It's Roundup Time at Change of Shift

Howdy, Partners. Welcome to Change of Shift, Volume II, Number 5. My mailbox was full of great submissions, and I want to thank everyone for sending in their posts. Today’s roundup includes some of the best posts from blogosphere, so saddle up and enjoy this edition of Change of Shift. And speaking of mail, have you sent a letter yet to your representative on Capitol Hill, asking them to support legislation to establish the Office of the National Nurse? To learn more about the proposal, check out this post from the National Nursing Network Organization. I think it's a great idea. Click here to sign the online petition.

I want to thank Kim from Emergiblog for allowing me to host this week's CoS. Check out her post about two seniors, and prepare to laugh your socks off.


Hey, what are you doing? Whipping someone is NOT therapeutic. I’ve heard of new age medicine, but this is really over the top. I wonder what name you would give to this type of practitioner. Lonesome Dreamer from The Making of a Nurse might have a few ideas. Read LD’s post, Nurse By Any Other Name.

Compu_Nurse wants some ideas on how to tame her aching back. I do not suggest trying Medicine Whip therapy for a sore back.


Caroline from Brain Scramble sent in this book review. The book discusses the differences between Western medicine and Hmong medicine. Caroline must love books, too.




I wonder if cowboys fear engaging in a gunfight during a blood moon just as much as nurses fear working during a full moon. It’s a fact; hospitals get busy during a full moon. I don’t think I'd like looking at a blood moon. I’m not a big fan of blood, hence I am not a surgical nurse. It’s a good thing that nurses like different specialties. Terry from Counting Sheep loves surgery, and she sends in this post about the best case of the week.

Working in an emergency room is hard enough on a good night, but it can get very stressful when all of your exam rooms are packed with patients during a full moon. ERnursey sent in this post about the importance of having an experienced triage nurse working in a busy emergency room.


Faith Walker from The Oracle sent in this post about a brilliant doctor and an even more brilliant patient. Funny things happen during a full moon, too.

Emergency room nurses see a lot in their line of work, and Girlvet asks the question, "Can you work in an ER and still be nice?'' See her answer here, and tell her what you think.



Taverns are loud, rowdy places. They are full of drunken cowboys who yell and fight, and shoot at each other when someone cheats at the poker table. No one can relax and listen to the piano music with gunfire going off in the background. Look at these two cowboys. They are trying to kill each other, which is adding to everyone's sensory overload. Keith from Digital Doorway knows what sensory overload feels like. Check out his post.

Monkey Girl from Musings of a Highly Trained Monkey can handle anything that comes her way. I bet she can even tame drunken, rowdy cowboys. There is one thing, however, that grosses her out. It has to do with a tooth brush and a cat.




Arizona Cowgirl looks like she has her hands full. She’s just fallen to the ground, her shirt is ripped, and her horse is going berserk. She needs help. Before she rides off into the sunset with her hero who wears a white hat, Arizona Cowgirl should read this post written by tofu lou from manifest destiny about skin cancer. A cowgirl who spends all of her time out on the sunny prairie can’t be too careful when it comes to her health.

New Nurse Jane felt like she had been thrown off a horse when she volunteered to work some extra hours on her unit. Read her post and she will tell you how she learned to say no to overtime.

Markie from Mark on the World thinks that some nurses are meaner than a wild, out of control horse. Read his post about mean nurses.



The Texas cowboy holding the lit fuse connected to the power keg looks upset. He’s going to need an emergency room if he doesn’t settle down and come to his senses. Why would anyone argue with a lawman that is holding a gun, or stand around a power keg that is going to explode? It looks like some people in Texas are just plain loco.

Not every Texan is crazy, in fact, some of the best health care bloggers are from the great state of Texas. For example, Scalpel, from Scalpel or Sword, is an ER doc working in Texas. He wrote about stupid rules made up by stupid hospital administrators.

Tammy Swofford is a nurse writer from Texas who sent in this heartfelt post about grief. Her submission is a tribute to the victims who died in the Minnesota bridge collapse.





Here’s the Tender Foot Kid. He’s holding onto the bars of his jail cell because his feet hurt. I wonder if his mom is planning to tag along with him when he goes to have his tender feet checked out by a health care practitioner. Max E Nurse sent in this post about adults who can’t untie their mum’s apron strings. Maybe the Kid's mother will ask the doctor to order a colonoscopy for her son. Eeewww! Geena from Code Blog sent in this submission about a possible alternative for the dreaded golytely prep.






I’ve heard that we have to play the cards that life deals to us, even if we are the victim of a “Double Deal.” Craig from Second Chance to Live writes an inspirational post about his life, and how he is living to the fullest even though life dealt him a bad hand.












Here is Jake Kilgore, Frontier Lawyer. I hope the guy on the horse isn’t one of Jake’s clients. It would make me think twice before hiring Jake as my attorney. I wonder if people walk up to Jake when he’s walking down the street and ask him for free legal advice. Patients frequently walk up to nurses they know out on the street and ask for health care advice. Labor Nurse writes about how a patient walked up to her in a grocery store and started asking questions about mucous plugs.

The Curmudgeon is one of my all time favorite bloggers. He's been reading health care blogs for a long time, and recently told his readers that his daughter is taking her prerequisites for nursing school. He's a lawyer with a great sense of humor. Read his list of what NOT to say to a judge. Maybe he can give Jake some tips on how to save his client's neck, no pun intended.



The only law in the Wild West was gun law. Now we have a federal government making policies that don't always make sense. Disappearing John writes about a new policy in his post, Scary News Article. The Nurse Practitioners Save Lives weighs in on the same new policy in her post, Medicare Won't Cover Preventable Errors.

Disappearing John also sent in this post about the saying, “the more you learn, the more you realize how much you still don’t know.”





That's it for this week's edition of Change of Shift. Thanks for stopping by. I'm buffing up my boots and getting ready for the next edition of CoS. Someday Nurse from How I Spent My Nursing Education is hosting, and these boots are made for walking. Sorry, I couldn't help myself, I just had to say it. I'll see you at the next Change of Shift!