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If you’re thinking about continuing your education, this article offers some important questions to consider in helping you decide if an online program will accomplish what you want to achieve. We all know continuing your education, if at all possible both financially and personally, will enhance your career, your life and your earning potential.

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For nurses who wish to advance their careers, pursuing an online master's or doctoral degree ​may be a great choice, experts say. Doing so can lead to higher salaries and roles with greater authority over patient care.

Some experts say that when it comes to graduate-level study, the nursing field is starting to move away from the master's degree and shifting more heavily toward doctoral degrees such as the Ph.D. or the Doctor of Nursing Practice. But master's degrees are still viable options for some students, and institutions including Capella University​ and Pennsylvania State University—World Campus ​are continuing to offer them online.

"A lot of schools have eliminated that master's degree for advanced practice nurses. That's not what we've opted to do," says Patrick Robinson, dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Capella University, which offers master's, Ph.D. and DNP degrees online.​​

It's important for online learners to select the nursing program that's best suited to meet their goals.​ Experts recommend asking the following questions about a program before deciding to enroll.

1. Which type of degree is best for your particular career?​​ In many cases, students will pursue a master's degree if they want to specialize in a specific area of nursing, experts say.

That was the case for Renae Epler of Hershey, Pennsylvania, a recent graduate of the online master's in nursing program offered through Penn State. The program allows students to choose specializations in nurse education and administration. Epler, who now works as a patient safety analyst at a hospital, chose the latter.

"For me, it was the right way to go," she says. "I didn't want to pursue a doctorate – something I didn't know for sure I wanted. This was a good place to start, I think."

When it comes to doctorates, the Ph.D. is generally meant for those who wish to become ​research-focused nursing scientists and develop the knowledge base on which nurses practice, says Robinson, of Capella. The DNP, meanwhile, is geared toward those who hope to use the science of nursing to advance nursing care out in the field​, he says.

There are other options out there, too. A bridge program allows students to save time and money by combining the curricula of two degrees. For example, the RN-to-MSN in care coordination offered at Capella gives registered nurses who don't have bachelor's degrees the opportunity to complete a Master of Science in Nursing.

2. How much time and money can you spend on a degree? Different degree programs cost different amounts of money and require various time commitments. When choosing a program, it's important for students to estimate how long it might take them to complete all the requirements and budget accordingly. A Ph.D. typically requires a student to complete more credit hours than a DNP or a master's degree, for example, Robinson says. 

At Capella, the Ph.D. requires 96 credits at $660 per credit​. The DNP requires 52 credits at $775 per credit​, and a master's requires 56 at $399 per credit​.

3. Is the program accredited? When looking into an online program, a student should verify whether it ​is accredited and if it ​is accepted in his or her current state of residence to meet licensing and other requirements​​, says Michele Pedulla, assistant academic graduate program chair at Kaplan University​'s​ School of Nursing. 

For instance, at Kaplan, the online nursing master's programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, she says. Other schools' programs may be accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing.

4. Is there an on-campus component? Online nursing graduate degree programs can be structured in different ways. Some – like those hosted by Capella​, Penn State​ and Kaplan​ ​– enable students to complete all of their requirements, including the clinical experience​, in a location​ of their choice; others, like many of Vanderbilt University's, require students to spend some time on campus. 

Both options have advantages. The former allows for more flexibility. As for the latter, at Vanderbilt the weeklong on-campus component provides an opportunity to interact with faculty and other students. 

"It allows them to network with other students, hear renowned speakers, work together with professors and really become engaged," says Mavis Schorn, senior associate dean for academics at Vanderbilt's School of Nursing.

5. Who are the faculty, and what kind of support will you receive? Especially in an online course, where a student rarely, if ever, sees an instructor ​in person, communication and resources are ​key, experts say. 

A student should research whether a nursing program offers assistance such as academic advisers, writing help ​centers and library resources, says Pedulla, of Kaplan.

In the program offered at Penn State, students interact with the instructor and each other through online discussion boards, among other forms of communication, and there's an online help desk to address any technical issues they may encounter, says Judith Hupcey, associate dean for graduate education and research at Penn State's College of Nursing. 

