Welcome! I’m Kim McAllister, RN, BSN, CEN, and I’m an ER nurse in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I’ve been a nurse for 32 years, having graduated with my ADN in 1978. I spent the last three decades working in CCU, ICU, and ER with a side of psychiatry and pediatrics.
Earning my BSN in 2010 through the online University of Wisconsin - Green Bay BSN/LINC program was the best decision I ever made for my career. Here at MastersinNursing.com, you are probably looking for an MSN program. So am I! We’ll search together!
I’m also love blogging, something I’ve done at Emergiblog (www.emergiblog.com) for the last six years. Here at MastersinNursing.com, I’ll be blogging on nursing education, careers, trends and just about anything else that comes to mind.
Most importantly, I want to know what you are thinking! Questions, comments or topic ideas can be posted on our Twitter feed using the hash tag #MiNchat.
Congratulations to the graduating nursing classes of 2012!
I wondered what the job market would be like for my new colleagues, so I started looking at the openings for registered nurses on the west coast.
Three metropolitan areas: Seattle, Portland and San Francisco.
There are a lot of nurses needed!
Emergency, labor and delivery, peri-operative, med-surg, critical care, case management, hospice, home health…there is no shortage of available jobs!
Wow.
Sixteen semester units, a full-time job as an RN on a med-surg floor, three kids under ten, and planning to take another 16 units next semester.
It wasn’t unusual to see this description among my classmates in my online BSN course.
With so many obligations, I wondered why so many saddled themselves with so much classwork. It wasn’t required. There was no time frame in which we had to complete the program.
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Patient education.
It’s a huge factor in nursing care and the emergency department is no exception.
Standardized discharge instructions are usually enough for the most common diagnoses, but when a patient has a diagnosis that isn’t covered, or needs more information than what the standardized instructions furnish, what can you provide?
In these instances, I turn to two specific sites on the internet for information.
Congratulations!
You did it!
Classes, caffeine-riddled nights of cramming for exams, and clinical rotations are a thing of the past.
That BSN is firmly in your grasp.
As you stand on the threshold of your nursing career, the NCLEX before you, pondering the job situation for nursing graduates, the last thing on your mind is more education.
But right now is exactly when you should think about that very thing.
The push toward doctoral degrees for practitioners is expanding, and not just for nurses.
Audiologists and physical therapists will soon be joining advanced practice nurses, according to the recent U.S. News.com article, Doctoral Degrees Gain Steam in Healthcare Industry.
In the debate for the nursing doctorate, nurses are told other professions are requiring a doctoral education, often as the entry level of practice.
But is it as controversial for other professions as it is for nursing?
I’m sitting here, smacking my head.
I just read a perfect example of what is wrong with my profession.
Nursing suffers from “not in my backyard syndrome”, or “NIMBYS.”
NIMBYS is manifested by the verbal agreement of the need for a single entry level into practice, namely a BSN, while simultaneously blocking attempts to facilitate that transition when it affects your “backyard.”
Check this out.
A trip to the emergency department means you will wait.
Oh, if you are extremely lucky, and the ER has a Fast Track, and they aren’t very busy, and your problem truly isn’t serious, you might be in-and-out quickly. But the reality is, there is going to be some sort of waiting involved.
I recently wrote a blog post on how to de-stress your ER visit, including a tip on bringing something to do while you waited. This brought out a few comments, such as:
“If you had a real emergency, you wouldn’t have to wait!” and
“If you are waiting for a long time, you probably don’t need an ER!”
Communication is the cornerstone of patient care.
We communicate continually with patients, nursing colleagues, other healthcare providers.
We communicate verbally, through body language, on paper, by computer, or through text messages and email.
Of all nursing communications, those with physicians can be the most important, and the most problematic, because physicians are often off-site, depending on our communication to tell them exactly what is happening.
Here are five tips to help ensure your nurse-to-physician communication is clear, concise, and gets your point across so your patient gets what they need.
This July I will perform a ritual I have performed every other year for 34 years.
I will open a folder and double check that I have at least 30 continuing education hours. I will then write a check to the California Board of Registered Nursing, thereby renewing my license for two years.
And I won’t give another thought to the CA BRN.
Should I be thinking about them?
Staying cool.
Easy to do in the dead of winter, but not always so easy to do when interacting in the world of social media.
Like interactions in real life, social media interactions are spontaneous and off-the-cuff. And, like in-person interactions, they can also be contentious.
Social media interactions differ, however, in that they are on display, in writing, and permanent. Yes, blog posts can be altered, tweets removed and facebook posts limited to “Friends”; but screen shots can be taken, pages and texts can be saved.
Basically, if you say it online or send it in a text, you have to assume that you have (a) said it forever and (b) said it to the world.
In our private lives, this may not seem like such a big issue, but what about engaging in social media surrounding professional issues? Continue reading
