Book Review: “Nursing From Within” by Elizabeth Scala

Book by Elizabeth Scala

Spiritual Practice Nurse Elizabeth Scala is a nurse, Reiki Master, healer, certified coach, facilitator, teacher, author and speaker. Her latest book, “Nursing From Within: A Fresh Alternative to Putting Out Fires and Self-Care Workarounds”, is her own prescription for reinvigorating your nursing practice with heart, self-love, balance and magic.

There are three major groupings that nurses struggle with:

Self –Nursing is hard work. It’s physically demanding. It’s exhausting.
Even when you’re off you’re thinking about work or bringing work home
with you. Nursing is a labor-intensive job.

Others – While nursing is hard for you, you know how challenging it can be to work in a team. Not just the coworkers- but the patients. Patients are also getting older, sicker and much more acute.

Global – Nursing is the biggest group that makes up the healthcare system. This is the
age of technology. Documentation goes electronic and charting becomes time consuming and obsessive. Family members get confused on what to do next. Caregivers (that’s us) get exhausted.

Nursing from Within™ is an innovative and uplifting guide for nurses at all levels of the profession. Learn how to shift your inner perspective so you can enjoy the work of helping others, regardless of how stressful or challenging the environment you are working in may be. Are you ready to rediscover the joy and passion of nursing? ‘Nursing from Within: A Fresh Alternative to Putting Out Fires and Self-Care Workarounds’ is available now. Get your copy today by visiting Elizabeth Scala’s site, or purchase directly from Amazon.

This Book is a Must Read!!
Nicole M. Brown, RN

A calendar of the Virtual Blog Tour (In case you would like to follow along with our other nurse bloggers): http://elizabethscala.com/landing/nursing-from-within/#6

What Are The 10 Rules Of The Power Of Positive Thinking?

The power of positive thinking and the top ten rules in getting it is one of the hottest topic today.

This is because people are realizing that positive thinking and a positive attitude does affect life significantly. Have you heard of “The Secret” movie? It’s rapidly making it’s way around the world.
Whether you see a glass as half-empty or half-full can affect the way you treat yourself. We are in control of our lives and our destiny.

An idle brain, is a devils’ workshop they say. This is not a positive quote. However, using this ideology in mind, we ventured to write on positive thinking, so that something productive would be achieved of our minds.

Here are the top 10 Rules to Get the Power of Positive Thinking

1) Believe – You need to believe. You can not pretend to be a positive thinker. In positive thinking, you can not fake it because there is no one to pretend to. If somebody merely believes that you are a positive thinker, how can that benefit you? The most important of the ten rules of the power of positive thinking is that you yourself should believe it.

2) Be objective – This is very important in the ten rules for the power of positive thinking. Many people tend to see their lives for their failures and thus, they lose all hope of ever attaining in their goal. Some other people, filled with false pride, tend to magnify their success and they make all the wrong decisions.

3) Surround yourself with people who have a positive attitude – When you are engaged in an internal battle between your negative and positive self, you will need all the help you can get. Do not surround yourself with negative people who will just drag your positive attitude to the floor with their negativity.

4) Be healthy – All of the positive thinking in the world will not help you if you are six feet under, can it? You have to keep your body healthy in order to fuel your positive thinking. One step to achieving the power of positive thinking is looking after your body.

5) Switch negativity around – Remove all negative thoughts by repelling it outright when something negative enters your personality. Channel that energy into positive thoughts. Positive quotes and positive affirmations will help to keep negativity away.

6) Be patient – Positive thinking is not immediate. You need to reprogram yourself in order to get remove any negative attitude you possess.

7) Remember that other people can sense your negativity – Before you do anything, be sure to have the right attitude. One reason why people fail is because others can sense their negative attitude and want no part of it. Positive thoughts, positive thinking, and positive affirmation create a positive attitude

8) Be positive – Always look for something positive in everything new. When you encounter something unfamiliar, do not be afraid. Take a hard look at it and see it for the positive effects it brings, this will make your life easier.

9) Pace yourself – You need to pace yourself in order to prevent yourself from collapsing. Take life one day at a time. Remember that you can not hurry into being positive. Be patient and you will achieve a positive attitude.