"It's about more than just cost and speed," Hupcey says. "It's the quality of the program you're getting."

If you’re an ER Nurse or you’ve been to the ER for treatment, you know timing is everything. I remember when my son was at camp and we received a call that we should pick him up and take him to the ER due to a deep cut that needed stitches. Fortunately the camp was only 45 minutes away. It was around 10:30pm when we picked him up and as we drove from camp to the ER we wondered, like anyone traveling to the ER, what’s the wait time going to be until my son gets treated? Will we be there all night? We were very lucky. Our local hospital’s ER this particular evening was practically empty. Whew!

We all know this is usually not the case, and in large cities, never the case. Here’s an interesting article about how Reading Hospital in PA reduced their wait time in the ER.

Nationwide hospitals are more frequently being overcrowded with longer wait times. Reading Hospital faces the same struggles in their emergency department with an annual patient volume of over 130,000, more than 20,000 admissions and 300-500 ED patients daily, the Level II trauma center in Reading, Penn. sees its fair share of people come through their doors. 

Emergency department overcrowding is not limited to this one facility. Mary Bilotta, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, CEN, emergency division clinical nurse specialist, stated, "Availability to access providers is not always easy." Limited office hours send patients to the ED when they would otherwise go to their primary care physician. When they do go to the PCP, the doctor sometimes sends them to the emergency department for routine tests or evaluation. The extra patients clog the system and increase the wait times for everyone. 

Information Overload
Google is a double-edged sword for health data. The public can easily access information on the internet, which means they search for their symptoms and come looking for sometimes specific treatment.  The instant gratification of the internet age rears its head as patients go from Googling to the hospital doors. Vanessa Hetrick, BSN, RN, CEN, staff nurse, emergency department, said, "When I take care of patients, they say, 'I don't have time to wait for my PCP, so I come to the emergency department.' " 

The emergency nurses and physicians treat everyone who presents for care.  Timothy Marks, RN, MSN, CEN, NE-BC, division director, emergency services, explained, "Emergency departments are the safety net for the healthcare of the community. We take care of everyone who comes through our doors.  We take this responsibility very seriously but at times the volume of patients exceeds the available resources." Treating all those patients exhausts both resources and clinicians.

Reading Hospital knew something had to be done, for the sake of their community and their healthcare professionals. They began a concentrated effort to improve time management in the emergency department and decrease wait times for patients. 

Marks said, "We had that multi-level support because, among many factors, we had dissatisfied patients leaving without care." That was a risk to the community.  The chief nursing officer, chief medical officer, chief operating officer and other high-level executives participated in discussions with frontline staff. When there is buy-in from the C-Suite, they found, more staff want to be involved and achieve results.

All Hands on Deck
Charles F. Barbera, MD, MBA, FACEP, chairman, department of emergency medicine, noted, "It was seen not as an ED problem, but a hospital program. We're a microcosm of all the programs in the hospital." 

While everything comes to a head in the emergency department, leadership recognized all blame can't be placed there. They tackled the issue with a no fault approach.  The CNO and CMO supported a process improvement plan and put nurses and physicians in charge. We created an ED-to-acute care sub-committee to face the challenge of long emergency department throughput times head on.

To begin the transformation, the sub-committee came up with guidelines, some of which were referenced from the Emergency Nurses Association, which included streamlining the triage process to include minimal questions. A greeter nurse meets patients and guides them to the right area for more timely treatment.  Immediate bedding was implemented whenever an available treatment space existed.  Involving the frontline staff in decision making about their work, usually trims minutes from the process.  Marks added, "We took a hard look at how we staff in the emergency department." How could they remain fluid and still meet patient needs?

When they started the improvements in 2013, the average throughput time in the emergency department at Reading Hospital for admitted patients was 6 hours. The current throughput time is 4.5 hours. The25% reduction was the result of teamwork and an examination of three areas where improvements were needed most.

Triple Threat
A few years ago, getting patients out of the ED and to a hospital bed seemed to take forever. They asked themselves, how can we shave off time? Nurses on the floors get notification from the computer system that they are receiving a new patient and are  encouraged to review the newly staff built , streamlined report of pertinent information. The bed assignment, in some cases, triggers an automatic dispatch of the transport team to move the patient. "When we first started, we had a timer on our board that starts when a bed is assigned," said Hetrick. The board shows a green happy face. If the patient is not moved within defined timeframes, the face turns sad from yellow and subsequently red.

