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 Las Vegas woman posed as a registered nurse for months and “treated” at least a dozen diabetic children, ages 6 to 13, in Clark County schools — even forging physician signatures on insulin orders. Crystal Scott, 45, originally faced 73 charges, including child abuse and furnishing dangerous drugs to minors, before a plea deal shrank the case down to two felonies. Oh, and while she was out on bail? She reportedly took a trip to Albania. A judge just sentenced her to 19 to 48 months in prison — she was escorted out in handcuffs after telling the court her “only goal was to help people.”

Something to make you furious

CommonSpirit Health is pushing ahead with layoffs of more than 175 workers across 17 California hospitals — including every single pediatric unit nurse at California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles. Also on the chopping block: the patient transporters, PT aides, clerks, and unit secretaries who keep a floor actually running. More than 5,000 nurses have signed a petition demanding the cuts be rescinded, rallying in LA with signs that said it best: “some cuts don’t heal.” Nurses say they’ll be expected to absorb all of that ancillary work — answering phones, buzzing in visitors — on top of, you know, patient care. CommonSpirit’s response? A corporate statement about “strategically positioning ourselves to adeptly navigate today’s healthcare landscape.”

Something to make us nurses proud

Lulette Infante landed in New York City at 18 with two suitcases, three younger siblings to help raise, and a plan. More than 30 years later, she’s a nurse informatics leader in Northern California — and one of the most compelling voices in nursing right now. On a new episode of the Love n’ Leary podcast, she shares her journey from Manila and makes the case that immigrant nurses have long been the quiet backbone of American health care, filling the gaps no one else could. Her challenge to the rest of us doesn’t require a megaphone: learn the story of the nurse working next to you, push for real interpretation services and informed consent, and pair your data with a story. Some of the proudest nursing stories start with a one-way ticket.

Something from a Subscriber

“I had a patient on my med-surg floor who’d been with us almost three weeks — a sweet older gentleman with no visitors, ever. He never complained, but you could tell the days got long. One night around 3 a.m. I found him wide awake, and he finally confessed: he couldn’t sleep because he missed his dog. He hadn’t seen her since he was admitted, and he was convinced she’d forgotten him.

So our day shift CNA tracked down the neighbor who was watching her, and the next afternoon we ‘happened’ to schedule his wheelchair ride to the courtyard at the exact moment a scruffy little terrier mix ‘happened’ to be walking by. That man buried his face in that dog’s fur for a solid ten minutes, and I’m not going to pretend half the staff wasn’t crying behind him. He slept through the night for the first time in weeks. Sometimes the best medicine has fleas.”

— Rachel, 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!!

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