Nursing Management Tactics to Relax Yourself

As a nurse, you will often feel overwhelmed with your responsibilities, shifts, patients, etc.Nursing is the gentle art of caring. However, no profession is free of stress and nursing is especially susceptible to it. During your nursing education days, you might not feel the same stress level, but as you progress in your career with nursing education programs and your nursing job, you will experience it more.

You will come across many people asking you to keep calm and manage the situation with a leveled head. How about applying proventactics, and not just wasting words?It's true that it's always “easier said than done.”However, you should always try to take a moment to reflect and pull yourself away from feeling overwhelmed.

Dear nurses, and future nurses, its time to relax yourself with the following nursing management tactics:

1.  Sit Back and Catch Your Breath

Tired? Confused about all that is going around you? Relax. First of all, just collect yourself. Take two or three deep breaths. Sit back, catch your breath and plan before you jump onto the next task. You need a 'plan' to proceed. No matter how much time it takes, it won’t take more time than what you will consume stressing yourself to continue with no strategy. Choose the best way.

2.  Set Priorities among Patients’ Needs

Some patients may need less attention and some may need a constant eye. Opt to provide your care to the patient who is the least stable at that moment. Yet again, some patients may exaggerate their situation. However, you have to choose the most critical one. For instance, choose the patient who just had a transplant with a blood pressure of 191/91 instead of a patient who is upset for getting their 4 mg IV morphine 45 minutes late.

3.  Remember that Team Work Always Does the Trick

As a nurse, you can use the human resources around you. Not all tasks are necessarily to be completed by a nurse. For example, you can always delegate the task of getting a patient to the washroom to a CNA. Always think of nursing as a team sport.

4.  Learn the Art of Humility

As a nurse, in the entire period of your study and practice, you will be learning that nursing, as a profession, requires a lot of humility. For instance, you have to humbly apologize to the patients you failed to reach on time. Compassion may be the foremost trait a nurse possesses. Avoid excuses. Don't stress the patient with excuses like 'we are short on staff.' It's not going to help. Ask for any service you can provide instead, after apologizing.

Lastly, all can be managed. Just look at the tasks and form a plan. Regardless of how experienced you are, or if you are on the way to becoming a nurse (by studying international nursing programs), these tactics will always help. You need to remind yourself that frustration will likely lead you nowhere. However, calming yourself down will surely lead you to a more peaceful and enjoyable day!

11 Must Have Items for all New Nurses in Their Bags – Part II

In the previous section of this blog, we have mentioned some of the essential items a nursing student or a new nurse should have in their bags. Stethoscope, thermometer, gauze, sterilized mask, cold medicines, scissors and microscope medical tape are some of them. We, however, are not yet done with the important stuff you, as a nurse, should keep in your bag.

6. Have You Kept a Tongue Depressor?

Many a times in the nursing training or profession, a nurse will need to use this tool. Tongue depressor, basically, is a tool used to depress the tongue and examine the mouth and throat.

7. Needless to Say – Lotion and Hand Sanitizer

Apart from the basic need of keeping a lotion in your bag, a nurse should keep a lotion because of a very much valid reason. Of course, nurses wash their hands many a times in a day, therefore ending up with dry skin. That's when they need a lotion. Further, the hand sanitizer is a plus when it comes to cleaning the germs and the infectious agents.

8. In Case You're an Expert in IV Therapy – Six Saline Flushes

In case you're an expert in IV therapy, you must know how a saline flush is a method of clearing out intravenous lines (IVs). An IV therapy nurse would certainly need them before the drip is connected in order to assure that IV is still patent.

9. How About Books Related to Nursing?

As a nurse, you'll need a reference to common medicines and symptoms. Why not keep a medical dictionary or a medical manual. You can access information about various prescriptions, clinical guidelines and patient advices, all of them handy.

10. A Small Notebook

Sure, you can keep it in order to take notes from the doctors. You can also add the observations you've made of your patients.

11. Tourniquet

What shall a nurse do at the time of continuous traumatic bleeding of the patients? A tourniquet, basically, is a constricting device, which is used mostly when the patient is in a critical state because of continuous bleeding. Indeed, a lifesaver!

Were you aware of all of them? Being a nurse, you will face many emergency situations when you'll need all these. Do you want to mention more of the essentials nurses should keep in their bags? Sure, write to us in the comment section below.

In addition, are you willing to Study Nursing in Canada for International Students to become a global nurse? You should certainly check the specialized nursing programs offered by INSCOL. 

11 Must Have Items for all New Nurses in Their Bags – Part I

Are you a nursing student or maybe a new nurse? While communication skills, compassion, empathy, flexibility, emotional stability, and interpersonal skills are some of the must have qualities of a nurse, what all do you keep in your bag? Yes, your bag. Almost all of us keep stuff that tends to signify us to the greatest extent. Are you wondering what all is required in your bag in order to indicate you as a nursing student or a nurse?

Have a look at the 14 essentials that if you keep in your bag, you sure are a nurse!

1. Do You Have a Stethoscope With You?

Probably, one of the most prized possessions of a nurse. A stethoscope does not only help in listening to the heart, but also the veins and the intestines. These days we can get a plethora of variety in stethoscopes, from the older technology to the latest and the advanced. Classic or the up-to-the-minute, a stethoscope is necessary item for a nurse.

2. Another Must Have Item – Thermometer

We all know thermometers are used to measure temperature or a temperature gradient. Nurses use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the patients' body and register it. One of the second most useful items a nurse should have in order to examine the health of the patient.

3. Do Not Forget About the Sanitary Items!

Sure, you keep them-

• Gauze
• Sterilized Mask
• Gloves 
• Cotton Balls

4. Also, the OTC (Over the Counter) Pharmacy Items

• Cold Medicines
• Paracetamol
• Pain Killers 
• Ibuprofen 
• Other emergency medicine

5. The Need for Scissors and Microscope Medical Tape

Whenever there is a question of wound care, scissors and microscope medical tape are the saviors. The scissor is used in the quest for cutting the medical gauze, bandages and dressings. As a nurse, you may come across many such emergencies when there is a need for scissors. Microscope medical tapes always help while accidents like pulling IV micro-drip adapter of patients happen.

Do you have all this stuff in your bag? Keep checking this space to know what else is required in your bag being a nursing student or a nurse new to the profession. Until then, you can check the Nursing Courses offered by INSCOL in various countries such as Canada, UK, USA, NZ, Philippines and Australia. Shine on!