Real Nurses Real Stories

Mary Yoshino, FNP, wore an identification badge for years that told the world who she was and what she represented in the healthcare community. When she retired from being a nurse, Mary wasn’t sure what her next step would be, but she knew she wanted to continue to help people.

Nurses have a long history of supporting disaster relief efforts through the American Red Cross. In the past six weeks, the Red Cross has launched a wide-ranging relief effort to help people devastated by three historic, back-to-back hurricanes—Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

Within the armed forces, thousands of medics and corpsmen are trained to care for service members, Veterans, and their families in Department of Defense hospitals and clinics around the world. These individuals have experience and robust knowledge about medical care and patient safety both in the hospital and deployed setting.

November is National Diabetes Month, a time to bring attention and awareness to the millions of Americans living with diabetes.

For student nurses in their final year of nursing school, December is a milestone month. Many are graduating this month, while others are preparing for their final semester as students, but all are one step closer to the reality of a career in nursing. 

After working as an emergency room nurse for 10 years, Wendy Weirbach, BSN, RN, CEN, was looking for a change of pace. She went on to pursue a nursing position at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif. She immediately fell in love with the job and decided she wanted to spend the remainder of her career at the theme park.

It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It’s Nurse Tobin from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, Ill. Since his first day on the job, Tobin Mathew, RN, BSN, has donned superhero apparel to help put a smile on his young patients’ faces.

For nurses at all points of their careers, a mentor is an invaluable resource. Whether they are aspiring to take on a new role, grow in their current role, or become a stronger leader, nurses can turn to their mentors for experience-based guidance and honest advice.

Ruben Rodriguez-Negrete, Jr., president of the Emporia Men’s Assembly of Nurses (EMAN), hopes to inspire future nurses and fuel positive conversation around men in the nursing profession.

Instigating positive change for patients throughout the world is part of what makes nurses a driving force in healthcare, and for Genevieve Handy, MSN, CPNP, being a catalyst for positive change has become a driving purpose in life. At the National Student Nurses’ Association (NSNA) 66th Annual Convention plenary session presented by Johnson & Johnson earlier this month, Genevieve shared her story with thousands of student nurses in attendance and explained why nurses should be recognized as change makers—not just care takers.

Boasting a wide-ranging scope of practice and significant presence in patient care, nurses make up the largest percentage of the nation’s healthcare workforce. The demand for nurses continues to grow; however, an estimated 17.5 percent of nurses leave their first nursing job within the first year, often due to a lack of development programs in place to help recent nursing graduates navigate the transition between academic and clinical settings.

In November 2017, the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) School of Nursing Simulation Center introduced an addition to its inventory of cutting-edge technology: Robo-Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (RoboAPRN). The robot is part of the program’s “RoboAPRN: Telepresence Robots in Healthcare Education” project, which introduces student nurses to remote telehealth technology.

As an assistant professor at the Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing (LHSON) and recipient of a 2017-18 Fulbright Global Scholar Award, Lori A. Spies, PhD, RN, exemplifies how a career in nursing can create additional opportunities to change the world at the global scale.

In 2015, Janie Harvey Garner, RN, encountered public criticism of a Miss America contestant and fellow nurse who delivered her monologue wearing scrubs and a “doctor’s stethoscope.” Feeling frustrated and misrepresented after hearing the comments minimizing nurses’ roles in healthcare delivery, Janie created the Show Me Your Stethoscope Facebook group to reinforce the essential role of nursing – effectively creating one of the largest nursing organizations in the United States.

Lori Lioce, DNP, FNP-BC, CHSOS, CHSE, FAANP, began her career as a dental hygienist. As she learned more and more about each of her patients and their overall health, she decided to make a change – she went back to school to become a nurse with the goal of improving health outcomes for as many patients as possible.

Sheri Sawchuk, DNP, APRN, NP-C, CNE, fell into nursing by providence – she attended an informational session for a local nursing program after driving a friend there and ultimately enrolled in classes herself for the following semester. In 2013, Sheri first learned of the Global Health Education Program (GHEP) at Chamberlain University from the program’s founder, Susan Fletcher, EdD, MSN, BSN. Today, after finding her passion at the intersection of nursing, education, and global health, and with 15 years of international relief work under her belt, Sheri leads nursing students on international GHEP trips to help up-and-coming nurses identify their nursing passions.

Care for patients with chronic diseases varies based on the condition, but across the board, nurses are at the center of care for chronic disease management. Unlike acute care, nurses who care for people living with chronic disease have the opportunity for more in-depth patient education and to build stronger patient-nurse relationships over time.

