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If you deal with daily staff meetings and interactions with doctors and patients, you know just how important it is to speak assertively and get heard! But what exactly does “assertively” mean and how do you speak your mind without coming across as rude?

These are important questions, as communicating effectively — not to mention politely — is pivotal to your professional success as a nurse. The last thing you want to do is alienate other nurses (or patients!) with in-your-face boldness. And you definitely shouldn’t let doctors and other health care professionals walk all over you. As Mad Men’s Don Draper once said,

“…Keep it up, and even if you do get my job, you’ll never run this place. You’ll die in that corner office, a mid-level executive with a little bit of hair who women go home with out of pity. Want to know why? Cause no one will like you.”

And Draper’s advice is spot on; no one responds well to a bossy nurse and being rude is definitely not the way to win a promotion or respect. Remember, when asserting yourself or your ideas, your main goal should be to gain and give respect. How? We suggest focusing on confidence instead of assertiveness. You’ll find that a confidently presented idea or viewpoint will get you far and will garner you more respect in the long run.

Show Confidence

The best solutions come out of problems. Say you’re dealing with a particularly problematic patient who disagrees with his treatment plan. Instead of backing down and calling for the doctor, or losing your cool and yelling at the patient, take a step back. In order to communicate effectively, you must show confidence in yourself and what your saying – especially in front of a patient who’s obviously concerned about their health. Look your patient in the eye and make eye contact – both when you are speaking and (even more importantly) while you’re listening to the patient.

Exhibit Leadership Qualities

Part of speaking in an assertive manner is demonstrating leadership skills. When you are assertive in a conversation, you are leading that conversation. But don’t use this as a time to be condescending. Steer clear of using big words (especially when you’re dealing with patients whose native language isn’t English) in an effort to deliberately impress people and try to avoid making others feel defensive. Think about your approach, delivery, and what you want as a result of your conversation.

Next: Be Specific and Clear –>

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Whether you’re an palliative care nurse dealing with end-of-life care, or a nurse educator teaching the next generation of RNs, any job in nursing can be overwhelming and stressful. Learning how to manage stress and channel it through positive means is vital, not just for a successful career, but for your happiness and well-being too.

If you don’t take time to unwind, constant stress can lead to a number of physical and psychological problems, like poor concentration, depression, back pain and weight gain. It also weakens your immune system and increases your risk for cancer and cardiovascular disease.

That’s why NursingLink came up with these “22 different ways to de-stress without breaking the bank.” So hit pause, relax and indulge in some much needed (and affordable!) R&R. A hardworking nurse like you deserves it!

Here is the full list of ideas:

1. Become a kid again
2. Share your skills on your off-time
3. Stretch, breathe, meditate
4. Hang out with your funniest friend
5. Sleep
6. Visit the shooting range
7. Exercise your inner artist
8. Cook something amazing without grocery shopping
9. Get back to basics and…hug a tree?
10. Make your home a spa. Kind of.
11. Get your adrenaline pumping
12. Make to-do lists and start checking off items!
13. Get a free or discounted massage
14. Organize your living space
15. Try some at-home (or in car) yoga
16. Crank up the music and dance
17. Build a garden
18. Escape in the car
19. Hit the library
20. Grab that wrench and go at it
21. Check out free community events
22. Go on a picnic

And now…one by one…

Start with doing something you did all the time as a kid…

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Although we’d like to believe that every nurse is a good person with good intentions, we can’t ignore the fact that every year, state nursing boards revoke dozens of licenses.

While some of these men and women lose them for non-nurse related activities, others suffer the consequences of patient endangerment or worse. The threat of having your license revoked is ever-present and it’s important to know just what activities can take it away.

Of course, there are many more reasons your nursing license may be revoked, and the decision is ultimately up to your state board. Be sure to regularly familiarize yourself with your state’s laws and procedures.

1. Addicted Nurse Not in Good Recovery Program

We’ve all heard the story – the nurse with the back pain who gets prescribed Vicodin. After her pain has subsided, she slips herself a painkiller on the side. And then a few more. And more still. Soon, she is addicted. While abusing narcotics is reason enough to lose your nursing license, many boards will suspend your license and require you to enter an addiction recovery group. There are even recovery groups just for nurses.

If you complete therapy and remain clean, you can retain your license. However, if you refuse to enter recovery or continue to abuse substances while in recovery, your state board can revoke your license. Because nurses are near so many prescriptions, employers know that some may be tempted to indulge. So think again if you’re toying with the idea of slipping a few pills under the table.