That effort ties into another prong of the approach-improved electronic medical records. "We leveraged technology to make it work in our favor," Barbera explained. For instance, shortcuts in the EMR were developed for certain recurring diagnoses among ED patients. 

Hetrick added, "We optimized our standard protocols for chest pain, for example, and we can start the treatment process right away without calling a provider." The streamlined EMR system lets the ED staff talk to the whole hospital in a sort of universal language. She continued, "The flow is so much easier now that everyone can see the same thing. By keeping the patients and families at the center of what we do, we all are a team. It's not this department versus that department." 

One process change for patients was having a Front End Provider present in triage at peak times to interpret EKGs within ten minutes of arrival and start the care process. As a result, the hospital has a door-to-balloon time for patients experiencing a STEMI time of about 40 minutes.

Collaboration between different members of the inter-professional team is the name of the game in the third prong of the approach. With a patient-centered admissions philosophy, emergency department physicians and hospitalists work in parallel.  The ED physician used to spend time proving the patient couldn't go home. Now, hospitalists are brought into the loop right away, especially with complex patients. There are at least two hospitalists stationed in the ED, the hospitalists determine what the patient needs to get the right level of care.   

With everyone accountable for their departments, things run a lot smoother. "It has to be a collaborative effort," reminded Bilotta. With this focus, Reading Hospital increased patient and community satisfaction while making care more efficient.

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It seems that Google is involved in just about everything these days! Here’s the latest announcement. The American Heart Association is teaming up with Google on a project for heart health and conquering heart disease. Hopefully their huge investment will yield some promising results for everyone.

A company whose name is synonymous with eyeballs on the Internet is turning its attention to hearts. 

Google Life Sciences, a research group recently spun off from its parent corporation, is teaming with the American Heart Association in a $50 million project to find new ways to fight heart disease. 

The heart association's half, $25 million over five years, is the largest single research investment in its history. For the Google group, its latest biomedical venture will join projects that include whiz-bang devices such as driverless cars, contact lenses that monitor blood-sugar for diabetics and health-tracking wristbands. 

The project was announced Sunday at a heart association conference in Orlando. 

Heart disease is the world's top killer, a problem that "seems ripe for new innovation" and disruptive, unconventional thinking, said Andy Conrad, Google Life Sciences' chief executive. Progress has been slow and "we should shake it up a little bit," he said. 

Besides cash, Google has tech tools to offer such as sensors to monitor the health of "people in the wild" versus just when they go to doctors and huge capabilities for data analysis. The company is aiming for a cure, Conrad said. There's no guarantee of success, but "the only thing we can promise is that we'll try harder." 

By early next year — Valentine's Day, "a big heart day," Conrad said — a team from Google and the heart association hope to pick a project leader, who might be a cardiologist, a nurse or "a teenager from Wisconsin," depending on what skills and ideas that person can bring to the table. The team is looking for "a maverick," he said. 

The venture "really allows us to think about ... doing research in a different way," said Dr. Robert Harrington, chairman of the Stanford University School of Medicine and a member of the heart association's board. 

Traditional research has brought only incremental improvements in heart disease treatment. 

"We are trying to do something disruptive here," Harrington said.

More accurate due dates are something both mother and medical professionals want. But is it something possible to achieve? Ultrasound scans are helpful but they can only give an estimate date. 

Predicting when a woman is likely to give birth is an inexact science. It is also a question with important medical and personal implications. A meta-analysis published this week in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecologysheds some welcome light on the subject.

Predicting exactly when a woman is likely to go into labor has always been challenging; only 5% of women go into labor on their exact due date. 

For about 90% of women who are overdue (a pregnancy lasting over 42 weeks), contractions begin on their own within 2 weeks of the due date. But the exact date within those 2 weeks is frustratingly difficult to predict.

Of course, most women do not know the exact date the baby was conceived, and as such, any due date given can only be an estimate. 

Currently, the best methods for predicting the date of a child's birth are either by using the last menstrual period as a starting point, or by measuring the fetus size with an ultrasound scan. Neither of these methods are without some measure of inaccuracy.

