March 4, 2011, 5:43 pm

Change of Shift: Vol. 5, Nos. 17 & 18

Welcome to Change of Shift, the Double Edition!

Between traveling and the ENA Leadership Conference, the last edition Change of Shift was, shall we say, delayed. That’s the bad news.

The good news is I’m combining last week’s CoS edition with this week’s edition.

Be sure to read to the end for an important notice about the future of Change of Shift.

Let’s get started!

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Running Wildly pens a post probing the weaknesses in the Bullet Proof armor we use to protect our emotions at work.

JParadisi has penned a wonderful series on her journey from student to professional nurse and CoS is proud to include the series in this edition, all posted at JParadisi RN’s Blog. Get ready to remember…

• Prologue: Of Med Errors and Brain Farts (you never, ever forget your first med error….)

• How I Became A Nurse Part I – It Could Not Have Begun Worse (she is not kidding!)

• How I Became A Nurse Part II – Gatekeepers (when you have to fight for an open gate…)

• How I Became A Nurse Part III – It’s An Ongoing Process (…takes a surprising turn, and offers some great advice!)

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The latest edition of the Insights in Nursing podcast is up, with host Jamie Davis. I managed to actually make this one while I was up in Portland, along with Terri Schmitt from Nurse Story. Check out Alarm Fatigue Helped Me Save the Coffee! Gina at Code Blog talked to Jamie in his role as a Nurse Journalist for her series on nurse interviews.

Speaking of Terri, be sure to read her blog post regarding A Presentation of a Curious Nurse Malady: Full Plate Syndrome. Do you suffer from this, or know a colleague who does? Learn how to access, or organize, an intervention. Please help.

At Digital Doorway, Keith writes about Compassion From Day to Day as only he can do.

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oncRN pulls a memory from the vault and wonders if she should listen to what she tells her patients Today.

Nurse K finds that you better be careful what you say in Nicest Patient in Weeks at Crass-Pollination.

I wish I could write like this. At AJN’s blog, Off the Charts, a post by Marcy Phipps, RN. Snow.

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Hey, the Man-Nurse hasn’t been blogging at The Man-Nurse Diaries lately and I’m pretty fed up. Go find out why That’s No Excuse!! : )

For Nicole at Raspberry Stethoscope, nursing is all about Making the Connection. (And Happy Birthday!)

Girlvet pens The Madness Guide to Happy ER Nurses at Madness: Tales of an Emergency Room Nurse.? She hits it out of the park!

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As always thanks so much for reading and for linking! Many thanks to those who submitted and to those who found themselves “submittees”!

And now, a word from our sponsor.

Change of Shift is in the middle of its fifth year.

Submissions have dropped dramatically, to the point of only about 3 every 2 weeks. I’m not sure if there are fewer nursing blogs out there or if nurses are blogging less frequently. There may be less interest submitting to blog carnivals in general (or this carnival in particular).

I have a soft spot for Change of Shift and I do not want to see it fade into the sunset. I enjoy putting it together, whether through submissions or through selection, but I’m finding it harder and harder to keep up a bi-weekly carnival where I am making the selections.

So…

Change of Shift is moving to a monthly publishing schedule beginning with Volume 19 on April 14th.

(This is SO going to screw up my numbering schedule, but hey! I’m a nurse. I can handle it!)

Change of Shift is still open for submissions – send in any and all blog posts and I’ll put them in the post just like always. If I get an onslaught of posts, I’ll put up an early “Very Special Edition”and rejoice in the abundance!

Should the flood gates reopen and the nursing blogosphere pour forth, we can always take CoS back to bi-weekly.

Either way, keep blogging!