emotional, and ethical issues that we deal with daily, some hospitals are trying different methods to support staff nurses’ emotional health and well being. The good news is that the hard work that we do is noticed and being appreciated, and that administrators are trying to help and assist with some of the stress that we endure due to our jobs. I know that most people think, if we get more staff, that will decrease our stress, and maybe it would, but shy of reimbursement costs changing, and staffing ratios dramatically increasing, what are some things that your hospital can do to help support you?

Can we all work together? Generational Differences in the Workplace

Posted on 04/15/2016 by NurseBridgid

For my nurse readers:

Generational differences in staff are something to think about when working or even changing jobs. Baby Boomers, Generation X’ers, Generation Y/Millenials are all working together on various units/areas of hospitals. Are we all working together as a cohesive staff? Or are we all just together working on the same shift? There is a huge difference between working together and just working at the same time. Generational differences are real and apparent in the hospital setting, and we hope that they aren’t impacting patient care!

Am I On Camera? No Paparazzi Please!

Posted on 09/10/2015 by NurseBridgid

In a time where technology seems to be the common theme throughout the world, and the majority of people have smartphones with video and camera capabilities at their fingertips, it is most certainly changing healthcare. Have you ever thought to ask a nurse if you could use a camera to record them during standard care for you or a loved one…or even secretly taped by them?

We are living in interesting times….Read more and join the discussion here on allnurses.com

For my Nursing Readers on Allnurses.com: Nursing Advancement

Posted on 06/16/2015 by NurseBridgid

For everyone who is in the nursing profession, you have heard of a clinical ladder, clinical or professional advancement, etc. and it is an interesting how people respond to changes, even when they are for the positive to make processes to increase consistency and accountability. Have you clinically advanced and feel supported by your hospital? Read more on allnurses.com

AllNurses.com: Thank you, Florence Nightingale!

Posted on 11/19/2014 by NurseBridgid

A Nurses Perspective. Around this time of year, I like think about the previous year: what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what I am truly thankful for. It is easy to have a negative day, or a positive day, and just focus on that, but it’s the big picture that is what is most important.

Nurses Just Doing their Jobs….

Posted on 11/04/2014 by NurseBridgid

There are some times as a nurse that you are really put under the microscope why you do what you do every day. Sometimes the reasons that we look more closely at our practice is because of questions from unlikely sources, that aren’t in the field. That happened to me recently and it really has made me think about responding to the ‘thank you’ from a patient with the phrase, “I’m just doing my job”…..

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