DiversityNursing Blog

Nursing students with previous caring experience are less likely to perform better academically and clinically than those who have none, research shows.

A study assessing the criteria for selecting nursing students found that high emotional intelligence did not mean students performed better on their courses.

Researchers also found that of the students who have withdrawn from their studies, nearly 60 per cent had previous caring experience.

The ongoing study, led by the University of Edinburgh, is tracking performance and emotional intelligence - the ability to recognise your own and other people's feelings and act accordingly - of nearly 900 nursing and midwifery students from the University of the West of Scotland and Edinburgh Napier University.

Researchers found, however, that performance improved with age and that female trainees scored significantly better than male counterparts.

The findings come after the 2013 Frances Report - which highlighted care failings at the Mid Staffordhire NHS Foundation Trust - recommended an emphasis on creating a more compassionate end empathetic culture in nursing.

As a result, aspiring nurses in England could potentially be required to spend a placement year as a carer before undertaking their training.

Lead researcher Rosie Stenhouse, lecturer in Nursing Studies at the University of Edinburgh, said: "The research should sound a note of caution to such pilot schemes. They are potentially expensive, politically motivated and not backed up by evidence."

Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com

By Rena Gapasin

If you are a nursing student or new nurse, you are probably wondering what you will need in your work bag. Aside from your personal stuff, what are the things you bring that signifies you are a nurse?

These nursing supplies listed below are a must if you want to do your job efficiently.

The most common supplies nurses have in their bags are:

1. Stethoscope

   This is one of the most important tools of the trade. Nurses use this tool to listen to things such as the heart, veins, and intestines to make sure proper function. According to Best Stethoscope Reviews, here are the 6 best stethoscopes to buy. As you surely know, it's one of the most important tools for a patient's assessment.

   One of today's leading stethoscope brands is Littmann. You can choose from the classic style to the most advanced kind.

2. Books

   A handy reference listing down common medicines and conditions. MIMS provides information on prescription and generic drugs, clinical guidelines, and patient advice. Nurses can also use Swearingen's Manual of Medical-Surgical Nursing, a complete guide to providing optimal patient care.

3. Scissors and Micropore Medical Tape

   Bandage scissors are used for cutting medical gauze, dressings, bandages and others. Nurses need to have these in their pockets for emergency use, especially for wound care. Micropore tape is also important and should be readily available, for example, when your patient accidentally pulls his/her IV.

4. Lotion and Hand Sanitizer

   Nurses never forget to wash their hands several times throughout the day, leaving their skin dry. That's why having lotion in their bags is important to keep the skin in good condition. Meanwhile, the sanitizer helps nurses steer clear of germs, along with other contagious agents.

5. Six saline flushes

6. Retractable pens

7. Sanitary items - gauze, sterilized mask and gloves, cotton balls

8. OTC pharmacy items (cold medicines, ibuprofen and other emergency meds)

9. Small notebook - for taking notes from doctors and observations of your patients.

10. Thermometer

11. Tongue depressor

12. Torniquet

13. BP apparatus

14. Watch with seconds hand

On Nurse Nacole’s website, she shares that she carries a drug handbook, intravenous medications, makeup mirror, tape measure, towel, lotion, wipes, 4 in 1 pen and a homemade cheat sheet for her patients.

Also, in MissDMakeup's What's In My Work Bag Youtube video, she has a box of batteries, tapes, a pack of gum, toothbrush, sanitizer, coupons, snacks, umbrella, stethoscope, pens, folder of her report sheet and information sheet, tampons, charger, name tag, ID, makeup bag, eye drops, lotion, hair clips, highlighter, pen light, and journal.

So, What's in My Bag?

In my bag, I have a 4-in-1 pen, a highlighter, IDs, bandage, journal to write some new information when I surf the net, my phone with medical e-books and medical dictionary in it, and other stuff like alcohol, sanitizer, over-the-counter meds (such as paracetamol, cold medicine, pain killers, multivitamins), eye drops, handkerchiefs, floss, toothbrush, nail file, band aids, and food.

Aside from my knowledge in providing quality patient care, I also bring things that can help me get through my shift. In an effort to make things more compact and easy for a nurse to get access to, most common nursing supplies are available in a portable kit. The size and styles are developing as new ways of making a nurse's shift easier.

These are just few of the essential nursing paraphernalia that a new nurse needs. 

What's in your bag that you can’t live without?

Source: nurse together

 By Robin Farmer for HealthCallings

If Janet Patterson, RN, could go back in time, she would learn the answer to a simple yet overwhelming question: What exactly do nurses do?

For most people, images of bedpans and needles pop into their minds, says Patterson, a nurse for 33 years who now works as a home care nurse at Maxim Healthcare in Santa Rosa, Calif. “We think we know [before going to nursing school] what [nurses] do, but we really don’t. I became a nurse and I couldn’t talk about it with anyone who wasn’t one.”

A realistic job description tops the list of information veteran nurses say they wished they had known before embarking on their careers decades ago. Experienced nurses recommend that new nurses and students talk to people doing the job they want. Ask questions in person, by phone or online in chat groups for nurses.

