When World War II ended, a massive global recovery plan was initiated, and we enjoy the positive reverberations of that plan to this day. The dawning of 2021 and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic call for nothing less than a similar worldwide initiative. Are we truly ready to collectively embrace this humanitarian call to arms?
Nurse Keith's Digital Doorway
Career advice -- and commentary on current healthcare news and trends for savvy 21st-century nurses and healthcare providers -- from holistic nurse career coach Keith Carlson, RN, BSN, NC-BC. Since 2005.
Monday, January 04, 2021
Sunday, January 03, 2021
The Gallup Poll: Nurses Remain at the Top and Still Need Support
As 2020 comes to a close, nurses have done it again: they find themselves at the top of the Gallup Poll for the 19th consecutive year. With 89% of respondents rating them high or very high for honesty and ethical standards — a 4% gain from one year ago — nurses stand tall as the most trusted professionals in the country.
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Hope, Fear, and the COVID-19 Pandemic
As I write these words, shipments of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine based on breakthrough mRNA technology have been arriving to hospitals for several days, with the first shots already having been administered. Simultaneously, we've now surpassed an awful milestone of 300,000 Americans lost to the virus, which is akin to the entire population of Pittsburgh being wiped out. With frequently more than 3,000 dead on any given day (the comparison being that we lost approximately 3,000 people on September 11th, 2001), the expected post-Thanksgiving surge is upon us, just as experts forewarned (and the public ignored).
With Christmas and the New Year ahead of us, now is not the time for the doffing of masks and giving up on social distancing and other recommended measures. In fact, it's time for us to double down and work together in order to move us into 2021 with hope for seeing this pandemic in the rearview mirror.
Sunday, December 13, 2020
Day Shift vs. Night Shift: A Consistent Nursing Dilemma
Days vs. nights is an old nursing puzzle that so many nurses face: Do I work nights and get the differential while ruining my social life, or do I work days and run my tail off when the residents, surgeons, NPs, and doctors are on hand all day to send me running with new orders and admissions?
When I was decided to go to nursing school, my wife was very supportive but she issued one warning: I could never work nights, and I promised her I never would. So, 22 years later, I've fulfilled my promise to the letter.
In the end, days vs. nights is the nursing conundrum that never gets old.
Sunday, December 06, 2020
Feeding Your Nursing Career
Monday, November 30, 2020
Hey Nurse; Got Resistance?
Monday, November 16, 2020
COVID-19: Misaligned Priorities and Missed Opportunities
(Note: this blog post was originally published on LinkedIn.)
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, information and misinformation travel like wildfire. Meanwhile, as we individually and collectively struggle with aligning our priorities and making good choices, things get overlooked and left in the dust, including people.
Missteps have been the hallmark of the pandemic here in the United States, especially when it comes to the Trump administration's lackluster and criminally misguided response, denial of reality, rejection of science, and the consistent undermining of expertise.
No matter the administration in power, mistakes and missed opportunities will continue to be made, just not as purposefully and cynically as that of the Trump White House and its spineless Republican lackeys.
Photo by Adli Wahid on Unsplash.comSaturday, October 31, 2020
Banishing the Organizational Shadow in Healthcare
Carl Jung once identified the shadow (or shadow archteype) as the unconscious aspect of the personality that the conscious mind and ego don't especially care to recognize as an aspect of the self. Some may refer to the shadow as the entirety of the unconscious mind. In this light, can we also deduce that organizations themselves also have a shadow?
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Nurses, Nursing, and the Nature of Suffering
Aside from witnessing the challenges faced by others, nurses are themselves human beings with their own life experiences, victories, and suffering. How a nurse navigates their own personal suffering plays a role in determining how they approach life, work, and the overlapping of the two.
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Photo by Samuel Martins on Unsplash |
Monday, September 28, 2020
Nursing Career Change and the Soul
Monday, September 21, 2020
Your Nursing Career Mitochondria
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Thinking Innovatively About Your Nursing Career Development
Your nursing career is yours to create, and every nurse’s path can be unique, innovative, and idiosyncratic with proper care. At the same time, your many obligations and responsibilities can steer you away from your uniqueness and leave you in a rut of choosing the path of least resistance. There are many strategies for choosing a career journey that fits your vision of who you want to be as a healthcare professional, and it’s worth exploring those strategies for the ones that can most readily move you forward.
Monday, September 07, 2020
Nurse, What's Your Personal or Professional "Everest"?
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Photo by Jackson Hendry on Unsplash |
Monday, August 17, 2020
5 Ways to Build Your Network of Nursing Career Allies
Since such a large number of nurses seem averse to consciously and purposefully building a professional network, here are five ways to build your network of nursing career allies.
Monday, August 03, 2020
Defining Nursing Career Success on Your Own Terms
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Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash |
Monday, July 27, 2020
10 Strategies for Feeding the Nurse's Inner Life
(Note: please see this blog post's companion podcast, episode 186 of The Nurse Keith Show, for further exploration of this topic.)
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Photo by Atolu Bamwo on Nappy.co |
Monday, July 20, 2020
The Five Rights Of A Healthy Work Environment
There are many reasons that bullying and unhealthy workplaces have become so common, and I’m sure that you, dear Reader, can rattle off a few without even thinking for more than a nanosecond.
Thursday, July 02, 2020
The Universal Impact of Racial Disparities and Systemic Racism: It's Everyone's Responsibility
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Mindset is Everything in Your Nursing Career and Beyond
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Photo by Olivier Rule on Unsplash.com |
Monday, June 08, 2020
Nurses, George Floyd, Racial Disparities, and the World We'd Like to See
But now, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and rampant global fear, economic insecurity, and a population tired of lip service to diversity and inclusion, millions are saying, "No more to endemic racism and police brutality against people of color!"
We nurses are part of the conversation because we're citizens, voters, and those who deliver care, conduct research, and perform myriad other tasks related to public health, acute care, hospice, home health, and beyond. Is our profession up to the task of confronting racism and other societal ills more boldly than ever before?
Monday, June 01, 2020
5 Actions for Overcoming Nursing Career Attention Deficit Disorder
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Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash |
Monday, May 18, 2020
Your Nursing Career: Stagnation or Flow?
Monday, May 11, 2020
The Profound Meaning of Nurses' Week During a Pandemic: Nurses Show Up
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Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels.com |
Friday, May 01, 2020
Be Yourself, Nurses; Everyone Else is Taken
Whether you feel like an impostor or your career has grown stale, there's nothing you can be other than yourself; and if you're trying terribly hard to be just like someone else (or do what others tell you is right), you may end up missing the mark altogether.
Monday, April 13, 2020
A Message to the Nurse's Future Self
So nurse, it's twenty years in the future, and you have two more decades of nursing under your belt. You've cared for thousands of patients, held thousands of hands, and looked into thousands of pairs of eyes. What do you remember, and what do your patients recall? What stands out for you? How does your career compare to your expectations, dreams and aspirations? How would you like that 20 years to live in your mind and heart? You can create it now.