An analysis carried out by Dr. Vincenzo Berghella, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, hopes to paint a slightly more accurate picture.

There are a number of reasons why people desire a more accurate prediction for their due date. As Berghella explains:

"Women always ask for a better sense of their delivery date in order to help them prepare for work leave, or to make contingency plans for sibling-care during labor. These are plans which help reduce a woman's anxiety about the onset of labor."

On top of these more logistical issues, there are very real health concerns, too:

"Women with a higher risk of stillbirth may be better off receiving a labor induction if the cervix is still long at her due date, since the chances of timely spontaneous birth are low, for example."

Cervix measurement of more or less than 30 mm is key

Currently, cervical length is measured in women who are considered at risk of a premature birth. The shorter the cervix, the more imminent the birth will be. This method of transvaginal ultrasound is considered a gold standard for predicting early births. 

During pregnancy, the cervix hardens in order to keep the fetus from dropping into the birth canal. As the due date draws near, the cervix softens. This softening causes the cone shape of the cervix to shorten and flatten, which can be used as a signal that the birth is imminent.

This precision has led a number of researchers to investigate a link between cervical length and birth at term - the hope being that if it can predict an early birth, it might have the same use for longer pregnancies.

These studies matching cervical length after 40 weeks of pregnancy, to date, have been inconclusive and sparked lively debate in the field.

Berghella has reopened this line of investigation and scooped together data from five different studies; the data included 735 women with single-child pregnancies who had babies in the standard head-down position.

This increase in data has given the research team a new and improved overview of the field of study and garnered some interesting results:

The researchers found that when the cervix measured more than 30 mm at a woman's due date, she had less than a 50% chance of delivering within 7 days. However, when the cervix measures 10 mm or less, women had more than an 85% chance of delivering within 7 days.

The results of the study give a glimmer of hope to mothers who are facing an uncertain stretch of time before they give birth. Further study in the area and its consequent analysis will help solidify these findings.

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Nurses have heard it before, "Can you not talk about gross stuff at the dinner table?" But Nurses can't help it when the most disgusting things are completely normal in their everyday lives. They become desensitized to topics like body fluids, infections, and smells and sounds.

Being a nurse involves seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and dealing with some of life’s not-so-pleasant things. Nurses face it all from the most gross to the most stunning situations that would make the normal person squirm or run. They build up an immunity to it, but it’s still something that can make them very weary. Yet, they never stop a beat of helping the patients that they have been trained to see through it all.

“We see it all,” says Barb Gallogly. She is senior lecturer and coordinator for Post Baccalaureate Nursing Program at Henry Predolin School of Nursing at Edgewood College, Madison, Wis.

“We are the eyes of the physician, and the ears of the respiratory therapist. We are in a position of privilege to be with the patients on a minute-to-minute basis. People trust us, and people open up to us,” she says.

And those patients trust them not to run away when things go from bad to worse or when they need them the most.

Things that nurses face that make them unique, strong and oftentimes – saints

Body Fluids: It’s not pretty. “But sometimes some of us still gag at vomit and other things that come out of bodies,” says Kristin Gundt, chief nursing officer at Community Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo. “It all depends on how much you are exposed to it, but that doesn’t mean you have to like it. We all have triggers that makes our own bodies react to it.”

Gallogly agrees that there are still things that make her gag. “But you have to rise above it, and work with it, and not to let your own personal feelings or reactions get in the way of good patient care,” she says. “A nurse must remain respectful of the patient and be calm when all hell breaks loose.”

Infections: In Gallogly’s office hangs a lithograph with a person who has germs all around and the words, “Please Wash Your Hands” stamped on it.

“I’m a germaphobe. As a new nursing grad, we didn’t wear gloves or masks back then. We never thought anything about it,” she says. “But now, there is anti-bacterial gel at every entrance – gel in and gel out. That’s hammered into our students now.”

She sees a lot of infected wounds, and a lot of people put into isolation because of infections. “Universal precautions don’t cut it anymore,” she says.

