A growing number of nurses and other healthcare workers have been fired from their jobs for postings on social media sites deemed to violate patient privacy.  This is a real concern and will be the subject of another post. But here’s another scenario that needs to be addressed – private conversations held in public places in [...]

I once heard someone say, “Life is not boring; people are boring.” The implication is that if someone feels bored, it is his or her own fault because there is always something interesting to do, see, and learn in life. The same could be said for nursing. Yet I often hear nurses say, “I’m in a [...]

I recently came across the Florence Nightingale pledge, the one I took 35 years ago when I graduated from a hospital-based diploma nursing program. When reading it on the eve of the year 2010, it occurs to me that it needs to be updated to better reflect where nursing practice is today.  Here’s the original composed by Lystra [...]

We in the nursing profession spend a lot of time reading clinical journals and books. But an equal amount of time needs to be devoted to personal and spiritual growth and development for balance and harmony. So here are my top ten must reads for nurses (and others, too). Each has been transformational for me in some way and [...]

While recently speaking at a nursing conference, the speaker before me was trying to make the point that nurses don’t support each other. One more sweeping generalization to put a negative thought in everyone’s head and start off the conference on the right note! She asked for a show of hands asking, “Who has ever had [...]

My life has been spinning out of control. The entire last year has been particularly “full” with business activities, new products and projects (I worked on 3 book projects this past year!!), volunteer work (I was president of the National Speakers Association – NJ Chapter) and lots of personal challenges. My husband has MS and has [...]

I just watched the premier of the newest medical drama “Mercy” on NBC which seems to focus on the lives of several key nursing characters. OK so it’s TV and it’s a drama so I shouldn’t expect much reality, right? Both the characters and the medical situations were way over the top - lots of exaggeration, some of [...]

I’m finally on Twitter www.twitter.com/donnacardillorn and Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/donna.wilkcardillo. Have been on LinkedIn  but am now actually using it. Twitter is interesting and amazing and I’m enjoying using it. It can also be overwhelming but that is the power of it – the ability to reach so many people, many of  who would never otherwise know [...]

My latest book, A Daybook for Beginning Nurses is hot off the presses. It was written for new graduates to inspire, motivate, and inform. There are 365 daily quotes, tips, and lessons to carry you through your first year in practice.  Each “chapter” includes a career-related essay to support you along the way.  Journal space accompanies [...]

There seems to be a shortage of nursing jobs, as opposed to a shortage of nurses, for the time being. I am receiving many, many e-mails from both new graduates and experienced nurses who want to reenter the nursing work force but are finding traditional hospital nursing jobs in short supply.  And while I cannot answer everyone’s [...]

There is an interesting article on lemondrop.com by Laura Gilbert about the recent “run” of TV dramas featuring a nurse as the main character. She begs the question “Why are we suddenly so obsessed with nurses?” and hypothesizes about the answer. Read the post and my response here

How would you answer the above question?

While speaking at an association meeting (non-nursing) someone came up to me and said, “Do you help nurses who want to get out of nursing??” I said “Yes. I help them find another path in nursing if that’s what it takes.” This same person told me that her sister worked in a hospital, was totally [...]