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

Something to absolutely not believe

More than 80,000 nurses in Alabama currently can’t renew their licenses online because someone hacked the state Board of Nursing. The board’s system has been down since a “cybersecurity event” on September 1, and as of last week there is still no timeline for getting it back. In the meantime, every renewal, every new-grad license, and every out-of-state endorsement is being done on paper and processed by hand, which is exactly as fast as it sounds. Hospitals can’t even verify licenses through the board’s site, so hiring is stalling across the state, and scammers are already spoofing the board’s phone number to shake nurses down for fake fines. It’s 2026 and Alabama nurses are mailing in paper forms like it’s the DMV.

Something to make you furious

Surveillance video released last week shows a trauma nurse at Jackson Memorial in Miami getting punched in the head over and over by a patient after she stepped in to protect her coworkers. Yanira Eguileor, a career trauma nurse, was left semi-conscious on the floor with injuries to her head, neck, and spine while the guy kept tearing through the unit. She’s now suing the hospital and the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office for $5 million, saying security was nowhere to be found when it mattered, and her attorney had to file a second lawsuit just to force the hospital to hand over the footage. Jackson says officers arrived within seconds and, in response to her retaliation complaint, is now accusing her of a patient-records violation. Whatever shakes out in court, a nurse got beaten unconscious at work and had to sue to see the video. That is where workplace safety stands in 2026.

Something to make us nurses proud

When a fire tore through the newborn nursery at a major government hospital in Islamabad late last month, nurse Razia Noreen dropped the syringe she was prepping and ran straight into the flames. Security footage shows her going in and coming out seconds later with a baby in her arms, the only one of the 15 newborns in that nursery to survive. She tried to go back for the others, but the smoke and heat made it impossible, and she has been painfully honest about how much that haunts her. Pakistan’s prime minister has since handed her a 10 million rupee reward and announced she’ll receive one of the country’s highest civil honors. She says she wishes she could have saved them all. We say she’s exactly what a nurse is.

Something from a Subscriber

“I work nights on a med-surg floor and we had this 92-year-old gentleman, sharp as a tack, who refused to sleep because he was convinced night shift was ‘when the real stuff happens.’ Every time I rounded he’d be sitting up in bed with the lights on like he was waiting for a show. Around 3 a.m. I finally asked him what he was waiting for. He told me he’d been a hospital security guard for 40 years and he wanted to make sure I was doing my job right.

So I made him a deal. I brought him a cup of decaf, pulled up a chair, and let him ‘supervise’ me charting for ten minutes. He critiqued my typing speed, told me my shoes were too loud, and then said, ‘Alright, you pass,’ turned off his light, and was snoring within five minutes. He did the same thing every night for a week until discharge. On his last night he told me I was the best nurse he’d ever worked with, which I’m choosing to take as a formal performance review from my supervisor.”

— Danielle, Med-Surg RN, Ohio

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. 1f6