“There is no one way to relax, there are countless ways, but you have to try several to know which of these works best for you.”~Brian Luke Seaward

We live in a world where technology and fast paced living is the norm for most of us. We seem to thrive on having multiple tasks and demands and finding it hard to identify and maintain life/work balance.

As we come to the end of 2021, I want to thank each of you for everything you do for your patients and each other every day. No matter what setting you work in, your job has not been easy.

This year has not been without challenges, and the way your units look and who you work with may be different now than it was in January. However, I hope you have great teammates to help you get through the tough times and celebrate the joys (big and small).

Time is such a strange construct. How many of you feel, like me, that 2021 flew by? I mean, it’s the end of 2021, and it feels like it was just yesterday we were all just so happy to put 2020 behind us as we looked forward to a better 2021.

And yet, at the same time, it felt like this year would never end. We struggled with so much this year, with ongoing COVID surges around the globe, political unrest, combating vaccine disinformation, and more.

Balance in my life has meant different things at different points throughout my nursing career.

There have been times where I was the nurse that came to work-did my work-and went home. Never committing to a project, helpful but not going above and beyond for my unit or organization. These were my earlier years as a nurse, while working nights, and focused more on my personal life than my career.

In healthcare settings, staff continue to face busy, non-stop work environments. Finding appropriate breaks and downtime to mindfully refresh is increasingly difficult.

We have found at my facility that pet therapy dogs are just the right answer to providing a break from the constant daily work stresses. Many organizations have pet therapy programs in place for patients, but pet therapy is just as beneficial for the staff!

Cardiac and respiratory monitoring of patients in medical-surgical units (MSUs) is minimal, even though approximately 40 percent of medical-surgical patients experience an acute respiratory event.¹

Generally, patients in MSUs are assumed to be less complex and more hemodynamically stable — not requiring additional or continuous monitoring,² however, many patients receive opioids for pain control, increasing their risk of opioid-induced respiratory depression (OIRD).

In healthcare settings, staff continue to face busy, non-stop work environments. Finding appropriate breaks and downtime to mindfully refresh is increasingly difficult.

We have found at my facility that pet therapy dogs are just the right answer to providing a break from the constant daily work stresses. Many organizations have pet therapy programs in place for patients, but pet therapy is just as beneficial for the staff!

The American Nurses Association (ANA) state nurses work tirelessly to identify and protect the needs of the individual (nursingworld.org).

Nurses are known for being caring, kind, gentle, and trusting. They are also known to be very altruistic, which is defined as a selfless concern for others even to their own detriment.

Nurses’ work! They work overtime even when physically exhausted and mentally drained. Nurses meet their patient responsibilities even if it means no lunch, dinner, or bathroom breaks.

CEO's Corner - November 2021

I love fall. It’s my favorite season. I love watching the leaves change. When I lived in Canada, the fall colors were amazing.

Now that I’m in the US, I don’t see the same colors I did before, but the ones that I do see bring me joy. I spent the weekend in New Hampshire visiting my daughter at university. It was amazing to see the rich, deep fall colors as the leaves prepare to fall and the trees to sleep until next spring, when they’ll magically sprout new leaves and start the cycle again.

Happy Medical-Surgical Nurses Month!

Usually, we celebrate Medical-Surgical Nurses for only a week in November (1-7), but this year we decided to commemorate the whole month.

After all, this is AMSN’s 30th Anniversary, so we might as well take the month to celebrate!