Smells and Sounds: Sometimes when someone else is vomiting, the sound itself can set nurses off with their own gagging reflex. “Or sometimes you hear someone with diarrhea and the gas with it, and it can set something off in you, too,” Gundt says. “But we try to hide our reaction for the patient’s sake.”

She adds that one of the hardest smells to stomach is when a patient is bleeding from their intestines or stomach. “You might have to excuse yourself if you are going to gag or throw up. You don’t want to make the patient feel like even the nurses can’t tolerate it,” she says. “But it smells so bad.”

Death: “We don’t know what death will be like from one person to the next. It can be smooth to really traumatic to really messy. It can be awful,” says Gundt.

One time comes to mind for her when she was a home health care nurse. The elderly lady had a relative come during the last stages of her death. The relative was panicking because she didn’t understand death and all the things that happen when the body shuts down.

“People are incontinent. They can’t hold their bowels. Nothing in them is awake anymore,” she says. “So, I kept her clean, changed her and turned her, and made sure she got pain meds. I stayed with her and the relative. It’s the people that are alive that are panicking. People are scared to be alone with the person who is dying.”

Chaos: “Most people’s jobs aren’t like this,” Gallogly says. “You learn really quickly to become a great multi-tasker and set priorities all the time. You usually have three or four things coming at you. You learn to delegate to others that can help you.”

Some days, it will be overwhelming. You leave work thinking that you didn’t do a good job. “With budget cuts, nurses are expected to do a lot more with less. It’s hard to give quality nursing care, and we want to take care of that whole person, but so much is coming at us. That’s frustrating,” she says.

Dynamics of Families: “We don’t just take care of the person, but the whole person which includes the family,” Gallogly states. “If the family is demonstrating behavior that are precluding progress or treatment for the patient, then we pull them aside. You never know what is going on with them. We don’t know their histories. There is usually a reason for their behavior.”

She says it’s easy to label people as the “crazy daughter” or “hysterical mother.” But that doesn’t solve any problems or help anyone. “We try to explore those dynamics and include them in what we are doing with the patient,” she adds.

Ill Treatment: When people are sick, their behaviors aren’t necessarily their norm. “They lash out at us, hit us, spit on us and swear at us. There is a lot of physical and emotional abuse,” says Gundt. “Sometimes, it’s very unexpected. You never think some of these people will strike out at you because they seem stable as can be.”

Gundt adds that nurses try very hard to not put themselves in a situation to be hit or hurt. “If it’s a family member that we feel is being obnoxious, abusive or unrealistic, we won’t hesitate to escort them out or get someone to do so,” she says. “But we will start with way less restrictive methods. We try to keep people on our good side.”

Nursing isn’t all roses and sunshine. But most people understand that when they go into the profession. It’s not easy. It’s not always pretty. But for those who choose it, they say they do it because they want to help people. They want to educate people to live healthier, happier lives no matter what squeamish  circumstances they have to confront.

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Most of us have heard of macular degeneration, which eventually robs people of their eyesight. But, have you heard about a new procedure done at UC Davis Medical Center that has restored a woman’s eyesight? The patient led a very interesting career for 40+ years and started losing her eyesight shortly after retirement.  Due to a new technology, she can now see her friends and family’s faces, read and enjoy the beautiful sights around her.

Virginia Bane was a trailblazer, both as a female business leader and an early embracer and purveyor of cell phone technology in circa-1980s Silicon Valley.

So when age-related macular degeneration stole her central vision after retirement, naturally she welcomed an innovative solution.

In a first-of-its-kind procedure for Northern California, UC Davis doctors implanted a pea-sized telescope in Bane’s eye, gradually restoring her ability to see faces, colors and print. Today the 92-year-old still enjoys reading, seeing friends and living independently – thanks to both her pioneering spirit and what she fondly calls her “bionic eye.”

“The outcome of this is one of the most wonderful thing I've had and if I didn't have it, I could not appreciate the things I see today,” Bane said at her Pollock Pines home. “I can see my family. I can see people's faces that I could never see before. I can see outside and long distance in my yard that I would not have been able to see without the scope.”

A leading cause of blindness

Bane was familiar with both technology and medicine from her 40-year business career, mostly spent in management during an era of relative gender inequality in the workplace. She started her first management job at 23 and retired 40 years later as the president of several corporations that provided pager and cell phone service, repairs and physicians’ exchanges in the Bay Area and Southern California.

