NurseZone Newsletter | 12-19-2008

By Debra Wood, RN, contributor

With nurses ranking at the top of Gallup's 2008 annual "Honesty and Ethics of Professions" survey for the seventh straight year, staff nurses and nursing leaders share their thoughts about how and why 84 percent of Americans rated nurses as having the highest ethical standards of all professionals.

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By Amanda Sounart, associate editor

A cry of "Fire!" is the last thing you would expect to hear in an operating room, yet every year between 550 and 650 patients awake from surgery to find that they have been at the center of a sudden blaze. While OR fires are a fairly rare occurence, preventing even one fire can save a patient from a lifetime of pain. 

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Throughout the year, NurseZone has published hundreds of articles, sharing stories of those who have gone above and beyond, and providing insight on how nurses, like you, can care for yourselves--even if you only have five minutes for a break. Throughout the month of December, NurseZone is highlighting some of its most popular articles and stories that remain relevant months later. They are stories about you and for you, and we're pleased to bring you the highlights.

By Jennifer Larson, contributor

What do nurses want? Do they want better pay? Better hours? Less mandatory overtime? More autonomy? Better benefits? Absolutely. But as it turns out, most nurses really want to go to work each day at a place where they will be valued, where they feel like they are part of a team that really works together.

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RN Career Coaches Offer Empowerment to Nurses

By Megan M. Krischke, contributor

For nurses seeking a professional change, help with determining how to cope or what direction to take their careers, RN career coaches can serve as a sounding board and provide encouragement, direction and empowerment.

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Exploring the Generation Gap in the Nursing Workforce

By Jennifer Larson, contributor

Each generation of nurses has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. Mix them together and you can wind up with a nursing staff with enormous talent and abilities but also a tendency to occasionally clash, especially with regard to their different approaches to work.

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By Christina Orlovsky, contributor

In today's age of instant information, the Internet can be used to learn about practically anything, especially through major search engines like Google. Now, Google.org, the philanthropic side of the Google empire, has launched its own flu-prevention initiative—-a national flu trends service designed to catch flu outbreaks well before they strike.

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