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

Something to absolutely not believe

A wound care nurse in Montana was impaled through the torso by his own trekking pole after slipping on loose rock on Granite Peak — then hiked TEN MILES back down with the pole still in him. David Cifaldi, 32, says his “nurse brain kicked on pretty quick”: he checked his own breathing, bleeding, and signs of shock before deciding the injury wasn’t immediately life-threatening. The descent took six and a half hours, and the pole stayed put for nearly nine before trauma surgeons in Billings removed it. He even sent a friend ahead on the trail so kids wouldn’t be scared by the sight. Assessment, intervention, evaluation — the man literally walked his own care plan off a mountain.

Something to make you furious

Moriah Benjamin, an LPN at Pennsylvania’s Millville Area School District, told administrators she couldn’t legally cover two school buildings alone with no Certified School Nurse available — state rules require LPN supervision, and PA guidance says supplemental LPNs “may not be assigned a student caseload.” The district’s response? Fire her — officially for “absenteeism,” as a probationary employee earning $28,000 a year with zero paid sick leave. She represented herself at her termination hearing because she couldn’t afford a lawyer, and the board voted her out without ever ruling on the scope-of-practice question at the center of the case. Her words under oath: “I’d rather lose my job than my license.” She protected her patients and her license — and lost her paycheck for it.

Something to make us nurses proud

Travel nurse Leceadricke Young had just finished a shift at a Burlington, Vermont nursing home when he saw a man grab a woman by the throat and slam her to the ground — with children standing right there. Young stepped in alongside a fire captain, and when the attacker pulled a knife, he flipped the man to the ground and flung the blade away using disarming skills he learned as a teen — 1,500 miles from home, as he put it. Then he did the most nurse thing imaginable: went straight back to the victims and only left once paramedics cleared the woman and kids. The suspect is being held without bail on charges including attempted murder. Protect this man at all costs.

Something from a Subscriber

“Night shift, 0300, and my confused 89-year-old had pulled out his IV for the third time and was demanding to know why he was being held prisoner in this hotel with terrible room service. Instead of fighting him on it, I sat down, handed him the extra dinner-tray sandwich, and asked him to tell me about his wife. He talked for twenty minutes about how they met at a dance hall in 1958 — ‘prettiest girl in three counties.’ He let me restart the IV mid-story and never even flinched. I charted ‘therapeutic communication.’ I call it turkey sandwich sedation.

The kicker: his daughter came in the next morning and told me he hadn’t said more than a few words to anyone since her mom passed in the spring. She cried. I cried in the supply closet like a professional. Fourteen years in, and I still can’t tell you why the 3 a.m. stories hit different — I just know some nights this job gives back more than it takes.”

— Dana R., Med-Surg RN, Ohio

We want to hear more from you! Submit your funniest or strangest or most heart warming nursing stories and we will pick one to share every week! This will be shared anonymously- so don’t be afraid to add some humor and flare and cursing, just like we love here!

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!!

If you liked this newsletter please share with your friends. Which bullet is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Email me and let me know.