Blogs for School Nurses

1. Provo School Nurses:The nurses of the Provo School District in Utah keep parents and faculty up to date on their ongoing commitment to student health.

   Highlight: Discounted Dentistry

 

2. Tales of a School Zoned Nurse: This humorous blog details the experiences of a school nurse who covers an amazing two elementary schools and a middle school.

   Highlight: Hear Me Out

 

3. School Kids Health Care: The goal of School Kids Health Care is to provide current information on health education and school nursing to both school nurses and parents.

   Highlight: Does Back to School Mean Back to Being Bullied?

 

4. Diary of a School Nurse: What really happens in a school nurse’s office? This school nurse blogger takes on this commonly asked question with grace and wit.

   Highlight: Emergency Bag for School Nurses

 

5. The School Health Blog : This supplier of school health supplies gives an interesting spin on school nurse blogging. Look for great advice coupled with helpful product reviews.

   Highlight: 3 Must-have Vision Screening Resources for Schools

 

Nursing Education Blogs

1. Nurse Education: An open forum where those in the field can debate and discuss issues pertinent to nursing education.

   Highlight: Start of the Semester – and Enthusiasm for Learning

 

2. John Hopkins Nursing Blogs: Connect with students and faculty from one of the best nursing studies institutions in America.

   Highlight: Real People are Not Made of Rubber

 

3. A Journey through Nursing School: A mother of two describes what it is like to be a busy woman in the throes of a nursing program.

   Highlight: Shifts 2-4

 

4. Oakland University: The nursing students of Oakland University give their unique perspectives on what it takes to get through nursing school. This blog is great for anyone looking for the inspiration to finish their degree.

   Highlight: What Nursing Students Should know About the ATI and Passing the First Time

 

5. Makings of a Nurse: Nurse Teeny is a sounding board for all of your questions about life as a nurse and nursing school.

   Highlight: On My Own: One Month In

 

6. About a Nurse: Nurse and health news with a focus on nursing education.

   Highlight: Is it Moral for Nursing Schools to Keep Taking Tuition If They Can’t Place Their Students?

 

Labor and Midwife Nursing

1. The American Midwife: This well qualified Texas midwife has owned a birth center and has been attending births since 1994.

   Highlight: Midwife Bag: What I Take to a Birth

 

2. Ten Centimeters and Beyond: A night shift labor and delivery nurse and mother of two brings the interesting perspective of someone who has been on both sides of the stirrups.

   Highlight: Jacob’s Birth Story

 

3. The Birthin’ Blog: A collection of extremely informative articles concerning labor and delivery and newborn care brought to you by A Labor of Love, Doula and Childbirth Services.

   Highlight: I Had No Idea

 

4. At Your Cervix: The story of how a labor and delivery nurse eventually became a nurse-midwife.

   Highlight: Almost Halfway Done!

 

5. The Life and Time of an L&D Nurse: A labor and delivery nurse from southern California shares about her love of working with newborns and their families.

   Highlight: It Was a Lovely Morning

 

ICU Nurse Blogs

1. On Call RN: An ICU nurse from a government hospital tells of her experiences and her other love, photography.

   Highlight: Rough Day

 

2. Code Blog: The nurse behind one of the most popular nursing blogs on the internet, blogger Gina shares her experiences and advice on working in the ICU and in health care in general.

   Highlight: Rookie Mistake

 

Nurse Practitioner Blogs

1. The Nurse Practitioner’s Place: This blog is both extremely informative and touching. With a focus on providing the best care for both nurses and patients alike, it is a must read for all nurse practitioners.

   Highlight: Nurse Practitioner Burnout

 

2. Nurse Practitioner Business Owner Blog: A blog born from a blogger’s frustration to find a place for NP’s to connect and share resources.

   Highlight: Clinicians Business Tips: Data Breaches: Protecting Your Practice

 

3. Nurse Barb: Nurse Barb understands what you are going through. With a focus on women’s health, she is here to answer your questions and give advice.

   Highlight: 6 Essential Questions About Breast Cancer Screening

 

4. Adventures of a PICU Nurse Practitioner: Self-described as a “brand spankin’ new” NP, this blogger shares her stories of long nights and even longer days.

