Author's posts
During the pandemic, many health care workers won’t be home for Christmas
He was a healthy 36-year-old paramedic with a loving wife and an adorable little boy. Jim loved his job. The rush, the adrenaline, the blaring lights through downtown hurrying to get to the major hospital. Cardiac arrests, gunshot wounds, tragic auto a…
Dear families: We are strong, but we are tired
After 33 years as an ICU RN, I had finally decided I couldn’t do this anymore. It was my last nightshift. The last shift convinced me I had made the right decision. The CNA and I went door to door to turn each ICU patient that was not capable of turnin…
Pay attention to science and medicine, or else you may be the next careless victim
I enter the hospital to work again. I must work as I have three small children and a husband presently out of work because of COVID. He is “non-essential.” A violinist is playing at the employee entrance. I know they do this to lift our spirits. But it…
All intensivists are not created equal
I’d like to preface this story by saying that the majority of the intensivists I have worked with have been exceptional, caring, and professional. We had all established a good camaraderie, and we had mutual respect for each other. We worked well toget…
A CEO with the keys to the kingdom. And the pharmacy.
1986. I graduated from LPN to RN. And I was immediately offered a new job. Manager of a six-bed ER. This hospital had three surgical suites — 50 inpatient beds and 2 L&D suites. This was a private Catholic hospital run by the nuns. The computer sys…
Love one another. Respect each other. We sure could use this today.
I never have a problem going to sleep. In fact, after I work a night shift, I easily go into a semi-coma. But tonight is different. 2 days off from work, with a regular sleep schedule at night, but my mind is twirling. I can’t sleep. So at 3 a.m….
A nurse remembers her true hero
I had to earn my “stripes” in ICU. After I graduated from nursing school, the “big” hospitals wouldn’t take me into the ICU, as I had no experience as an ICU nurse. Back in the early 1980s, there was no such thing as an internship program. I desperatel…
The genius within a schizophrenic mind
She was naked in her seclusion room — a padded cell — with her gown on the floor and drenched in her urine. I was her nurse. I gave her lithium. She put the pill in her mouth and then spit it at me in my face. Then her tirade began: “I’m Je…
Protestors don’t scare or intimidate this virus
They scream and holler and march. Open up the U.S. This is a hoax. Coronavirus is deadly. Invisible as the virus makes its trek across our U.S. Across the universe. Nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists are being named heroes. Signs and banners…
As an ICU nurse, I have never seen such an incredible death threat
Our 23 bed ICU has been converted to COVID-19 patients. All of them. I want to tell myself this is science fiction, but it’s not. It’s real. And we are scared. As I enter the unit to start my night shift, we have a huddle of the off-going and oncoming …