10) Apply the change – The main characteristic of these ten rules of the power of positive thinking is the fact that they only bring you to the door. You have to open it yourself. Many individuals do not realize this, but we need these rules in order to appreciate life more. Some people think rules limit our achievements, but this is untrue. Without any rules, we would have been extinct centuries ago. Rules remove the chaos that is called life and impose sanity into it.

Rules are what we use to help us understand the true meaning of life. Sometimes, we look for rules in order to help us attain our goals. People make rules in order to help themselves achieve their goals in a manner that they can understand. Rules are also used to help us understand life. People give out rules in order to help others get what they want. We are able to keep every discovery made because of rules.

It seems that people, when looking for rules, like to stick to ten, which is a nice, round number. It comes as no surprise that individuals look for 10 rules for the power of positive thinking.

Helping Your Child Transition into September

Transitions happen every day in your child’s world and September, like no other month, is a time of transitions for your child. Starting a new grade. Getting a new teacher. Learning new classroom rules. Adding more homework. No matter what the transition, you can expect an added level of stress as your child adapts to the change.

When making the transition to a new grade, your child will be challenged by more rigorous academic challenges, more social demands and more responsibility. Your child will have to follow the rules, take turns, make new friends, learn harder material and try to meet the requirements of a new teacher(s).

It takes a lot of energy, focus and control to keep it together all day long at school, so most kids will be tired and you’ll see an increase in temper tantrums, whining and defiance at home. Don’t take it personally! Recognize the stress that your child is under!

The best response to stress is to provide empathy and support, help the child gain a sense of control, create rituals that provide predictability and teach your child ways to de-stress.

Way to Show Empathy:

A.) Listen – Become an “empathic listener” by listening for feelings.

o Listen for the unspoken feelings that are behind the words that are said.
o Look at your child’s body language and try to gain helpful information.
o Listen with your heart.
o Don’t be critical.
o Give your child your full attention by sitting down, looking him/her in the eye.
o Try to reflect back the feeling that you believe your child is conveying.

B.) Ask open-ended questions. i.e. What will you miss about preschool? What do you like about your new teacher? What’s the hardest part of your day?

C.) Share a story from your childhood. The point here is to share a struggle that you had and the different feelings that you experienced. If you found a process that helped you overcome the struggle, share that, too.

Another important point to understand is that transitions involve a sense of loss:

A loss of fun. “I want to play with a friend now. I don’t want to do homework!”

A loss of spontaneity. “I’m tired and I’d rather have a jammy day than get dressed and go to school.”

Or a loss of my classroom as I know it. “This teacher is different. I liked my other teacher!”

Generally, when a child feels a sense of loss s/he feels a loss of control and a beneficial strategy is to help the child gain a sense of control. So how do you do that?
A.) Involve your child in the decision. Ask your child, “What might help you feel more comfortable?”

B.) Walk your child through the process, explaining how it will go. Knowledge is power.

C.) Show visual aids such as reading books on the subject.

D.) Explain the benefits so the child can learn the positives.

E.) Slow down the pace. Give your child a chance to wind down or to say goodbye.

F.) Learn to read your child’s cues and help him/her learn to identify them, too.
Another helpful strategy for reducing the stress of changes is to create a ritual. Family rituals help your child adjust to change. A ritual can be simple or elaborate, used daily, weekly, or once a year. The reason that rituals are important is that rituals help make the world predictable and the repetition helps kids feel more secure when transitions are occurring.

Rituals that Can Help with Transitions:
A.) Develop a goodbye ritual. Develop a secret handshake with your child that’s used only when s/he leaves for school.

B.) Develop an after-school ritual. Let your child have a snack and play outside for 30 minutes before starting homework.

C.) Develop a “chit-chat” time at bedtime. Ask your child about the happy, sad, scary and frustrating parts to his/her day.

D.) Develop an end-of-the-week ritual. Have a family night every Friday night to reconnect and unwind after a busy week.

Change also increases a child’s anxiety level because there is a loss of the familiar and the uncertainty of the future so finding safe, healthy outlets for a child’s anxiety is important, as well. Teaching your child how to soothe him/herself and providing calming activities will be a great help.

A.) Increase Physical Touch – Make a conscious effort to hug and kiss more often, snuggle more or provide massage to your child.