“I had around about 70 employees between the corporations, and dealt with the attorneys and government agencies for licensing, but it was very rewarding,” Bane said. “It was very difficult, but I enjoyed every bit of it.”

It was soon after her retirement to a new painting hobby that Bane’s eyesight began its gradual decline due to age-related macular degeneration, a fairly common disorder among senior citizens and the leading cause of blindness in the U.S. for patients over the age of 60.

 “There is no pain with it, so at first you don't realize that you have it. I noticed it mostly in my reading and then of course, trying to draw,” she said. “Because of the light and the dark, and the shadows, it was very difficult to distinguish if something was in front of me at that time. It got so bad that at 84 I stopped driving my car.”

The disease affects the retina. Bane reached a point where she could no longer see images on an eye chart, and could only detect a doctor’s hand when waved directly in her face.

“This means you can't see the faces of your family members, you can't read a book, you can't watch TV,” said Jennifer Li, an associate professor of ophthalmology who cared for Bane at the UC Davis Eye Center. “There are a lot of things that we take for granted every day that people with this condition are unable to do.

“As you can imagine, patients like Virginia really suffer a lot from their disorder. They lose a lot of sense of independence.”

New treatment option

Bane came to the Eye Center after she reported seeing purple through one eye, a trait that stumped her local physician (“I went to UC Davis because they are advanced in everything about the eye,” Bane said). In 2012 the center was able to offer her a new technology, the implantable miniature telescope.

The pea-sized device is fixed in the eye and has two lenses that help magnify an image to about three times normal size, allowing the user to utilize undamaged parts of the retina.  Users still wear glasses to adjust their focus from reading to distance.

The device, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2010, is the only medical/surgical option available that restores a portion of vision lost to the disease. UC Davis Health System's Eye Center, in collaboration with the Society for the Blind, is one of the few in California and the nation to offer the innovative procedure.

Bane would be the first patient in Northern California and among the first 50 individuals in the U.S. to receive the implant. Candidates must be 65 or older with untreatable end-stage, age-related dry-form macular degeneration, with no other ocular diseases such as glaucoma and with adequate peripheral vision in the second eye.

“I've been very fortunate in that some people can go completely blind, and I have been able to still maintain and see things through the eyes,” Bane said. “When I had the opportunity to have the telescope lens implant, I was excited and ready to go.” 

Hard work

UC Davis cornea specialists Li and Mark Mannis implanted the scope. As expected, Bane did not wake from the hour-long procedure with immediately improved vision. Use of the device involves an extensive yearlong process of “visual rehabilitation” with UC Davis occupational therapists to adjust the brain to the larger image the telescope produces.

“They're going to use the telescope to look for things with the center part of their vision, look at faces, watch TV, try and read – but they still need their other eye to help them move around, to make sure they don't bump into things and to allow them to continue to be mobile,” Li said. “A lot of the training requires them learning how to use their eyes again and learning which to use under what circumstances, so that they’re able to go back and forth easily without thinking.”

The regimen involved twice-weekly appointments and hours of practice at home – trying to “find” the scope, teaching the other eye to resist taking it over (which causes double vision) and learning to move the device from place to place to enable reading.  Several weeks into training, things seemed to gel.

“I was sitting looking at TV, and golf was on,” Bane said. “All of a sudden, I could see the ball go into the little cup. I was thrilled to death because I knew then I’d ‘found’ the scope.”

Bane had high praise for her occupational therapist, Terri Hayward.

“She’s wonderful, she has the patience for everything – and she was learning at the same time I was because I was the first one to have the scope,” Bane said. “She did a marvelous job for me and I know she does for everyone.”

Restored independence

Three years out, Bane has vision ranging from 20/80 to 20/100, which equates to very readable letters on an eye chart.

“I couldn’t see, couldn’t read, couldn’t see the faces of other people, couldn’t see anything on TV unless I was sitting right on top of it,” Bane said. “With the scope, then of course, I can do all these things. Say if I'm watching television, I can tell you what color eyes people have, describe their faces and everything, the things that I could never have done before.”

