From "just a nurse" and The View's "doctor stethoscope" controversy to viral Facebook posts in appreciation of nurses, workplace violence and ICD-10 codes, 2015 has been a banner year for nurses. As 2015 draws to a close, Modern Nurse wanted to take a look back at some of our top nurse stories and get your thoughts on which left their mark and impacted you the most. Check out our top nurse stories and then please share your thoughts in the comments section below:
“My wife is a nurse. My wife is a hero.”
A husband’s Facebook post about his hardworking nurse wife went viral in 2015. The post and accompanying photo are both loving and profound, illustrating the hard work, support and sacrifice associated with having a nurse in the family.
“The View’s Joy Behar and Michelle Collins”
Talk about a lesson in do. not. mess. with. nurses. During a roundtable discussion, The View's Joy Behar and Michelle Collins made fun of Miss Colorado who dressed in scrubs and talked about being a nurse during the Miss America competition. After mocking and publicly offending a representative of a fiercely loyal and passionate community, The View received a lot of backlash. A lot of backlash. More importantly, the outpouring of support, love and education about what nurses do was a thing of beauty.
Miss Colorado Explains Why You Are Not ‘Just’ A Nurse
During the Miss America pageant, Miss Colorado Kelley Johnson delivered a moving monologue about being a nurse that has became a viral hit across the globe. Skipping the traditional song-and-dance routine, she instead donned her scrubs and spoke openly about a turning point in her career as a nurse during the talent portion.
Bitten by a Turkey? There’s an ICD-10 code for that!
It’s bigger, it’s badder, it’s more billable medical codes than you could ever imagine. The ICD-10 revision rolled out in 2015 and included about 55,000 more diagnostic codes than its predecessor.
Let’s Talk Understaffing … Just Don’t Say “Understaffing”
We all know that having well-educated nurses with fewer patients to care for can help reduce hospital deaths, but in 2015 the issue of understaffing was still a big problem for many nurses.
Workplace violence is on the rise, with nurses on the frontlines
Healthcare workers are suffering from an increased degree of violence in the workplace. From hospitals to healthcare facilities, both personal safety and overall morale is being compromised by an apparent widespread failure to ensure that healthcare workers receive an adequate level of protection while they’re on the job.
Whether you’re a nurse, student, or parent, we all face the same challenge: time. In a profession that revolves around caring for others, it’s not unusual for us to neglect ourselves. It’s a dangerous and slippery slope to go down. We get swept up in countless responsibilities, obligations and assignments, often forgetting that our tank is running on empty. It’s important to stop, take a breath and recharge. Life is not a sprint…it’s a marathon. Avoid burnout by taking a few moments to take care of yourself.
A trio of medical professionals failed to uphold the ultimate caregiving commandment: Respect thy patient. A surgical team in Virginia found themselves in hot water after a patient accidentally recorded a conversation taking place between the three medical professionals while he was anesthetized. Lawsuit, anyone?
A nurse by herself. At the end of a life.
As nurses, we are invited in to some of the most important and intimate moments of life -from birth to death and everything that happens in between. There are some experiences that we are able to leave at work, but others go with us long after we’ve left. One of those moments can be when a patient dies. A piece written by an intensive care nurse captured a very personal and insightful narrative about what it’s like to take care of a patient at the end of his life.
How Do You Take Your Sick Days? We’re Guessing “Rare.”
Nurses -we need to take care of ourselves. Our health, both physical and emotional, is important and yet seems to take a back burner to everyone else's. From logging enough sleep each night to taking it easy when a case of something more than just the Mondays starts to rear its ugly head, we need to care for ourselves the way we do for others.
Now that you've read through our list of the top nurses stories of 2015, let us know what you think. How'd we do? What did we miss? Which stories impacted you the most? Share your thoughts and additions in the comments section below.