2. Impersonating Another Licensed Practitioner

Believe it or not, this happens. And employers sometimes don’t catch it for years. A wannabe nurse may have a felony conviction that will prevent him from getting a license, or she may have had her own license revoked in the past. Whatever the case, identity theft is plausible if these “nurses” can obtain the correct papers. If you’re caught impersonating another nurse, whatever license you may or may not have will be immediately revoked by your state board, and that will stay on your record.

3. Diversion of Drugs

Slipping yourself or someone else drugs on the side is a serious offense, punishable by revocation of your license and jail time. If your aging father has taken all of his pain meds, leave it to his doctors to prescribe more or up his dosage. It’s not worth risking your career to boost someone else’s addiction.

Getting your license revoked is the least of your worries in this case. Diverting drugs with intention to sell, or actually selling prescription drugs, can get you thrown in jail for many years. Even if you are strapped for cash, don’t do it!

Continue to the next career deal breaker…

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Healthcare is one of the fastest growing professions out there, but every day, prospective students are being turned away because of a lesser-known shortage: there aren’t enough Nurse Educators to teach them all!

As a nurse, you are ahead of the curve if you’re interested in becoming a Nurse Educator. After all, you already know most of the material. Becoming a nursing instructor is also a great way to change careers into something with more flexible hours, less physical strain and better pay. Oh, and by the way, if you’re a Nurse Manager, or aspiring to be one, you’ll find these qualities apply to you, too!

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Read on for the 10 qualities that you’ll need if you want to survive and thrive as a Nurse Educator…and a Nurse Manager.

#10: Patience
Patience is one of those obvious traits that is often surprisingly under-cultivated in teachers. Having patience both with students and yourself will create a more disciplined, more rational you. Patience can overcome anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure, which you can apply both to your own teaching style, but also impart to your students.

How to get this coveted quality? Relax! You immediately can make progress by taking a few deep breaths and an extra 30 seconds to answer a student’s question, make a diagnosis, or reply to an irate patient. Remind yourself that all things take time.

#9: Emotional Intellect
Part of a teacher’s job is to help a student get through the course with success. Sometimes this means recognizing that specific students need extra help, and sometimes it means giving free reign to a student who is doing especially well. Research tracking over 160 high-performing individuals in a variety of industries and job levels revealed that emotional intelligence was two times more important in contributing to excellence than intellect and expertise alone. Emotional intelligence can help you discern what your students need, but it can also be a valuable tool to help you decide how to react in stressful teaching situations and when you navigate academic politics, and help you bond with students to give everyone a richer and more meaningful experience.

#8: Dedication
There is no question: Nursing is a tough job. To be a nurse, a person needs endless dedication and a real belief they are changing the world. To see dedication in a teacher inspires the students and shows them that even through many years of nursing, the instructor has not lost his/her spark. In some ways, teaching a future nurse the art of determination is even more important than teaching those basic nursing skills. By being an example of dedication, the instructor is able to teach a valuable lesson that will help students break into their chosen profession and stay there.

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Frustrated by unemployment, nurses?

Job hunting is tricky business. Getting hired as a nurse is a subtle mix of the right qualifications, enough experience, interview chemistry and a dash of luck. Assuming you’re making all the right moves and avoiding the really obvious job seeker mistakes, there are a few points to consider that could be your ticket out of unemployment.

Get out of your job search rut and back in the hospital by fixing these mistakes you might be making:

1. Job Description

Read it. Do you meet every qualification listed? If you think you can get away with not having that extra few years of experience or make do without the requested higher degree, think again. Job descriptions are a baseline for hiring managers. With so many job applicants, recruiters are naturally going to pick the best of the best, and that means you’ve got to meet every single one of the job requirements, at the very least. But that doesn’t mean you should give up, either. If you find yourself not meeting a certain job requirement time after time, do something about it! Take a certificate course, or brush up on your bedside manner. Nothing shows dedication like taking action.

2. Word Play

It’s not enough to have a clean resume free of grammar and spelling errors; you’ve got to go that extra mile. No matter how amazing your resume looks, everything lies in the words. If the hiring manager has to decipher your resume jargon, don’t expect a call back. Phrase your nursing resume with the right keywords. Use powerful words that imply action and sell your experiences by highlighting specific achievements and accomplishments. The right healthcare keywords are your best bet to getting your resume on top of the pile.