B.) Teach a Deep Breathing Method. (Pretend that there’s a balloon in his/her tummy that s/he has to blow up. Actually use a balloon to illustrate. The technique you want to have the child use is to breathe in through the nose and breathe out through the mouth, actually moving the diaphragm while pretending to blow up the balloon with big, deep breaths.)

C.) Consider Dramatics – Let your child use his/her imagination. “Let’s pretend that you’re the fairy godmother.” Get a wand. Let’s see what the fairy godmother would do to solve this problem. Create a movie, play or story about this problem. Play “School” to see what issues your child may be facing.

D.) Spend Time Alone with the Child – Let the child pick what the activity will be and focus on your child’s needs.

E.) Laugh – Find your own ways to be silly, have a kids’ joke book on hand, do something unexpected, watch your favorite family movie.

F.) Give Your Child a Journal – Writing about a problem can release pent-up feelings in a healthy way.

In summary, there are many useful strategies that you can use when your child is faced with a transition, large or small:

o Respond with empathy recognizing that your child may feel a sense of loss.
o Help your child gain a sense of control by involving him/her in decision-making.
o Develop a ritual to create predictability.
o Offer soothing and calming activities.

BE A CAMP NURSE

If you are currently working toward a nursing degree, but have not decided on your concentration, you should definitely consider a wide variety of nursing profiles. One that may be often overlooked is a camp nurse. Camp nurses do exactly what you think they do: they are nurses for summer camps and other types of retreats for all ages. Knowing what kinds of camps and retreats at which camp nurses frequently work will be beneficial in deciding if being a camp nurse is for you.

There are always the good ol’ summer camps where younger kids go to get away from their parents for a while, to enjoy running around in the hot summer air and swimming with their best camp buddies. The wonderful thing about these camps is that you know the children are getting great exercise and staying active, but the bad thing is that kids tend to be very curious and get into things they shouldn’t. As a nurse, you will very likely end up treating poison ivy rashes and campfire burns on a regular basis because of these curious little monkeys. Summer nurses will also see many mosquito bites and possibly a few broken bones, which can be sad but is also a part of childhood for many kids. While these incidents are usually expected, it is also a possibility that you will come into contact with a child who has a sickness like chicken pox or the flu. This is important to be aware of because there may be several other kids who are not immune to chicken pox or did not get a flu shot, so keeping the infected child away from others is crucial.

As a camp nurse, you can also be assigned to work at a retreat for terminally ill patients. This can be very rewarding as well as upsetting for some people. Depending on how close you would allow yourself to get to the retreaters, you may be setting yourself up for sadness if one of them passes away. They are terminally ill, after all. However, the goodness you can do for these patients greatly outweighs the heartbreak of losing one of them to their disease. Caring for them while they are on retreat is a beautiful thing to do, and can mean more to them than you may know. If a patient has a complication with their disease, or just simply catches a cold while on retreat, you are their primary care provider and can help them get better. Having a group of people you are devoted to can be heart-wrenching, but it is one of the most worthwhile things you can do.

Being a camp nurse has many facets, two of which are covered here. Being a nurse these days of course has its challenges and setbacks, but the benefits greatly outweigh these. Nurses in particular have very exciting jobs, though they can also be quite challenging. When you finish your online nursing degree, be sure to check out more information on nurses, including the camp nurse profile.

Summer Allergies

When most people think of allergy season, they think spring. And while spring time allergens cause discomfort for over 50 million people in the U. S. alone, summer can be just as debilitating for those who struggle with summer allergens. Here are four of the most common summer allergy triggers and a solution for minimizing their effect.

Pollen-Just as in the spring, summer’s biggest offender is pollen. But by summer the trees are done with pollination and it is the grass and weeds that step up to take their place. Grass is the most popular ground cover and is next to impossible to avoid. There are many different kinds of grass that can cause problems including well known varieties such as Timothy, Red Top, Orchard, Blue, Bermuda, and Sweet Vernal.

Weeds-Weed pollination usually begins in August and can continue through late fall into November. Ragweed is probably the most well known followed closely by Sagebrush, Pigweed, Cockle weed and numerous others.

For both pollens and weeds, dry windy days are the times when the air tends to be thick with pollen. It attaches to clothes, hair and any other handy surface in hopes of finding fertile ground to begin the cycle again.

Mold-Mold occurs naturally outside and can only survive if and when it finds moisture. Landscaping that allows water to stand, or areas that don’t drain naturally, and piles of leaves are all places where these spores will thrive.

