Some fellow students and I were talking about the concept of ‘true north.’  I think this is a great mental concept to practice as you go through your career.  Your ‘true north” should represent the caregiver you strive to be.  It represents patient centered care, ethical and safe practice, being a leader, and whatever other qualities you find important to providing quality care for your patients.  As soon as you feel yourself drifting away from your ‘true north’ stop yourself, make corrections to your course and find your direction again.  Even though we all have good intentions when we care for our patients of being the best caregiver we can be, it can take just a second, a minor detail or comment to push you off your course and start down an unintended path, a path that will not give your patient the best care… Continue reading →

Today during one of our many great discussions, someone made a comment (and I apologize for not remembering who to give credit) that got the wheels turning in my head.  The comment was something along the lines of how medical/nursing students need to change their way of thinking when it comes to performing something correctly or well during your clinical experience.  How many of us (I know I’m guilty) after we perform a procedure flawlessly for the first time or catch something during a patient assessment that no one else had, immediately leave the room thinking “way to go me!”  Now, I am not saying that this is not acceptable thinking, of course we should feel good about our accomplishments and progress.  However, our first, or at least very next thought should be about how you just impacted the quality of that patients care by being… Continue reading →