3. Job Search Tactics

Browsing through the classifieds? Going through Human Resources? Looking at hospital websites for job leads? One reason your search for a nursing job may have hit a dead end is because your methods are outdated. Get with the 21st century and go online! The right social network can connect you with the job you want. Use Monster to find jobs in your field–post a resume and find your calling with their new Career Mapping tool. Use LinkedIn and NursingLink to maintain your connections. Spread yourself out and try something new — you never know which method will work!

Next: Not the Right Fit >>

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Most of our daily problems, including common annoyances such as arguments with coworkers, are dismissed as not life or death.

However, when nurses and doctors are involved, it can be a matter of life or death.

Egos need to be left outside the hospital by the professionals entrusted with the health and safety of the patients they care for, which sometimes means nurses must argue with doctors.

The problem is that a hospital isn’t really conducive to arguing. And doctors aren’t like lawyers, who argue for a living. They’re used to having everyone accept their opinions as gospel, and can take it as a personal affront when anyone disagrees with them.

Unfortunately, doctors are people and people make mistakes. With nurse practitioners and RNs taking on more duties, nurses and doctors butting heads is becoming increasingly common.

Here are four times when it’s OK to argue with your doctor.

1. When the doctor isn’t listening to you or the patient

Nurses often have more contact with patients than doctors do leading up to surgeries or consultations. It’s during those interactions that nurses often find out relevant information about a patient’s condition that may not be obvious otherwise. If you have something to add and the doctor blows you off, it’s probably a good idea to take them aside and let them know that they shouldn’t ignore the information you’re conveying.

2. When the doctor is belittling you

Most doctors are professional, respectful, and courteous. There are some bad apples, though. Doctors who make you sound stupid in front of patients and/or coworkers need to be told that what they’re doing isn’t acceptable. Otherwise your ability to do your job will be compromised.

3. When the patient’s safety is in danger

If the doctor is showing any signs of incompetency — be it poor decision making or even signs of intoxication — it’s a must that you take it up with the doctor involved before he or she does something harmful to the patient. If that doesn’t work, tell your superior immediately.

4. When the doctor isn’t letting you do your job

Sometimes nurses assist or even handle some surgical procedures, including anesthetizing patients. If a doctor comes in, pulls the whole, “I’ll take it from here” routine, and tries to keep you from handling your duties, you should say something to him or her. Otherwise, he or she is likely to keep pushing you aside.

Next: What You Can Do →

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Do you know the difference between a caduceus and the Cup of Hygieia? Or the Rx and the Staff of Asklepios?

You may have been a nurse for a decade, but do you know where these historical symbols come from?

Test your savvy (then get some answers!) with our three minute quiz.

This symbol incorporates a serpent wrapped around a stick.

The Staff of Asklepios
Caduceus
The Bowl (or Cup) of Hygieia

The Staff of Asklepios is the international symbol of medicine.

True
False

The United States commonly uses the Staff of Asklepios as their symbol for medicine.

True
False

What does the Bowl (or Cup) of Hygieia look like?

A maple leaf in a bowl
A wineglass with a snake coiled around it
A snake inside of a goblet filled with blood

What organizations use the Bowl (or Cup) of Hygieia as a symbol?

American Pharmacists Association
American Nurses Association
American Medical Association

Where did the caduceus come from?

A doctor who was bit by a snake and beat it with a stick
A 19th-century medical publisher
The Egyptian Eye of Horus

The Rx symbol comes from which Roman god?

Hera
Hermes
Demeter
Jupiter

The caduceus is two snakes entwined around which god's staff?

Zeus
Persephone
Hermes
Apollo

Askelpios is the ancient Greco-Roman god of:

Love
Medicine
Healing
Fertility

Nurses commonly uses what symbol to represent their noble endeavor?

Lamp or Candle
Pomegranate seeds
Red Cross

Image: © iStockphoto.com/brett lamb

Nurses hear it all: The good, the bad, and the (very, very!) ugly. From pushy patients to bossy doctors, nurses handle it all with grace. But there are some things that can get under the most tolerant nurse’s skin.

NursingLink talked to healthcare professionals, one another and (of course!) nurses to find out what phrases or questions were most irritating. Ever felt like strangling someone with your stethoscope? Then you probably heard one of these 10 things.

10. “Helloooooo, Nurse!”

You’re not an object to be fawned over. You’re saving lives here! You don’t have time to be ogled. Luckily, younger generations probably have never heard the phrase, so you can hope that it will be phased out soon.

