Nurses catch more errors than you think. There are times when doctors order the wrong diet for a patient, forget to order a medication a patient was taking at home, or doesn’t realize a patient has had a Foley for several days. Nurses are the frontline defenders in preventing accidents, possible infections, and adverse events.

Nursing is a profession that can be both rewarding and challenging at the same time. Since nurses represent the majority of the workforce, they are often targeted by hospitals as a way to cut down their healthcare costs. Nurses play a very important role in the medical industry. Known for their most caring traits, nurses have now developed their own reputation and identity in the health care area.

According to the Illinois Nurse Practice Act, Sec. 70-5. these are the grounds for disciplinary actions in nursing.

Physicians are important role models for their patients and peers, which makes their own personal health an influential factor in health promotion and disease prevention.

Doctors struggle with drug and alcohol addictions at similar or higher rates as the general population. They are exposed to many of the same risk factors for addiction and mental health disorders as people outside the medical profession, such as genetic predisposition, childhood trauma, and the presence of anxiety, depression or other mental health issues.

As nurses, we have a duty to report all cases of suspected abuse.

Your healthcare facility likely has a policy and procedure outlining the exact steps you should take. Consider this a refresher course, especially as sometimes these situations can catch us off guard and there may not be a more senior nurse or manual to consult.

Night work requires doctors to remain awake and alert, when physiologically programmed to be asleep. Many studies of human efficiency and mental agility have shown significant dips between 10pm and 6am, and the risk of injury is 30% higher on a night shift compared to a morning one.

Most physicians probably assume that they have the right to speak freely with their patients, at least within the constraints imposed by professional ethics and medically supported facts. However, that right has eroded in recent years as numerous states have passed laws that either require physicians to enunciate state-mandated, medically unsupported information to their patients, unsupported by medical evidence, or forbid physicians from discussing certain topics. These laws go far beyond the informed consent laws enacted in most states in the 1960s and 1970s, which only required physicians to provide certain categories of information to patients prior to invasive treatment, e.g. the nature of the risks and benefits entailed.

Whether it’s something as mundane as the flu or as serious as pneumonia, you will be required to take some sort of medication to be able to counter the effects and stay healthy. Simple ailments generally don’t require too much, but chronic conditions will almost always put you on a lifelong dependency on pills. It is very important for you to manage you medication properly to avoid an overdose or missing one altogether.