Hi everyone!
Just a quick note to let you know I’m hard at work on Change of Shift and it will up…..
As soon as get to my hotel in Las Vegas.
I am participating in a highly educational pursuit, sure to elicit a profound professional growth…
I’m meeting Donny Osmond.
Seriously.
My mature adult self is highly looking forward to this event, however my 14-year-old inner child is, like, dying!
So look for Change of Shift in this spot later today!
This is me, laptop firmly attached at the hip!
Okay, I don’t wear white dresses (anymore) and I don’t have a 10 inch waist, either.
But my laptop might as well be surgically implanted; my life is pretty much pixelated!
I make travel decisions based on whether or not wireless is available.
Most people sleep, I “re-boot”.
In response to a funny story this week, I said “LOL!”. As in the letters, not the words.
But I knew I had gone over the edge when my nursing notes started looking like tweets: “Amb 2 BR s diff; no able 2 p; abd dist; 16F cath 4 lg amt; tol OK; ? more narcs; allerg to tdol & MS; D.did given IM; pt said “OUCH, OMG!”
Addiction, thy name is Apple….
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Big news coming soon re: BlogWorld/New Media Expo 2010. Discount codes for medbloggers are coming! I should have a post up with details in the next day or two.
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“Physician Extender”.
Sounds like the name of a male-enhancement product.
It’s a phrase often used to describe a nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant.
I hate it.
It’s insulting.
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A nurse practitioner is not an adjunct physician. They do not supplement the care of a physician.
They provide essential advanced practice nursing services, services that include diagnosis and provision of medical care.
While some of these services overlap those of medicine, nurse practitioners are not extensions of another profession, they provide care in their own right, as educated, licensed practitioners.
Sometimes the only care provider for a community is a nurse practitioner.
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A few years back, the term “extender” was used to describe nurse’s aides, as in “nurse extender”.
I hated it then, too.
It insulted the aides by implying they were less than individuals, not there to care for the patients, but to do the “lesser work” of the registered nurses.
Referring to nurse practitioners as physician extenders ignores the independent assessment and diagnostic skills possessed by advance practice registered nurses. It insinuates that they function for the physician’s sake, not the patient’s sake.
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Extender.
I know it’s just a word. But words have power. Words convey attitudes. Words can confuse.
Nurse Practitioner. Educated, licensed, independent professional.
Nurse practitioner. Physician extender.
A rose by any other name…….?
No.
Not this time.
Welcome to the latest edition of Change of Shift!
The nursing blogosphere came through in a big way this week, many thanks to those who have submitted.
I’m excited to showcase these colleague contributions!
So, without further ado,
I present…..Change of Shift!
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Let’s start off with the “Editor’s Choice” of this edition! Shrtstormtrooper understands that nurses are Always Learning, posted at New Nurse Insanity: Fundus Chop!. Bravo!
Can we address the supply of professional nurses without addressing the state of nursing education? Chris at The Man-Nurse Diaries takes on this provocative topic in The Nursing Shortage.
Should the willingness to advocate depend on what one’s opinion of the patient? Nurse Teeny finds the concept disturbing as developed in a recent episode of HawthoRNe. Check out Shackled, at The Makings of a Nurse.
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Speaking of the nursing shortage, just how short are we? Is it a regional issue or a national concern? IsntSheLovlei finds an overabundance in her area in What Nursing Shortage??? posted at The Dog Ate My Care Plan….
Keith at Digital Doorway pens a beautiful story of the beginning of a beautiful client/provider relationship in A Visit to the Doctor, followed by an exploration of aging and loss in A Kind of Life.
Laney loses her first patient. A moving look at the emotional impact of a code in Breathe Me, at Nursing Student Chronicles.
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Can I get an “AMEN!” for this insightful look at just what (and who) constitutes “the nursing profession”? Katie Morales at NursesNetwork.com lays it out in A Rose by Any Other Name.
After a summer tracing the history of Florence Nightengale’s career, Susan Hassmiller gives us Parting Thoughts: 10 Lessons Learned from Florence Nightengale’s Life, at AJN’s Off the Charts.
Jo has been blogging at Head Nurse since 2004. It’s one of my favorite stops on the web. In Reasons Why I Love This Blog, by the Author of Same, Jo describes how she benefits from the blogging experience.
Jamie Davis has started a new podcast called Insights in Nursing. I’ve been participating with Jamie and Terri from Nurse Ratched’s Place. Jamie takes Terri’s sharp insight and my incoherent ramblings and puts them together in a sharp weekly show that looks at what’s new in nursing news. The latest episode – Physician Extenders - is up! (Caution: Rant on Board!)
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Thanks for reading this edition of Change of Shift! The next edition will be right here at Emergiblog – so feel free to submit via Blog Carnival or by using the “Contact” button at the top of the blog.
My name is Kim, and I'm a nurse in the San Francisco Bay area. I've been a nurse for 28 years; I graduated in 1978 with my ADN. My experience is predominately Emergency and Critical Care, but I also worked in Psychiatry and did pediatric telephone triage. I made the decision to be a nurse back in 1966 at the age of nine...