Nursing is intimate

Nancy Brook, MSN, RN, NP, wished she had known that “I would be changed as a human being because of the intimacy of the moments that you share with patients.” New nurses must prepare for this, she says. The impact of witnessing many life-changing experiences such as birth, death and serious diagnoses lingers beyond the workday, says Brook, a nurse practitioner at Stanford Hospitals and Clinics in Redwood City, Calif. After the workday, “It’s not your muscles that are sore, it’s the mental muscles,” Brook says.

It’s important for new nurses to create a routine to unwind, learn healthy habits and stay socially connected, seasoned nurses advise.

Keep learning

When Cynthia Ringling, RN, BSN, started nursing in 1990, she had no idea “that the personal touch of nursing would have changed with the age of computers. It made the RN much more of an administrator and documenter,” says Ringling, a chief clinical officer at Interim Healthcare in Colorado. “A lot of the personal tasks we did have been pushed to unlicensed or trained people.”

Nursing is an evolving profession with changing technology. New nurses must stay open to learning from patients, peers, physicians, professors and other professionals.

Squash conflicts

Another discovery Brook wished she had known before pursuing her career are the challenges of working with colleagues. “It’s not the patients who are hard, it’s the other nurses, managers, physicians — that whole interplay that professionals experience, unless you are working independently,” she says.

Ask for help. Make building a support system a priority, veteran nurses recommend.

Remain flexible

Adjusting to an intense work schedule also topped the wish-I-had-known list for longtime nurses. Meeting the demands of patient care can be exhausting. Add nights, weekends and holidays to the mix and maintaining a social calendar requires patience and flexibility. Brook says she wishes someone had told her in advance she would be late for every party because her shift did not end on time.

Accept that people get sick every day and require care. Imagine patients as your own loved ones who need care, says Sheri Cosme, MSN, RN-BC, a clinical educator at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.

“Nurses work 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. So to think as a new graduate nurse that you will only work days, Monday through Friday, is not realistic,” advises Cosme.

By: Ambriel Maji

Every student nurse needs to have a strong understanding of culture and ethnic considerations so that they may be able to care for their patient's as whole. Many nurses when not faced with diversity are not fully understanding to exactly what culture is.

Culture is a set of learned values, customs, practices and beliefs that are shared by a group of people or are passed from one generation to another. A subculture shares many of the same characteristics with a primary culture but they may have patterns of behavior or ideals that differ and separate themselves from the rest of a cultural group.

Not all members of a culture will have the same behavior though; some of the differences are age, religion, dialect, socioeconomic backgrounds, geographic locations, gender identities, gender roles, and the degree of values that are adopted in a current country.

Stereotyping is something a nurse must learn not to do because culture can influence each person in varies ways and not each person from a certain culture may feel the same way as another person. Stereotyping is a generalized feeling about one group that is formed based on behavior, of an individual or a group. Ethnic stereotyping is a fixed concept of how all members of a certain group may think or act.

Race is considered a group of people who share biologic and physical characteristics, while ethnicity is a group of people who share a common social and cultural heritage based on beliefs, traditions, and national origin, physical and biologic characteristics.

Transcultural nursing is the understanding and integrating of the many variables in culture and subculture practices into all the aspects of nursing care. Different cultures have a variety of practices that may relate to response to illness and death, care of people of different age groups, childbirth, diet and nutrition, and even health care in general and treatment methods.

The nurse must be aware of personal culture beliefs and practices of their patient and understand that these beliefs put influence on their ability to care for those patients of different cultural backgrounds. By understanding these personal beliefs it gives the nurse the ability to react to different cultures with understanding, respect, openness, and acceptance of the differences between them. Depending on the location you work you may come across many different cultures and subcultures it is a nurse's duty to become versed in the different patients they may take care of.

Source: Yahoo Voices

By Dr. Sapna Parikh 

Video

NEW YORK (WABC) -- New technology is helping medical professionals learn from each other, even though they're 1,500 miles apart.

A patient has chills and a fever. Students at Columbia University School of Nursing discuss the diagnosis with their classmates. But they also talk to people in a little box--the medical team at a clinic in La Romana in the Dominican Republic.

Norma Hannigan said she got the idea while she was at the clinic last April. Why not discuss medical cases and learn from each other?

"We're a little stronger on the primary care chronic illness end of the spectrum, and they're much stronger on the infectious disease," Hannigan, an assistant professor of clinical nursing.

The students were presented a patient with diabetes and everyone had to figure out how they'd solve it together.

"The way we manage the case here versus the way they would manage the case in the Dominican Republic is very different," Stephanie Paine, a nurse practitioner student, explained.

It was surprising to learn, for example, they almost never do a test called Hemoglobin A1C. It's too expensive, but in the U.S., that test is done for diabetics all the time.

Students can also learn about cultural differences. In Washington Heights, many of the residents are from the Dominican Republic.

"It's a way to improve the way we treat patients," said Dr. Leonel Lerebours, the medical director of La Clinica de Familia in La Romana, Dominican Republic.

Lerebours says they have learned to work with fewer resources.

"We rely more on clinical features than lab," he said.

This is the first long distance webinar, but they say it won't be the last.

"Maybe incorporate more people from the school of public health from the school of medicine," Hannigan suggested.

"It's really good," Martha Yepes said. "We're able to have this exchange, especially with the technology that we have now."

There were, of course, some technical challenges; the connection was slow at times, and it's hard to capture excitement or enthusiasm when you're doing it over the web.

But there were also funny moments. Where what we consider a problem here, La Romana's medical team thinks it's normal.