The improved vision should remain indefinitely, Li said, thanks in no small part to Bane’s enthusiasm and training discipline.

 “She's achieved a lot of her (vision) goals, and hopefully she'll be able to continue doing the things that she enjoys for the rest of her life,” she said.

Here’s an interesting article about how to make the mentor/mentee relationship work through a new American Nephrology Nurses’ Association program called the “Pay It Forward Challenge”. Some excellent points are provided about how to make this important relationship work such as living near each other so you can meet in person for meetings. This seems pretty intuitive, but they have confirmed meeting in person is far better than trying to have meetings over the phone. Read on from some great tips about starting or improving mentor/mentee relationships.

Pairing two nurses in a mutually beneficial mentor-mentee relationship can be a little like Match.com. As part of the mentor matching program for the Organization of Nurse Executives, New Jersey, a nurse manager new to leadership lists what she or he wants out of the relationship and where in the state she or he lives, and the ONE NJ Mentorship Committee finds a mentor with the expertise to meet those needs, said Bettyann Kempin, RN, MSN, NE-BC, NP-C, a member of the committee and assistant vice president of medical/surgical services at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, N.J.

The success of well-matched pairs who commit to a year of the program can be an important career boost for the new nurse managers, Kempin said.

“The relationship didn’t end after a year,” she said of her own experience as a mentor.

How each nurse gets involved

To become a part of the American Nephrology Nurses’ Association program, potential mentors and mentees complete an online survey that asks for contact information and a list of goals they have developed, said Cindy Richards, BSN, RN, CNN, the organization’s president and pediatric renal transplant coordinator at Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham.

Any ANNA member can participate in the association’s Pay It Forward Challenge, which Richards announced at her recent induction as president; however, mentors must have at least one year of nephrology experience to give them the “solid background needed to help mentor a newer nephrology nurse.”

The nurses have the benefit of pairing with some of the leading nurses in nephrology, which might not always be possible at the mentees’s own organization, Richards said.

For ONE NJ’s program, which focuses on providing guidance for nurse managers, mentees and mentors attend a once-a-year workshop where nurses who want to participate as mentees share what they need help with. Then the mentorship committee sorts through its selection of mentor nurses “waiting to be called up the ranks,” Kempin said.

The program has 17 pairs this year, up from fewer than a dozen when it started four years ago, Kempin said.

Ask your mentor anything

One of the important aspects of the programs is the safe arena for the mentee to ask the mentor the “afraid-to-ask questions,” Kempin said. “It’s almost like big brother, big sister.”

The relationship can provide new nurses with clinical skills, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills and a way to discuss issues that arise on the job, Richards said. “As mentors, we need to foster a positive, encouraging environment for younger, newer nurses.”

Many mentors in the ONE NJ program have said they would have appreciated such a relationship when they were new managers, Kempin said.

“I would have loved to have been able to ask questions of other folks rather than research it and speak with other people I might know,” she said, adding that her network would have been wider faster with a mentor.

Nurses also have the opportunity to step out of their organizations and gain perspective. “They’re getting a different view of acute care hospitalization,” Kempin said.

What makes it work

After receiving feedback from its first mentor-mentee pairs, ONE NJ discovered pairing nurses who are geographically close and who can have face-to-face meetings was key to developing successful relationships.

“Telephone conversations don’t cut it,” Kempin said.

The feedback helped ONE NJ develop a 25-page, evidence-based toolkit of resources that describes the phases of a mentor-mentee relationship, explains the responsibilities of each role, has partnership agreements and relationship assessments and includes checklists for goal formation, meeting preparation and progress evaluation, according to the “Developing Leadership Talent: A Statewide Nurse Leader Mentorship Program” article published in the February issue of Journal of Nursing Administration.

“It’s a nice backbone to the program,” Kempin said.

ONE NJ checks in with the pairs every couple of months during the year to ensure they’ve met in person and are using the toolkit. “Having us check in on them helps keep them on track,” Kempin said. Because the workshop that kicks off the mentorship program happens annually, all of the participants are on the same timeline, she added.

For the ANNA’s one-year program, the mentor leads by example and shares her knowledge and the values of being a professional nurse and “the specific value set needed to work with chronically ill nephrology patients on a long-term basis,” Richards said. “The mentor must also be willing to acknowledge the mentee’s progress and explore where the mentee desires to go in ANNA and nephrology nursing.”

