Hello fellow Nurse, this is your weekly handoff. Some quick and dirty nursing news that’s worth sharing. Enjoy!

Something to absolutely not believe

Twenty-nine years ago, NICU nurse Sharon Murphy stood over a warmer at MountainView Hospital in Las Vegas, breathing oxygen into a newborn whose mother had just died from a rare amniotic fluid embolism. The baby cried. The mom did not make it. Every March 10, Murphy wondered what had happened to that little girl. Last year, the now-29-year-old Jorelyn Gansit walked into Murphy’s old hospital — not as a patient, but as a brand-new OB nurse. Today they work together in the Mother Baby Unit at MountainView, and Murphy calls Gansit her godchild. Pull yourself together. We’ve still got more newsletter.

Something to make you furious

Asante, Oregon’s largest health system, just announced layoffs of at least 300 employees. CEO Tom Gessel cited a $16M shortfall — and, wait for it, blamed Oregon’s safe staffing law, which has cost Asante nearly a million dollars in fines for non-compliance. So to recap: hospital breaks the staffing law, gets fined for breaking the staffing law, then lays off nurses and points at the staffing law. The Oregon Nurses Association called it "egregious." I’d use a different word.

Something to make us nurses proud

Alicia McCullough, an oncology nurse at St. Joseph’s Candler in Savannah, was on her lunch break when she noticed a patient at a nearby table choking. She had never performed the Heimlich on a real person before — but she did it anyway, and Joanne Smith, a Bulloch County resident with an autoimmune disorder that weakens her swallowing muscles, is alive because of it. The two are now lifelong friends, and McCullough was honored during National Nurses Week. Honestly, lunch breaks should not be this productive.

Something from a Subscriber

"My patient, a 92-year-old retired teacher, kept asking when her husband would visit. He had died six years earlier. The first day I gently reminded her, and she sobbed for an hour. By day three, when she asked again, I said, ‘He called and said he’s running late but he loves you very much.’ She smiled and drifted back to sleep. I know that’s not technically reality orientation, but I’m not waking that woman up to grieve him fresh every shift. Some days the kindest care isn’t in the protocol." — Marisol, Geriatric RN, Florida

Please submit all stories to: [email protected]

Please be conscious of HIPAA and omit any PPI or detail that may give hints to the people, hospital, and nurses involved in your story. We may slightly alter your story or change names for this reason. Your story may also be shortened and slightly altered to fit the size of the blog. Happy writing!!

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