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The Meaning of a Pin

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Shania Lynn The Cure For The Common Read Photo As a student nurse, the one day that you look forward to is even of greater significance than college graduation.. nursing pinning. The nurse’s pin dates back to the early Maltese cross in which a pin was worn meaning a service of Christianity. The servants would care for others with communicable illnesses. Since then, the meaning of the pin has transformed throughout different cultures and programs. Florence Nightingale, the creator of the first structured program for nurses, eventually adopted the pin as a symbol of knowledge, servitude, and compassion for the vulnerable. Today, all nursing programs (and other non-nursing programs) culminate with the ceremony of pinning.

As a practicing RN, we receive different pins to put on our badge. These include acknowledgements such as various awards, employee of the month, degrees, and years of service, among others.

Earlier this month, I received my 5 years of service pin. It feels like I have been a nurse for so much longer, while also feeling like just yesterday I spoke at my own nursing pinning ceremony. In 5 years of graduating with my ASN, I completed a BSN, got trained in chemotherapy and Pediatrics, became certified in Medical-Surgical Nursing and ACLS, worked as a Charge Nurse on weekends and nights during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and now have the greatest honor of teaching last semester nursing students at a community college.

While I receive my 5-year pin, I have the honor of providing the nursing pin to all of my students. And in reminiscence of my own pinning, I recite the nurse’s prayer:

Give us strength and wisdom when others need our touch

A soothing word to speak to us, our hearts yearn for so much

Give us joy and laughter to lift a weary soul

Pour in us compassion to make the broken whole

Give us gentle, healing hands for those placed in our care

A blessing to those who need us, this is our Nurse’s prayer

Until next shift,

Shania

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2694101/#:~:text=The%20nursing%20pin%20is%20a,symbol%20of%20service%20to%20Christianity.

Building a Life you Want

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Build a life you want and save for it. This is a FIRE concept in which you can still prepare to be Financially Independent and Retire Early, while also living a life that you desire.

As nurses, we learn to prioritize. We start our day prioritizing as we choose which patient to see first. We prioritize med passes, delegation, admissions, discharges, and every MD order for each patient that we have in our care.

But, we often do not prioritize ourselves. Some of us go with the flow. Some stay in current jobs for years because it is comfortable or familiar. Others go about their daily routines and only imagine pursuing hobbies or passions and never act on them.

I made a difficult decision to leave a job that I helped create for myself because it wasn’t what I thought it would be. I came home frustrated every day for the 6 months I was trying to make it work. I started to realize that the position may not have been a good fit for my strengths. Sitting at a desk all day waiting on the decisions of others was just not a good fit for a Type A personality, who is used to working an active 12-hr bedside nursing shift. I knew I had to make a change for my mental health, especially considering I did not believe the position would improve for my liking. With change, comes difficult conversations.

Intellectually, I knew that for my mental well-being, I had to leave my newly acquired job. I received an opportunity to teach. A position I thought of years before as I was always more textbook smart than I ever was clinically. I took the chance and this is the best career I have ever been in as an RN. I LOVE disease processes. I LOVE encouraging others. I LOVE speaking. All of my loves and strengths seem to be combined into one position that found me in a time I was seriously struggling. All of these loves, plus a schedule that works for family, hobbies, and voiceover 🙂

I would never have found my place as a nurse if I did not listen to myself or take myself as priority. Now, I am looking forward to furthering my education. I am basing my specific program and university off of what will work with my priorities in life: teaching, voiceover, fitness, and family/friends. Rather than sacrificing any of these loves, I will find a program that fits into my current way of living because that is making myself a priority.

Build a life that you want and save for it.

Until next shift,

Shania

Retention, Recruitment, Resilience.. Oh, My!

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These three words are dominating the media when it comes to nursing. Facilities attempt to retain their current staff while also trying to combat the ever-increasing staffing shortage by recruiting new hires. Staff are also reminded and educated on ways to be resilient and how to prevent burnout.

Unfortunately in America, even nonprofit hospitals have to be run like a business. Our bedside nurses are the number one asset to a successful hospital as they care for the income drivers.. the patients. Bedside nursing is a physically and emotionally demanding job that wears on even the best of nurses. I left the bedside for these reasons and also to follow my career path of leadership and education. By accepting my position into Nursing Professional Development, I see the leadership perspective of how to run a hospital.

Yes, staffing is a problem. Yes, nurses are not getting paid enough. Yes, there are more and more demands placed on nursing without incentives or relief. But, one of the main issues regarding increasing nursing staff is actually getting additional nurses into the door. The time to hire is a challenge for many organizations. This can be related to slow HR processes (they are short-staffed, too) and/or the amount of time it takes to train a nurse for the assigned unit. Even an experienced nurse can take several weeks to get acclimated to a facilities’ policies and procedures. Certain positions, such as the OR and Critical Care, are noted to be some of most challenging positions to fill due to the scope and specialty.

According to the 2022 NSI report, “on average, it takes 87 days (3 months) to recruit an experienced RN.” During this period, more staff may be leaving, additional positions, and the cycle continues. As the need increases, the vacancy rates continue to increase, and bedside nurses leave due to thin staffing, hospitals cannot keep up with the demand.