As part of Richards’ new Pay It Forward Challenge, the ANNA will recognize at its national symposium one pair in 2016 and one pair in 2017 with the most robust achievements, Richards said.

Without mentorship to expand their networks, “a lot of times, people get stuck,” Kempin said. But mentorship programs help nurses grow.

“We get rave reviews about it,” she added.

Share your Mentor Program Experiences

As the Nursing shortage continues so does the need for Nurse Educators. We thought you’d enjoy this article where Judy Burckhardt, Ph.D., MAEd, MSN, RN, Professor & Dean, Nursing and Healthcare Programs at American Sentinel University lists the Top 10 Best Things about being a Nurse Educator and why she feels it’s a natural step for many Nurses.

The need for more highly educated nurses and the growing shortage of nurse educators has broadened the career horizon for new nurse educators. The demand offers a high-level of job security and opportunities to advance quickly.

More importantly, nurse educators play a pivotal role in healthcare by strengthening the nursing workforce, serving as role models, and providing the leadership needed to implement evidence-based practice and improve patient outcomes. 

Judy Burckhardt, Ph.D., MAEd, MSN, RN, Professor and Dean, Nursing and Healthcare Programs at American Sentinel University says that teaching is an integral part of nursing and that becoming a nurse educator is a natural step for many nurses.

"Whether they choose to work in the classroom or the practice setting, nurse educators prepare and mentor patient care providers and the future leaders of our profession," she says.

Dr. Burckhardt says that many nurse educators typically express a high degree of satisfaction with their work and that mentoring students and watching them gain confidence and skills are some of the most rewarding aspects of their jobs. She shares her 'Best Things About Being a Nurse Educator' for nurses considering nurse education as their career path.

Dr. Burckhardt's Top 10 Best Things About Being a Nurse Educator:

1. The opportunity to educate nurses that will care for my loved ones and me

2. The ability to pass on what I have learned from great nurse educators

3. Hearing from previous students that their daughters/sons have gone into nursing because of their parent's experience in nursing school

4. The chance to make an impact on the future generation of nurses

5. Passing on the "tricks of the trade" to do things easier, without breaking protocols

6. Wearing a white lab coat while supervising students in clinical

7. Seeing the difference between how students appeared the first day of nursing school and seeing them function as great professional nurses in the clinical setting

8. Hearing from students that I had a positive effect on their decision to finish nursing school and become nurses

9. Working with a group of individuals that want to make the world a better place

10. Being able to replicate the activities of nurse educators who shaped who I am as a professional nurse 

Dr. Burckhardt says other benefits of being a nurse educator include access to cutting-edge knowledge and research, opportunities to collaborate with health professionals, an intellectually stimulating workplace, and a flexible work environment. 

She points out that The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) documented that nursing schools nationwide are struggling to find new faculty to accommodate the rising interest in nursing among new students.  

"Given the growing shortage of nurse educators, the outlook is bright for nurses interested in careers in academia," adds Dr. Burckhardt. "At American Sentinel, our Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program with a specialization in educational leadership was designed to provide nurse education leaders with credentials that validate credibility and competence to academic and business leaders. Students will be taught by experienced nurse educators and surrounded by colleagues who share their education-focused goals."

Register For The $5,000 Education Award!

SOURCE American Sentinel University

As Nurses, a big part of your job is empathy for your patients and their families. You’re so good at understanding what your patients are going through because you care and this I think, is primarily why you decided to become a Nurse – to help people and lend a sympathetic ear. You educate, show compassion, love and understanding every day. You are amazing! 

We came upon this touching video which reinforces that every one of us -- whether we’re a Nurse, a patient or patient’s family member -- has a personal life. Some days are better than others. It reminds us to be mindful of the people around us and their struggles. What are your thoughts about this video?

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Register For The $5,000 Education Award!

According to projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics by 2022 there will be an increase in the number of Registered Nurses of 526,800. That is over half a million! This means lots of nursing jobs for the near future– definitely a career with good prospects. If you are curious about RN salaries this infographic will be helpful.

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