   Highlight: Questions Answered

 

5. The NP Mom: Brett Snodgrass, a family NP from Tennessee, provides her readers with advice and health care provider tools.

   Highlight: Probiotics: Do You Really Need Them? Why?

 

6. Triumphs and Tribulations of a new Nurse Practitioner: An inspiration to all, this NP blogger went back to school to receive her NP after 50 years away.

   Highlight: One Month In

 

ER Nursing

1. Madness: Tales of an Emergency Room Nurse: Written by a veteran nurse in an inner city ER, this addition brings stories of stress, hard work, and triumph in an ER environment.

   Highlight: Task Monkeys

 

2. Emergiblog: Kim, an ER nurse of 33 years, made the decision to become a nurse at age 9. She also is the creator of the nursing blog “change of shift.”

   Highlight: When Nurses Attack at the Highest Levels: A Blatant Abuse of Power

 

3. ER Nurses Care: A more emotional take on an ER nursing blog. This is the perfect place to find a balance between information and inspiration.

   Highlight: Why Not Get Protection From the Flu?

 

4. Crass Pollination: Nurse K combines stage 4 malignant cynicism with a sharp tongue and unbridled enthusiasm to bring you a world-class ER nursing blog.

   Highlight: Phone Call

 

5. EDNurseasauras: In this case, with an amusing name comes amusing content. Regina tries to tell about the lighter side of emergency room events.

   Highlight: We Are Going to Need Some New Monkeys

 

6. ER RN: Julie relates entertaining and insightful stories from the ER.

   Highlight: I Am the Patient … (and not a very good one either)

 

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The two thousand women who volunteered as nurses during the American Civil War came from all walks of life to play a vital role in the war effort. When war broke out, the country’s male-dominated nursing profession was in its infancy and still relatively primitive. The huge escalation in the need for medical personnel during the conflict broke down the barriers preventing women from entering nursing.

Those who wanted to play their part were spurred into action, and these remarkable women made an invaluable contribution. Even so, their hard work and dedication was, largely, historically anonymous. And yet a few individuals contributed so significantly that their experiences have been recognized by history. Read on to learn more about 10 of the greatest nurses of the American Civil War.

10. Annie Etheridge (1839–1913)

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Annie Etheridge was inspired to take up nursing by looking after her father on his deathbed, and when civil war broke out, she joined the 2nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry. Nicknamed “Gentle Annie,” Etheridge was loved by all and commended for her bravery under fire.

As an expert horsewoman, she would ride onto the battlefield fearlessly with her saddlebags full of lint and bandages to tend to wounded soldiers. Dramatically, her horse was even shot out from under her – twice. Etheridge’s dedication and courage led to her becoming one of only two women awarded the Kearny Cross, and when she died in 1913, she was buried as a veteran.

9. Clara Barton (1821–1912)

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An ardent humanitarian, nurse Clara Barton is probably best known for founding the American Red Cross. Working for the US Patent Office, she was the first woman to hold a senior clerkship in the federal government and was paid as much as her male counterparts.

Nevertheless, Barton gave up her position and joined the war effort. And, selflessly, she declined to take a salary for tending to sick and injured soldiers. Previously, it was unprecedented for women to be on the front-line, but Barton eventually became so trusted that she worked exclusively on battlefields for much of her career.

Because of her dedication and hard work, Barton was known as the “Angel of the Battlefield,” and in 1864 she was made Superintendent of Union nurses. During her nursing career, Barton saw the horrors of sixteen different battlefields and was so moved by her experiences that she became instrumental in encouraging the United States to adopt the Red Cross model she had seen at work in Europe. Ultimately, this led to the US signing the Geneva Agreement in 1882.

8. Dorothea Dix (1802–1887)

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Dorothea Dix became the Union’s Superintendent of Female Nurses in 1861, volunteering her services after the attack on Fort Sumter. Dix took to her rather hazily defined duties and quickly shaped her role, setting a precedent for female nurses for the rest of the Civil War.

