About Megen
Megen Duffy, RN, BA, BSN, CEN, works in an ED at a community hospital in the Midwest. She serves as a local board member of the Kansas State Nurses Association and is a contributing editor to the American Journal of Nursing. Before her nursing career, she was a freelance medical editor and writer. Reprint: Body Modification in Nurses
I wrote this for another blog and am reposting here because of the number of comments I’ve gotten about it. Most of them are along the lines of “I never thought of it that way.” I generally don’t re-post myself, … Continue reading
It’s National Nurses Week: Does Anyone Care?
I missed National Nurses Day, which was Monday, but I’m still in luck because the whole week is National Nurses Week, ending on May 12, which apparently is Florence Nightingale’s birthday. I had to look that up because I thought … Continue reading
HIPAA Just Got Tougher
On March 26, HIPAA got a big boost, apparently because so many privacy breaches continue to occur. The government isn’t messing around. The financial hit for institutions doubled, from $25,000 to $50,000 per violation. I’m just guessing, but employers might … Continue reading
Truly Troubling Upcoming Healthcare Changes
The title is slightly misleading because these changes aren’t really upcoming as much as they’ve been here and we are largely just starting to feel the pinch. The “truly troubling” part stands, however. It is extremely difficult to grasp all … Continue reading
Do Nurses Get Paid Enough?
I am blessed, apparently, in my indifference to how much money I make as long as it’s enough to pay for what I need and a lot of what I want and lets me save what my financial advisor says … Continue reading
Thoughts on Nurses vs Physicians
I had a patient interaction that has been making think some more about the difference between the professions of nursing and medicine. I think the general public considers nursing “medicine lite” or something that people do who would like to … Continue reading
How to Work Out When You’re Busy and Broke
A recent study found that 55% of nurses in the study were overweight or even obese. We probably all think we won’t be one of those, but about half of us will. It starts in nursing school. I started bad … Continue reading
How Invasive Do Thermometers Need to Be?
The area in which I work uses standard practices, as it should, with temperature monitoring. It’s a critical care area, and we can’t really afford to miss things like “whoops; that patient slid into septic shock while we weren’t looking” … Continue reading
Newsflash: We Shouldn’t Aspirate Before (Some) IM Injections
I read this recently and said, “what?” I went to nursing school not so long ago, and they taught us that when you give IM injections you should aspirate before the injection. It was almost one of those obvious things … Continue reading
Nurse Kills Patient With Too Much Morphine: A Cautionary Tale
This headline from Australia caught my eye: “Nurse Tells of Morphine Mistake.” I am always happy to learn how to avoid mistakes by reading about those of others, and I applaud nurses who voluntarily tell about anything they’ve done wrong. … Continue reading