I write this mainly to draw attention to our strained and flawed healthcare system. Pay incentives and large recruitment bonuses are only temporary solutions. Long-term solutions can only be successful if we can recruit, retain, and promote resilience within our organizations. Be sure to listen to the staff, be transparent, suit their needs, and acknowledge the work that each individual contributes.

Until next shift,

Shania

Click to access NSI_National_Health_Care_Retention_Report.pdf

To Err is Human- A Case for Medical Errors

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“To Err is human; to forgive, divine”- Alexander Pope

In light of the recent criminalization of former Nurse Radonda Vaught, the topic of medical errors is quite relevant. According to the National Institute of Health, “Medical errors cost $20 billion per year and take the lives of 100,000 people every year.”

There are many different types of medical errors and reporting such errors helps to improve the process and prevent repeatable errors in the future.

Medicinal errors can include acts of omission (not giving a medication when it is ordered) or commission (giving the wrong medication). The main 5 rights of medication administration are taught in nursing school: right patient, right drug, right route, right dose, right time. We are taught to do no harm and every nurses’ fear is to kill somebody.

If a nurse tells you they they have never made a medication error before, they are likely lying. A lot of the time, the error causes no harm and goes basically unnoticed. The nurse will communicate the error to the appropriate people and it is evaluated and a new process may be created. That’s it. In the unfortunate cases where the patient is harmed or dies, that is when the stakes are higher. But, every single error made can possibly lead to death. Fortunately, most of the time the nurse can take a deep breath and carry on with the shift.

Medicinal errors can involve:

Giving the patient a medicine they are allergic to (most often this is caught with electronic systems and pharmacy checks, sometimes it is not flagged),

Giving a drug that the doctor ordered on the wrong patient (nurses can catch this if they understand what the medication does and the story of the patient)

Giving the correct drug but wrong patient label (same drug, same dose, wrong patient)

And so so many more scenarios.. some are very minor and are not noticed. Some are major and become national news. But ALL are human errors involving medicine.

What makes this case so scary for nurses is that reporting a medical error previously is already shameful no matter how small or big. And now that Vaught is now labeled a criminal, many more errors will now go unreported. In a time where we are facing an ever increasing nursing shortage, and now sending nurses to prison for a medical error, how is that going to affect the future nursing workforce?

The healthcare system is in need of some major changes. Where is the forgiveness that is indeed divine?

Until next shift,

Shania

Funny Tidbits of Nursing Knowledge/ Nursing Advice

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  • Be careful not to nurse the computer
  • Not everyone showers regularly
  • Everyone’s anatomy is different
  • It is not exactly like the case studies
  • I have never inspected so many butts
  • No, you cannot bring your monkeys to the hospital
  • If you smell smoke, one of your patients is probably smoking in their room
  • If you are a patient and walk across the street to taco bell, you will be forced to leave AMA
  • Allowing a patient to leave AMA will probably make your shift so much better- don’t take it personally!
  • It is a good morning when you only have one fingerstick.
  • Ensure quality > quantity
  • Sometimes the best position to place a foley is side-lying or doggy style
  • Just because a patient is in the hospital, does not mean that they can treat you like trash
  • You do not work for the doctors, you work for the hospital.- Stick up for yourself!
  • Family members are often worse than the patients, however if you listen, they can turn out to provide valuable information
  • Stay humble!- You will not know everything and there is always a resource to learn more
  • Be involved within your unit- building personal relationships with coworkers will make going into work so much better
  • The best nurses are those that start from the ground-up- Remember to appreciate and help EVS, NTs, etc.
  • Offer things the patients are allowed, rather than focusing on things they cannot have or cannot do

Addiction: A Disease Mentality

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“History of IV drug use, positive for heroin and meth. HIV and Hep C positive. Constantly requests pain medication.”

What are your immediate thoughts when getting information like this in report? Most likely, it’s thoughts of judgement, disregard, lack of care and trust for the patient. Although these are valid thoughts, what about taking a step back and thinking about the reasons behind their IV drug use. What happened in their life that needs to be numbed by such harsh drugs?

Addiction is defined by the American Society of Addiction Medicine as ” a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. People with addiction, use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences.”

Everyone wants to be happy; no one chooses to do things because they know it will make them unhappy. Often times, the perfect combination of an addictive gene plus a poor life circumstance and environment leads someone to choose a substance as a coping mechanism. Society encourages people with a bad day to “go have a drink” after a rough day. So many scenarios can become the ultimate formula that leads someone to a substance and the individual then is a slippery slope into a life of addiction.

Do they choose the drug to feel good? They keep searching for that next high, but develop an increasing tolerance so they need more and more until an accidental overdose. Do they choose the drug to numb a hurt? It’s easier to drink a beer “socially” than it is to do yoga, meditate, go on a walk. It’s justifiable and becomes rationalized.

Some realize the problem, others do not admit that they have a problem. Those that want to change, now must detox safely in a facility. What started as a way to cope from a tragic event led to a life of pain and hurt from a drug that only fuels the fire.

A majority of addictions are not illegal, but trigger the same brain chemistry. Think about your own addictions and how hard it may be to break those and then compare it to a pill or form of liquid death that it’s sole purpose is to disrupt a certain brain-body signal. Addictions to sugar, caffeine, nicotine, technology…

Until next shift,

Shania

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