Change of Shift: Vol. Four, Number 4

Welcome to this edition of Change of Shift, the blog carnival by, about and for nurses!

We have old friends, new bloggers and few “editor’s choice” picks thrown into the mix.

Enjoy!

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Nurses continue to discuss health care reform and I wanted to pass on a link to a great BlogHer page that gives you More Tools to Get Your Own Scoop on the Health Care Debate. Great resource!

Meet the newest member of the nursing blogosphere! Her blog is Nursing Student Chronicles and See You Next Week is heartbreaking. Go say hi…and welcome! : )

Mother Jones uses her Mac to write about health care reform so why on earth should she boycott Apple? She pleads her case in Get Your Hands Off My iPhone Fox News! at Nurse Ratched’s Place.

Head Nurse Jo knows exactly how to stay safe. For the record, I plan to use the technique described in You Gotta Know When to Hold ‘Em beginning with my next shift.

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Oh man, this is a hoot! Seems Nurse Jackie is channeling Nurse K over at Crass-Pollination. It looks like the producers may be getting their material straight from K! It’s here, in Nurse K Obit Game Makes it into Nurse Jackie. Coincidence? I think not!

The Nurse Pratitioner’s Place looks at the idea of Nurse Practitioners as Primary Medical Homes. Are NPs able to take total care of their patients? Does this have to be a turf war?

Barbara at Florence dot com submits a post from her Medscape blog, On Your Meds discussing what motivates parents to champion advocacy efforts. There is also a scholarship opportunity in Hope and the Power of Parents. Reading the entire post will require Medscape registration (What? You aren’t registered at Medscape? It’s SO worth it!!!).

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Speaking of Medscape, blogger Beka Serdans from In Own Words: Medscape Nurses looks at staffing levels and retention and wonders Are You Leaving or Staying ? Take the poll; stay for the great discussion in the comments and check out the follow up post !

Grab a Kleenex. Reality Rounds gives a heartbreaking account of trying to save a life in For They Know Not What They Do. Powerful. ‘Nuff said.

There is a lot of discussion about Britian’s National Health Service these days. I’m pretty sure we don’t get the whole story. As someone who works in the NHS every day, Julie from Life in the NHS wonders Is the NHS Such a Bad Thing?

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Have you ever worked with a “Beth”? Are you a “Beth”? Nurse Kathy explains exactly what that means in The Essential Employee her Nursing Dynamics and Clinical Issues blog at NurseConnect.

Also at NurseConnect, Career Transitions and Other Nurse Topics, Nurse Laura asks Nurses: How Healthy is Your Work Environment? Does it help you advance in the profession or does it impede your function? How do we make sure we have what we need?

In Comments from the Peanut Gallery, Elaine at Miss-Elaine-ious, RN describes how her compressed/accelerated RN program differed from the classic four-year route. Great read for those interested in nursing as a second career!

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Sleepy docs – one of the facts of night shift nursing. Wanderer at Lost on the Floor deals with a doctor who sometimes needs a refresher course the morning after he’s on call. See Sleepy Head.

Whoa! The Angry Nurse has a few choice words for parents of the intoxicated in An ER Brochure I’d Like to See.

Carolyn, one of the nurse practitioners at Healthy Hearts with Heartstrong presents Carotid Artery Stenting Can Prevent Strokes.

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Here’s a couple of submissions that aren’t from nurses, but that nurses may find interesting:

Cognitive function has huge implications for our patients. Alvaro at SharpBrains always has interesting articles, and he was published in the Frontiers in Neuroscience journal! He shares that article with us in Preparing Society for the Cognitive Age. It’s all about brain fitness.

Jimmy from The Web Nurse at Masters in Nursing Online sends a list of 40 Free Open Courseware Classes About the Human Body. Need a refresher on anatomy and physiology? You may find it here!

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Thanks for reading this edition of Change of Shift and many thanks to all who submitted this week (and to those who are surprised to find their submissions here ; ) ! The next CoS will be at This Crazy Miracle Called Life on September 3rd.  You can send submission to Amanda via the Blog Carnival button on the right side bar or directly to “agmcgaha at gmail dot com”.