“The services I provide positively impact the Fire Department and make it stronger,” said John Modrzejewski, FNP-C. “Now we have another resource to quickly and effectively care for patients.”

Some healthcare organizations today provide nurses with apps to use on hospital-issued mobile devices to help easily document, retrieve and communicate patient information at the point-of-care.

“Nurses are used to being on the front lines of patient care in communities, and we now have the opportunity to connect with patients in their online communities by logging in and sharing our voice online." - Pamela Ressler, BSN, RN, HN-BC

Finding your way from college into your first job as a nurse can be confusing. We asked recent nursing school graduate, Ryan Bannan, RN, to share his tips for ensuring a smooth transition. Bannan is the immediate past president of the National Student Nurses' Association (NSNA) and a New Grad Residency Program for the Intensive Care Unit at DeKalb Medical Center in Atlanta, Ga.

Tim Lenth, RN, and his son Adam Lenth, RN, are air medical flight nurses. They must work together to administer care in high acuity situations — all while flying 145 miles per hour, hundreds of feet above ground, in the tight confines of a helicopter.

Linda Ankrom MSN, MHA, RN, is an infusion nurse in Pittsburgh, Pa., who still lights up about her chosen specialty after nearly 20 years as a practicing nurse. Read on to learn what she enjoys about this increasingly popular nursing specialty.

Improving the health of women can not only save lives, it can contribute to the overall health and economy of a nation. Nurses can help communities improve women’s health by providing education, healthcare services, health supplies and increased awareness of key issues.

Perseverance can often be the ultimate key to changing your career. This certainly rang true for Sarah McDonald, RN, BSN, when she found out she was not selected for the highly competitive perioperative program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Mass., in the fall of 2015.

Medical emergencies can happen at any time. For trauma nurse Julie Stroyne Nixon, RN, BSN, her wedding night was about more than her wedding, it was about saving a life. Walking to her wedding after-party with her husband Andrew Nixon, the bride saw an unconscious woman lying on a bench nearby. Bystanders were calling for help and Stroyne, still in her wedding gown, ran to help.

Nurses serve as both the backbone of the healthcare industry and on the front lines of developing health solutions. The day-to-day reality of their job has changed in dramatic ways over the past ten years.

What does it take to excel as a new nurse leader? How can you impact healthcare on a broader scale? These are questions that Kaitlyn A. Gregory, DNP, CRNP, FNP-BC, grappled with as she participated in the AACN Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy.

As the globalization of the world economy makes international travel easier and more commonplace, it also contributes to the growing threat of global pandemics like Ebola, Zika and influenza. To help prevent the spread of infectious diseases, healthcare institutions often rely on infection preventionists (IPs) like Margaret “Peg” Pettis, RN, MPA, CIC, the manager of Rochester General Hospital’s Infection Prevention Department in Rochester, N.Y.

Are you drawn to a nursing career, but want to avoid working in a hospital setting? Visiting nurses meet patients where they are, by providing care for them in their homes. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, home healthcare is one of the nation’s fastest-growing industries, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 5 percent for 2014–2024, which translates to approximately 760,400 new jobs.

Now, more than ever, nurses are critical to the health of our world. The future of our healthcare system is dependent upon recruiting and retaining passionate student nurses. The future of our healthcare system is dependent upon recruiting and retaining passionate student nurses like those we recently met at the 65th National Student Nurses’ Association (NSNA) convention in Dallas, Texas.

When she first found out she was pregnant, Natausha Smith, BSN, RN, was preparing to finish her nursing degree—not become a mother. Discover how a nurse from the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) gave Natausha the support to finish her nursing degree and become a nurse home visitor herself.

As the number of nurses reaching retirement age each year continues to grow, hospitals like University of Missouri Health Care are faced with the challenge of recruiting and retaining qualified nurses. Learn more about the creative solutions the hospital has employed to address the problem.

The rise of startup companies, expanded technologies that make working remotely accessible and a proliferation of freelance or short-term opportunities have significantly transformed the way people work across the United States. Nomad Health is hoping to bring this flexibility to the healthcare industry.

While seasonal influenza (flu) viruses can be detected year-round in the United States, flu viruses are most common during the fall and winter. The flu is serious and can even be deadly, but it’s also preventable — and the flu vaccine has been shown to be one of the best ways to protect against the flu.

“The term ‘male nurse’ immediately separates me from the rest of nursing,” said Chris Stallard, MSN, RN, FNP-C, COHC. “Whether it is meant in a positive or negative way, it sets me apart from every other nurse and makes me feel not quite 100 percent nurse.”