I'm just a little late, but never to forget Emergiblog's Change of Shift. Kim is one of the premier nurse bloggers on the internet and still going strong. There are few nursing blogs that I frequent and she's the cream of the crop! I envy her writing style and laugh until I almost pee my pants at some of her posts. One day, I would love to meet her in person and say hello. Till then, I can admire her from afar.

I can really say that if I ever end up in the ER, I hope that the nurses who take care of me care half as much as she does about her patients and her blogging friends. I hope that she continues to keep Emergiblog going strong and continues her education and becomes a fellow NP when she finishes her BSN.

Why is it so hard to figure out what nurse practitioners actually do? It's really not that hard. Pick up a telephone and call one if you really want to know. You can google the question and be brought to several sites, including mine, that can explain what we do and how to become one if you want.
The following is the explanation that Top Colleges.com has come up with for a nurse practitioner.

A nurse practitioner is an RN who has undertaken further training (such as a Masters degree) to provide similar care as a doctor (such as carrying out the same sort of non-emergency tasks that a physician may perform). In many states, nurse practitioners are able to write prescriptions for patients.

Go on over and leave a comment here and give your explanation like I did. Maybe they will change their definition.

Nurses are everyone’s caregiver, from seniors to expectant moms to patients in the ER to sick kids to surgery patients. But who’s there to take care of you when you shed your scrubs and head home after a long day – or night—of work? Whether or not you have someone to come home to, here are 10 ways for nurses to unwind and veg out after spending hours patching other people up.

1. Treat yourself to a manicure. Have someone else buff, paint and trim your nails. Having someone else look after your physical needs is a real treat, even if you know the manicure won’t last long at your regular job.
2. Head to the movies. It’s one of the few places that’s dark, quiet and you don’t have access to your pager.
3. Watch nurse and hospital shows on TV. No matter how bad you’ve got it, you most likely didn’t have to deal with a burning school bus, a helicopter crash, a tornado, and a murdering nurse’s assistant on the same day.
4. Burn your scrubs. If you’re planning on throwing out a pair of scrubs anyway, go ahead and burn them. It just feels better.
5. Challenge yourself to avoid using any kind of medical lingo in everyday conversation. It’ll be hard at first, but you’ll feel more like a regular human.
6. When someone calls and asks for help, just say no. On your day off, it’s okay to stop being the hero every time someone needs one.
7. Go out with friends who aren’t nurses. You’ll finally get a chance to talk about things other than your job and free yourself of the everyday stresses that plague you.
8. Go out with your nurse friends. Every once in a while, have a party or go to happy hour with your nurse friends to rant and vent about the little things no one else will get.
9. Sit by the window. If you’re locked up in a hospital all day, you may not get a chance to monitor the weather or even tell if it’s day or night. Spend as much time outside or at least by a window on your days off.
10. Go shopping. Go shopping for clothes you can’t wear to work, and then plan out the trips and activities you’ll wear them to.
This post was contributed by Kathleen Baker, who writes about the ultrasound tech school. She welcomes your feedback at KathleenBaker3212 at gmail.com

Change of Shift is up over at RehabRN. Boy am I a little behind! I need to start writing again!

Too often I have patients who show up to the office with reports of symptoms that have been occurring over several days, weeks, months, and even years. With the amount of medical information that is blasted over the television and on the internet, it still is amazing how much patients still do not understand about certain medical conditions.

Patient X shows up to the office and reports having chest pain, sweating, nausea, pain radiating down the left arm but didn't think that it was REALLY a heart attack and just wanted to come see me to make sure. The pain had stopped by this time.

I asked the patient why they didn't call 911 during this episode. "I thought it would just go away."

Hmmmm. Yep. You almost "just went away yourself!" Now go to the hospital and get your enzymes checked to see if you are finished with your heart attack and get a cardiac cath preferably by ambulance from here.

"Oh I can't go right now. I have too many things to do!"

Are you too busy to die? What part of having a heart attack don't you understand?

Sigh....