Mold spores enter your home constantly, there’s no keeping them out. And with the increased humidity in the summer it becomes easy for them to make a home in your home, particularly in places like basements, bathrooms, and kitchens.

Dust Mites-These microscopic critters love dark, warm places and feed on dead skin. Their feces contain a protein that is a renowned allergy trigger. With increased moisture in the summer the dust mite count inside your home usually rises and creates havoc in the bedroom, and more specifically, in your bed-their favorite place to be. They generally become airborne with simple every day activities such as making the bed, plumping the pillows and walking through the room on rugs or carpeting.

With these kinds of airborne triggers present in the summer time, it’s no wonder that an immune system that is sensitive to any of these irritants goes into overdrive. Coughing, sneezing watery eyes and congestion are your body’s immune system’s way of trying to get rid of what it sees as a threat.

And whereas you cannot control what’s in the air outside your home, you can mange your allergies beautifully in the summer and all through the year by filtering the triggers that cause the symptoms. Eliminating the triggers rather than constantly treating the symptoms is the most proactive and non-invasive way to effectively mange summer allergies.

Eliminate the triggers that cause summer allergies to flare now with the air purifier.

This is great information for Moms, Future Nurses and professional nurses!!

Summer Fun for Kids

Summer can be an enjoyable time for parents and children while adhering to the family budget. By using a little creativity and some local community resources, summer can truly be an enriching and memorable time of the year. The local library is a great resource. Take a trip and chat with the librarian about upcoming age appropriate programs for children, many libraries offer play groups, story time, as well as provide entertainment, all for free!

Find out about special events provided through your community church for children. Many county park systems also have free events and programs during the summer months. Taking local nature walks provides a bonding time for parents and children. Spending time in nature is both therapeutic and fun! Keeping children active and fit is very important. Try taking bike rides, going swimming or for a light jog with your kids.

Come up with creative projects indoors on those steamy summer days. Assist your child in writing and illustrating their own book about their favorite summer activities. Invite friends over and help the children to organize skits and plays. For example, you can take a few cereal boxes, cans and personal care products and help the kids create their own commercials. They can make signs, and even a stage out of cardboard. Create puppets out of socks and allow the kids have a show with friends, what fun! Turn on some music and play games such as freeze dance, musical chairs or have a dance contest.

Get new age appropriate books bi-weekly on several topics of interest at the library. Books on tape and educational videos are great as well! Reading and summer crafts stimulate the mind. Get creative when it comes to summer arts and crafts projects. Kids can create various animals out of paper plates and yarn. They can turn the plates into masks and come up with more skits while sharing the masks with their friends. Craft supplies can be purchased at many local dollar stores. If your child is over 5, working with beads is a great project for developing fine motor skills. Also, during a nature walk, collect items in a brown bag to make a collage at home. You can label the natural items collected and have a discussion about it, as well as get a book on nature in the summertime. Puzzles, blocks and games are great for indoors too so stock up!

Volunteering in the community is a wonderful use of children’s time in the summer. Many nursing home activity directors would love to have children come to their facility to brighten the lives of residents. Children can do simple crafts with seniors, draw pictures and read stories to them. The companionship children can provide for seniors is a true gift. Other volunteer opportunities may be available at area hospitals. Many times recreational therapists need assistance in craft projects designed to keep ill patients engaged. Most hospitals have volunteer coordinators to contact for opportunities for children and families.

Summer is a time for fun, creativity and community involvement. Use as many local resources as possible to ensure that this summer is one where your child stays active, happy and involved in a wealth of enriching activities.
By Kim Quigley (Guess Blogger)

The Importance of Nursing in the Military

Our modern understanding of the role of nursing has its roots in the care provided by Florence Nightingale and her nursing corps during the 19th Century Crimean War. Although nursing had long been a necessity during times of war, it took Nightingale’s treatise on the subject to being its transformation into a recognizable medical practice with agreed-upon standard practices. The Civil War in the United States saw more than five thousand nurses tending to the injured and ill on battlegrounds across the nation. In 1901, the Army’s official Nursing Corps was born, and nursing has had an officially recognized role in the American military ever since.

