Change of Shift: Volume One, Number Sixteen

Welcome to this edition of Change of Shift. The selection of posts is quite eclectic this week, with new bloggers joining some old favorites! So, without further ado, let’s get started!

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A great blog hosted by “your fellow man” makes its Change of Shift debut this week. The Bulging Bag, written by a pediatrician training in neonatology discusses respect and communication in We’re All in This Together.

“N=1″ at Universal Health has a unique solution for bringing all nurses together in Building Collegiality: Talking Among the Nursing Tribes. Sign me up!

Mother Jones, RN gives a pictoral tour of nursing fashion in the gut-spliting Uniforms on Parade at the ever-popular Nurse Ratched’s Place. Guess which one was MY favorite? Warning - make sure you are not drinking Diet Pepsi while you read it. Spit takes may occur!

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And I thought ER nurses ran! Paeds RN gives us a taste of an NICU shift in The Hungry Mouths and Angry Voices over at Cricoid Pressure. (And those angry voices aren’t coming from the parents!)

Another blogger new to Change of Shift describes a most unique New Year’s shift in A Most Unusual Demise. Meet Nurse William as he describes something I’ve never seen in almost 30 years of nursing. Chances are you haven’t, either!

You Have The Power! The National Nursing Network Organization is now officially a PAC (Political Action Committee, 501, C-4)! They are urgently seeking donations to help offset travel expenses as they journey to Washington lobbying for the Office of National Nurse. Much progress has been made! Visit the National Nurse website and see how you can help!

Mona over at The Tangled Neuron does a beautiful job deciphering Alzheimer research in SORL1: New Alzheimer’s Gene. As always, things are not as simple as they seem and Mona gets to the reality behind the headlines.

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ER nurse GirlVet discusses two very different and yet puzzling patients in Humanity Amazes Me over at madness: tales of an emergency room nurse. Just when you thought you had heard it all……

Sandy Szwarc, RN at Junkfood Science give us some background into the panic ensuing from a broken thermometer in Mercury Spill Replay. I get a lot of questions from patients who have read horror stories about mercury poisoning and are ready to call out the Hazardous Materials Squad when their old glass thermometer hits the floor!

Keith submits a beautiful description of how to handle the more difficult aspects of nursing in Non-Compliance, Apples, and Surrender posted at Digital Doorway.

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What if…? Impactednurse ponders a cure for the incurable presented to him at triage in jar head, posted at impactED.

We all know what nursing intuition is, even if we can’t put our finger on why we know what we know. For some poignant examples, read Trusting Your Gut: Nursing Intuition posted by Erica at Blissful Entropy.

Pain is what the patient says it is, even if they are eating peeled grapes and conversing on their cell phone at 10/10. Given this scenario, apgaRN offers a new way to approach the pain scale in Ouch! posted at Salad Tongs, Anyone?.

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If the last post didn’t get you giggling, this one will. Airway Control discusses the various and sundry complaints of a particular patient in Euphemistically Speaking: Oh Snap! posted at Protect the Airway.

Checking in with our Medscape nursing colleagues, join Julie in celebrating a special milestone in her cancer recovery in Relief, Redux and Beka puts a personal slant to a current news story in Water Intoxication: Applauding a Nurse. Both nurses’ blogs can be found at In Our Own Words: Medscape Nurses.

You gotta hand it to someone who knows their limitations. ER Chaplain Susan Palwick explains hers is Good Reasons Not to Go Into Healthcare at Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good. Speaking of limitations, you can best believe I’ll never be a Latin scholar!

Nursing students! Don’t forget the essay competition going on at Nursing Jobs.org! A total of $5000 in nursing scholarships will be awarded, with the winner announced at the end of March. The topic is “Why I Chose Nursing” and I know we could write reams on that theme! So, pick up your keyboard and go for the gold! Click on the link and scroll down the page for details.

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Thanks for checking out this edition of Change of Shift, and many thanks to those who submitted their posts!.

Don’t be shy! Be sure to submit one of your best posts to the next edition!

Mother Jones, RN, from Nurse Ratched’s Place has graciously offered to host on February 8th! Submissions can be sent to her via Blog Carnival or to “nurseratchedsplace at yahoo dot com”.