Okay. We get it. We’ve all seen the cartoons with the buxom nurse who is swooned over by a wolf, or a man, or an Animaniacs character. It wasn’t funny or original the first dozen times you heard it, and it certainly hasn’t made a positive impact 10 years later.

9. “Do You Only Date Doctors?”

Puh-lease. Anyone who has actually spent any time around a doctor knows that dating one is next to impossible. Crazy hours. Constant stress. Big egos. Who wants to put up with that? Plus, everyone knows you shouldn’t “dip your pen in the company ink.” Spending 12-plus hours with someone can make you form an incredibly close bond, but that doesn’t mean your coworkers will make the best significant others.

Anyone who asks a nurse this is clearly watching too much Grey’s Anatomy and needs their head examined.

8. “C’mon. Nursing is Just Like on TV!”

What were we just saying about people who watch too much Grey’s Anatomy? While medical shows are a great form of entertainment – tons of nurses watch them, too – that doesn’t mean they are an accurate portrayal of when hospital life is like. Nursing organizations have even taken up arms against nurse-centered shows like Nurse Jackie and HawthoRNe. Prior to these shows, nurses were almost never the focus of a medical TV show. Nurses were merely in the background emptying bedpans or taking orders.

But we know the truth. Nurses are the foundation of any good health system. They don’t have time to be the center of attention because they are always cleaning up a (metaphorical) mess a doctor has left!

7. “Nurses Take Orders From Doctors”

Nurses work alongside other nurses. They report to other nurses. They belong to organizations and unions just for nurses. Edie Falco of Nurse Jackie put it perfectly when she said “Doctors diagnose. Nurses save lives.” When it comes down to it, nurses are the ones in the trenches. Because they spend the most time with patients, they can be counted on to know when something is wrong or if a patient has made any progress.

Doctors and nurses may work side-by-side, but nurses are responsible for nurses.

6. “What’s Taking So Long?!”

image: © istockphoto.com/Sharon Dominick

Patients depend on nurses to keep their healthcare experience a positive one. But we all know that things can get hectic in the medical field. Emergencies and unpredictable accidents can happen on a daily basis which means patients may not always be seen when they thought they would.

Having a patient gripe at you and ask “What’s taking so long?!” can be irritating, especially if you are trying your hardest to make sure everyone is taken care of. It’s in stressful situations like this that it’s sometimes easier to snap instead of calmly explain that you are doing your best.
And the top FIVE (drumroll please)…

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Developing a good bedside manner is just as important as improving clinical skills in expanding your role. Whether it’s dealing with the embarrassing medical complaint, the overly nervous teenager, the anxious new mother or the 30-year-old man who would rather be anywhere else but in the pharmacy, getting patients to open up, trust you and give you the information you need is vital for providing a high level of service.

Good interpersonal skills will help nurses – and their patients – get the most out of delicate services such as emergency contraception, chlamydia screening and erectile dysfunction advice. It will mean patients get exactly what they came in for, and it will keep them healthy – so here’s how you do it.

#1: Focus

You may feel you are needed in 20 different places at once, but it is vital patients get the attention they deserve. If someone comes in asking in a low whisper about hemorrhoids, you need to give them your full attention. That means avoiding simultaneously filling out forms or answering the phone. If necessary, ask them to wait five minutes while you can finish what you are doing so you have time to deal with their query properly.

#2: Really Listen

The teenage girl struggling to ask about the morning-after pill may just want information on contraception. The patient with poor asthma control may just want reassurance about her treatment. But by not listening properly, you may make the wrong assumption about the nature of their problem. The query may not be immediately apparent but instead hidden in a long description of symptoms, so listen first and then repeat back to check you have understood to establish exactly what the patient wants.

#3: Ensure Privacy

Nurses used to dealing with embarrassing medical problems on a daily basis can easily forget how uncomfortable it can be for the patient to talk about certain conditions. Offer a private consultation area if someone is asking for advice about a sensitive issue.

Use the patient as a guide – are they fidgeting, speaking very quietly or blushing? They may be asking about a condition you have never thought of as embarrassing, but they may find it very difficult to talk about. For example, some mothers are mortified to be asking about head lice.

On the other hand, some patients will shout out personal information at the top of their voices or start stripping off to show you a rash. Offering such patients privacy is still important in saving the blushes of other patients, though, and it will help you focus on the problem.