Earning the moniker “Dragon Dix,” she managed to convince military officials that women could be competent nurses. She stipulated that only plain-looking women over 30 should be employed in order to avoid some of the stereotypes that prevailed at the time, although these rules were relaxed as the number of nurses recruited entered the thousands.

Dix’s authoritative ways found her clashing with officials and occasionally ignoring administrative details, but nursing care in the army improved significantly under her lead. She was also responsible for bettering working conditions for nurses and hospital conditions for soldiers.

7. Abigail Hopper Gibbons (1801–1893)

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When the American Civil War broke out, Abigail Hopper Gibbons anticipated that nurses would be needed, and she joined the fold as a trainee when the United States Sanitary Commission set up a training base at David’s Island Hospital, New York. Gibbons traveled to Washington D.C. to help the wounded and distribute supplies at the Washington Office Hospital. She also helped to set up two field hospitals in Virginia.

When the government took over a hotel and 100 guest cottages to become Hammond General Hospital, Gibbons clashed with Dorothea Dix, then Union Superintendent for Nurses, over the running of the complex and the care of its 1,500 patients. In the end, Gibbons was appointed to the role of head matron. In 1863, the hospital was converted into Point Lookout Confederate Prison, and this was when she left.

6. Mary Ann Bickerdyke (1817–1901)

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When she heard about the poor medical care on offer to wounded Union soldiers, Mary Ann Bickerdyke knew that she had to do something.

In her birthplace of Knox County, Ohio, Bickerdyke led a campaign to gather supplies and, leaving her children to be cared for by a friend, delivered these supplies to her nearest Union base in Cairo, Illinois. However, Bickerdyke was so appalled by the squalid conditions she found at the camp that she began tending to the injured, directly violating regulations forbidding her to be there. She led a small team of local lady volunteers, lifted patients’ spirits, and improved cleanliness and recovery rates significantly.

Eventually, Bickerdyke took her work onto the battlefield, where she performed surgeries, moving tirelessly from man to man. When officials objected to her presence, she refused to argue at length, only walking away to continue her work. And she would always return after dark with a lantern and tend to her patients in her DIY hospital.

5. Cornelia Hancock (1839–1926)

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Witnessing her brother and other male friends and relatives leave to fight in the American Civil War motivated Cornelia Hancock to get involved as well. When her brother-in-law told her that help was needed near Gettysburg in July 1863, Hancock went, aged just 23, to volunteer. She was turned away by Dorothea Dix, who would only take on older female nurses. However, undeterred, Hancock made her way to the battlefield regardless, and she soon gained praise and admiration for her dedication to caring for the wounded.

Hancock relayed her experiences of the horrors she had seen through detailed letters to her family in which she would describe herself as “dirty as a pig and as well as I have ever been in my life.” Her skills as an organizer and her ability to source supplies made her an invaluable nurse.

Eventually, in 1864, this led her south to Virginia, where there was a large number of war-wounded. Although she drew criticism for living alone with the men in field hospitals, Hancock would always defend her way of life, promising that she would never do anything “rash or romantic.”

4. Phoebe Pember (1823–1913)

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Widowed at an early age and unhappy at home, Phoebe Pember accepted an invitation to serve at Richmond’s Chimborazo Hospital in 1862 and joined the war effort. According to reports, Chimborazo was the largest hospital at the time, caring for some 76,000 patients. Pember was in charge of one of the hospital’s five divisions at a time when nursing was still very much a male domain, and she developed “a will of steel under a suave refinement.”

Once, Pember threatened a member of staff caught stealing supplies with a gun, and her gritty commitment gained her respect and acceptance from peers and patients alike. Her memoirs of this time, A Southern Woman’s Story: Life in Confederate Richmond, is still one of the foremost sources for understanding the experiences of upper-class Southern Jewish women before and during the Civil War.

3. Helen Gilson (1836–1868)

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Helen Gilson’s involvement with nursing during the Civil War caused her to become a controversial character and a pioneer for the rights of injured black soldiers. When Gilson first heard about the plight of wounded black troops engaged on the front line, she vowed to take action but was counseled against it. Nevertheless, Gilson was undeterred – even though none of her co-workers agreed to help her.

