Nursing from the Inside-Out: Living and Nursing from the Highest Point of Your Consciousness provides holistic self-care modalities that allow the nursing professional to achieve self-awareness through individual practice and application. Self-care consciousness helps nurses create the balance in their lives that support mental, spiritual, and physical growth. Through use of these tools, the nurse is able to maintain inner balance in the busy and changing world of healthcare, while simultaneously establishing meaningful connections with patients.

Awarded second place in the 2013 AJN Book of the Year Awards in the History and Pubic Policy category. With the goal of advancing quality health care, this innovative text moves beyond the often insular world of nurse leadership values to offer the perspectives of leaders in other health care disciplines that interface with nurses. These professionals describe and analyze their interactions with nurse leaders regarding their role in quality health care delivery, patient safety, health care reform, and partnering outside the profession, along with suggested improvements. The book will enable nurse leaders to clarify strengths and opportunities for growth and to develop strategies for effective collaborations that are necessary for advancing and transforming our health care system. Each chapter is written by an accomplished health care leader outside the nursing profession, and follows a consistent format that includes definitions of leadership, best and worst professional experience with nurse leaders (in terms of strategic vision, risk-taking, creativity, interpersonal and communication effectiveness, inspiring change and self-knowledge), lessons learned, and implications for leaders within and outside nursing. Key Features: Offers unique views of nursing leadership from healthcare professionals in other arenas Discusses strengths and weaknesses of nurse leaders and leadership values for inter-professional collaboration Reflects the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse fellowship values for excellence Promotes inter-professional strategies to advance health care reform on a national level Designed for use in graduate nursing leadership courses including DNP

WHAT REALLY GOES ON BEHIND CLOSED DOORS IN THE ICU? Whether you are a patient, a family member looking for information, a nurse in search of mentoring, or simply have an interest in medical drama, you will find the true stories in this book fascinating and intriguing. These real-life events provide an inside glimpse into what really happens in the intensive care unit of many hospitals. The author reveals what nurses endure on a daily basis in order to save lives. She shares what really happens when the doctors are not available. She describes her never-ending quest in assuring that the best interests of patients are secured. She provides the readers with information and knowledge they can use on a practical, real-life basis. Each chapter addresses a different, thought-provoking dilemma, based on real patients and true events. Jordan was brain-dead when his family made the dramatic decision to donate his organs. Peter, all seven-hundred-pounds of him, taught the staff a lesson in discrimination, caring, and respect. Ronald and Ivan were both dying, but each had a different end-of-life experience based, respectively, on their families differing wishes. These, and other accounts of real-life events, will bring the reader onto the front lines of the intensive care unit, and help provide insight for making health-care decisions for themselves, someday. This book will also entertain the reader who is looking for medical drama. It will capture the interest of nurses, new and experienced, and will encourage them to provide undiscriminating and compassionate care for all their patients. Finally, it will encourage all of us to think about our own choices in health care. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will remember. But most of all, readers will learn that what they do can make a difference, in life and in death, both outside and Inside the ICU. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Melody Stenrose RN, MSN, CCRN, has worked in a variety of intensive care units since 1980 where she has been a staff nurse, a charge nurse, a critical care educator, and a nursing supervisor. Melody was born and raised in California where she currently lives with her husband. Together they raised their three sons. Throughout her years of nursing, she has served as a mentor to less-experienced nurses and thrives on sharing her knowledge. She strives to maintain a high quality of care for her patients and encourages other nurses to follow her example. She has gained the respect of both nurses and doctors who she works with by providing unconditional compassionate care, even in the most stressful situations.

From the unique experiences of nursing home residents, an empathic psychologist derives lessons for living a better life, demonstrating how people find happiness, peace, and fulfillment despite challenging circumstances. Perfect for readers who seek inspiration for living a better life at any age and who enjoy books on inspiration/motivation, wellness, psychology, self-improvement, wellness, and issues of aging. The desire to live a good life is timeless. And, sometimes, insight into what really matters emerges from where we least expect it. Even the most challenging circumstances can have a surprise silver lining. This perceptive and inspiring book shows that anyone can learn valuable life lessons from the unique experiences of nursing home residents. Using illustrative vignettes of his interactions with people facing serious physical, mental, and social challenges, the author derives twenty-eight simple, yet profoundly important, lessons for living a richer life-lessons that apply to people at any age. Dr. Dodgen, a clinical psychologist who has worked with this population for eighteen years, has discovered that when the surplus trappings of lifestyle are cleared away and lives are stripped to their most essential components, people discover new paths to happiness, peace, and fulfillment. Dodgen shares stories that demonstrate how love, meaning, purpose, and contentment can be found even in far-from-ideal circumstances. Offering deeply thoughtful reflections in an easily digestible format, this book affirms that no matter our physical, economic, or social limitations, we can remain rich in life. Readers looking for ways to improve relationships, understand and manage feelings more effectively, cope well with challenges, mitigate suffering, and discover greater serenity in their own life circumstances will find a wealth of insights in these concise, enlightening chapters.

At a time when health care is going through major change, nurses-known for being highly capable in a crisis-are being forced to take on more and more responsibilities. In this increasingly stressful environment, nurses need new ways to make sure they are taking care of themselves so they don't succumb to the physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion of caring for everyone and everything else. Nursing from Within: A Fresh Alternative to Putting Out Fires and Self-Care Workarounds offers the innovative solutions today's nurses need. Although it outlines the problems nurses face, this book is not about trying to change the working environment. Rather, it's about altering inner perspectives. With boundless energy and passion, it addresses an element that's largely missing from nursing self-care programs focusing on diet and health: the spiritual self. Taking a holistic approach that incorporates spiritual and energy principles such as Reiki, Nursing from Within teaches you how to connect with your authentic self. Author Elizabeth Scala's enthusiasm is contagious, as she shares proven and effective strategies for creating shifts in your perspective, empowering you to take on the challenges of nursing with a confidence and vitality that will bring the joy back to your chosen profession.

This collection of true narratives reflects the dynamism and diversity of nurses, who provide the first vital line of patient care. Here, nurses remember their first "sticks," first births, and first deaths, and reflect on what gets them though long, demanding shifts, and keeps them in the profession. The stories reveal many voices from nurses at different stages of their careers: One nurse-in-training longs to be trusted with more "important" procedures, while another questions her ability to care for nursing home residents. An efficient young emergency room nurse finds his life and career irrevocably changed by a car accident. A nurse practitioner wonders whether she has violated professional boundaries in her care for a homeless man with AIDS, and a home care case manager is the sole attendee at a funeral for one of her patients. What connects these stories is the passion and strength of the writers, who struggle against burnout and bureaucracy to serve their patients with skill, empathy, and strength.

After caring for his mother at the end of her life, Thomas Gass took a job as a nursing home aide in a for-profit long term care home. This graphic, poignant & chilling book details his experiences in this 'warehouse' for the elderly & asks fundamental questions about care in American nursing homes.

Now in its Ninth Edition, this comprehensive all-in-one textbook covers the basic LPN/LVN curriculum and all content areas of the NCLEX-PN®. Coverage includes anatomy and physiology, nursing process, growth and development, nursing skills, and pharmacology, as well as medical-surgical, maternal-neonatal, pediatric, and psychiatric-mental health nursing. The book is written in a student-friendly style and has an attractive full-color design, with numerous illustrations, tables, and boxes. Bound-in multimedia CD-ROMs include audio pronunciations, clinical simulations, videos, animations, and a simulated NCLEX-PN® exam. This edition's comprehensive ancillary package includes curriculum materials, PowerPoint slides, lesson plans, and a test generator of NCLEX-PN®-style questions.