Determined to succeed, Gilson used her feminine wiles to persuade Major General Ambrose Burnside to help her overcome the prejudice of the medical profession. Her hospital for black soldiers was eventually set up, consisting of a square mile of tents. Often she treated the soldiers in temperatures of over 100 degrees.

Aged 29, Gilson wrote about how tired and ill she was becoming. She was suffering from malaria but remained in her post until the fall of Richmond on April 2, 1865.

2. Mary Jewett Telford (1839–1906)

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Mary Jewett Telford began teaching at the age of 14 and switched to nursing following the outbreak of the American Civil War. At first, she was not accepted by the US Sanitary Commission because of her age, but like the other nurses on this list, Mary was tenacious. The governor of Michigan, Austin Blair, who was friends with Mary’s father, eventually granted her a special permit that allowed her to get involved.

Telford began working at Hospital No.8 in Nashville and, for eight months, was the only woman in a hospital that cared for six hundred soldiers. One of her roles was to write letters home for soldiers who were unable to write their own, and it is reported that, after the war, many soldiers thanked her for caring for them during their convalescence. Telford left nursing after a year, however, when the job took its toll on her health.

1. Susie King Taylor (1848–1912)

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As a freed slave herself, Susie King Taylor became the first black teacher for freed African American students on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. Before the island was evacuated, Taylor met Edward King, an African American army sergeant, whom she eventually married. Later, she served as a nurse in his (and her brother’s) regiment. On the island, Taylor returned to teaching and taught many of the troops to read and write.

In February 1863, Taylor nursed wounded men returning from a raid up St. Mary’s River. There was a varioloid (a mild form of smallpox) outbreak at the camp and, ignoring the doctor’s orders, Taylor took it upon herself to nurse the men suffering the most. She was also always modest about her endeavors, claiming, “I was always happy to know my efforts were successful in camp, and also felt grateful for the appreciation of my service.”

Since the dramatic nuclear meltdowns in Japan in March of 2011, much has been said about radiation and radioactive contamination. Our government can’t seem to make up its mind, depending entirely on which agency is doing the talking today. We have the bloated security apparatus issuing dire propaganda about “dirty bombs” made with maybe a pound of radioactive material, which we are supposed to be so terrified of that we will tolerate the blanket abrogation of our rights and liberties. At the very same time we get glib assurances that nuclear power plant meltdowns and explosions involving hundreds or thousands of tons’ worth of highly radioactive material are “nothing to worry about.”

Because both these positions cannot be true at the same time, we get to choose which we will believe. Most of us will choose to err on the side of caution, given the accumulated documentation of serious health effects radiation and radioactive contamination can cause.

In the wake of Fukushima it has become clear that people need good information. A primer on ways to protect your home and family from radioactive contamination in the wake of a nuclear incident can be found at the blog Top Masters in Health Care, 15 Ways to Limit Radiation Exposure. A fun infographic at the Best Health Degrees blog prints out to make a good quick reference info-sheet to keep in the family emergency kit for use whenever you suspect contamination may be headed your way from any source.

Fukushima caused many people to become aware of potassium iodide tablets, available from your local drug store, via outlets online, and sometimes distributed by utilities or local officials to people living near nuclear facilities experiencing problems. This stable form of iodine, which is used by the thyroid gland to produce necessary hormones for metabolism and fetal brain development can protect your thyroid gland from radioactive iodine-131. But it does not protect against any other limiting isotopes likely to be released from a nuclear event.

The most limiting of those are the radioactive cesium isotopes, primarily cesium-134 and 137. Western medicine does have ways of mitigating gross contamination with those isotopes in a substance called Prussian Blue. But this is difficult to come by, must be administered by a physician and be accompanied with a reliable whole body radiation assay demonstrating gross contamination, and is primarily reserved for those most involved in nuclear situations like military personnel and nuclear workers. There is a promising chelation agent being developed by Berkeley National Laboratory that can bind and remove heavy metals and actinides, but that too will likely be reserved to actual nuclear and government workers rather than distributed to the public being endangered by radioactive isotopes in the environment after meltdowns or other radiological emergencies.

This article discusses natural means of radiation mitigation, things we can do for ourselves. These fall into four categories:

A. Substances that “pack” our systems with stable isotopes of commonly uptaken elements so that radioactive isotopes of those or substitutional elements are not incorporated into our tissues.

B. Chelating agents, or substances that bind with certain elements and carry them through the body for elimination so they are not incorporated into our tissues.

C. Detox agents that facilitate and stimulate the natural removal of toxic substances and heavy metals from our systems and tissues.

D. General systemics that strengthen our immune systems, DNA repair mechanisms and other cellular mechanisms that serve to rid the body of damaged cells so they don’t lead to cancers.

If during an event you are using the techniques in the links above to limit indoor exposures, the use of some of the following mitigation methods can help to eliminate isotopes that get through anyway or are absorbed outdoors and away from home. Do keep potassium iodide in your first aid kit just in case, and take them whenever local officials indicate that an event has occurred. That will likely be the ONLY medicinal substance you will ever have access to for the purpose of protecting yourself against just one isotope, so keep the following handy as well.

A. “Packing” with Stable Isotopes

The most limiting radioactive isotopes encountered in fallout from nuclear accidents and explosions are iodine-131, cesium-134, cesium-137 and strontium-90. It takes about ten half-lives for a given amount of any isotope to decay away, so for these isotopes the period will be 80 days for iodine, 20 years for cesium-134, and 300 years for cesium-137 and strontium-90.

Our bodies can’t tell a radioactive isotope of any element (or near-element) from a stable isotope, so the issue here is to ensure our bodies have plenty of the stable variety so radioactive isotopes are not uptaken into tissues or used in biochemical processes.

• Iodine is concentrates in our thyroid glands where it is used to produce a number of very important metabolic hormones. Try to get an ample supply of stable iodine on a regular basis by including seaweeds and sea foods in your normal diet, and ensure your regular multivitamin includes iodine. Sea salt is good for seasoning if you wish to avoid regular iodized salt. You can purchase potassium iodide [KI] tablets to keep in your first aid kit, start taking them as soon as you hear there is a release, even if the authorities dismiss the problem. KI can cause digestive upsets, so don’t take too much. So long as you are getting a good daily supply in your diet most of the radioactive iodine you are exposed to will go on through. The overall benefit of a diet that includes ample supplies of iodine is that you probably won’t develop hypo or hyperthyroidism or suffer from goiter.

• Cesium isotopes are close enough on the elemental scale to be readily uptaken by our bodies and put to use in biochemical processes and tissues (particularly muscle tissues) as if it were potassium. Natural potassium includes the isotope K40, which is radioactive and has a half-life of ~1.25 billion years, but it’s a minor percentage and the ratio remains the same throughout our lives even as our potassium content gets cycled through and replaced. Cesium-134 has a half life of 2 years, 137′s half-life is 30 years. These are far more radioactive, and will do much more damage. The Prussian Blue treatment mentioned in the beginning of this article is specific for removing cesium from those who become very seriously contaminated, but is not something regular people – even the known-to-be exposed public near a meltdown – are ever going to have ready access to. Thus you will want to eat good potassium sources on a regular basis (bananas, potatoes, root vegetables, dark green leafs in the cabbage family are best), and make sure your multivitamin has an ample supply. These days when so much radioactive cesium from bomb testing and power plant accidents is in our environment, a separate daily potassium supplement wouldn’t hurt. Double your intake if you hear of a release nearby.

• Strontium is also readily uptaken by our bodies and put to use as if it were calcium, thus concentrates in bones and teeth and is also used in place of calcium in a large number of biochemical processes. You will want to pay attention to your calcium intake as well, ensuring an ample daily supply. Those same dark green leafies, root vegetables, crustaceans and shellfish are good, and a daily calcium supplement is also recommended. As with potassium, you’ll want to increase your intake whenever there is a radiological incident upwind of you.

NOTE: All of these isotopes are as easily uptaken by plants as by animals, and concentrated in plant tissues. Green leafy vegetables and berries will be among the easiest foods to become contaminated from fallout or contaminated water, so do not use foods grown in contaminated conditions to ‘pack’ your body – you’ll just be packing with the wrong elements.

B. & C. Chelating & Detox Agents