Nurses serving in the military can do so in a variety of ways that range from full-time active duty to working as a civilian contractor. The type of service chosen generally determines the length of service required – with active duty personnel committing to lengthier terms of service than reserves, and civilian contract nursing professionals often serving shorter terms than either. Military nurses serve almost everywhere American military forces are to be found – from the battlefields of the Middle East to remote bases around the world. Military nursing is also found within the service hospitals located in the United States as well.

Nursing in the military enables these health care professionals to exercise all of their nursing skills, while allowing them to obtain higher levels of autonomy in the practice of medicine than most of their civilian counterparts. The rigors of military service often place these nurses in extremely stressful situations, so most nurses obtain experience in emergency and other critical care situations prior to enlisting. In addition, the registered nurses who make up the military’s nursing corps have usually obtained a bachelor’s degree of nursing science prior to enlisting – which also enables them to begin their term of service as officers.

Many of the most generous benefits of a nursing career in the military have to do with the educational reimbursement that is available. For registered nurses who commit to obtaining a master’s degree, three-fourths of the tuition costs are covered by the government. There are a variety of reasons why the advanced degrees in nursing are so desired. The most important reason, of course, has to do with the fact that master’s degrees are required before being promoted to a major’s rank and beyond. That, coupled with the increased pension benefits enjoyed by higher ranking officers, serves as a strong incentive for military nurses to seek advanced degrees.

Nursing in the military continues to be an important part of maintaining a healthy fighting force, and the broad range of medical conditions which military nurses are forced to confront provide them with crisis and trauma experience that often serve them well in later civilian careers. Many military nurses find increased opportunities in administrative nursing and other leadership roles upon completing their military service. For anyone contemplating a fast-paced and exciting career in nursing, serving as a military nurse offers experience and opportunity that few other nursing career paths can match.

If you’re ready to start your CNA Training & Certification, we have more great tools and resources on our website http://www.yourcnatrainingguide.com

Article Source: Karen_P_Williams

Happy Nurses Week!

I think Florence would be proud to see how nursing has advanced over the many years since she opened the Nightingale School. Nursing has progressed far beyond the boundaries that were originally envisioned. Indeed, a good description of nursing today would be boundless. We have increased the educational levels found in both the academic and practical aspects of nursing. Nurse practitioners have further pushed our frontiers back in areas ranging from obstetrics to pediatrics to geriatrics. Nurses are a formidable force within the current healthcare system.

Even as great as that sounds, we still have a long way to go. I think that much of nursing’s potential is still untapped. As a group that comprises over half of the healthcare workforce, nursing should be able to have a major say in the future direction of healthcare. This was part of the findings from the Institute of Medicine’s report on The Future of Nursing. This is an achievable goal, but it is not something that we can just walk in a policy meeting and lay claim to. There are certain keys that will give nurses entrance to the committees, study groups and other policy making functions that are found anywhere from the local level to national and above.

The first key is formal education. If you don’t have a BSN, then get started on the road to increase your formal knowledge. Already have your BSN? Then set your sites on a MSN, MBA or other master’s level course. These initials behind your name show that you are serious about your future in this great profession. These initials show that you have made a commitment to become knowledgeable in the full spectrum of nursing. When you have knowledge that spans from the bedside to the board room, you are in a position to have a say in the future of not just nursing, but all of healthcare.

Informal education can be just as important. Skills that are essential to becoming a nurse are taught in nursing schools. But there are many other skills that will enhance and multiply the subjects you learned in school. Knowing the ins and outs of communications, planning and goal setting are but a few of these important enhancements. Similarly, the ability to read non-verbal language and think critically can be extremely important when dealing with people outside of the nursing field. Your ability to utilize emotional and social intelligence skills can bring you to the forefront of nursing no matter what the setting is. We must be just as comfortable discussing changes in policy and its impact on healthcare as we are discussing any number of health subjects with our patients.

The third key we will need to become a formidable healthcare force is the realization that we are capable of anything that we put our minds to. I want to scream every time I hear a nurse say “I’m just a nurse.” Who said that we don’t have an inherent worth? Who relegated us to the ‘also ran’ category of healthcare? Who started this ‘just a nurse’ business? Unfortunately, it can be traced back to our own doorstep. In nursing’s past we acted as a subservient group to physicians. Today is different. We collaborate with all medical professionals in providing excellent care. We need to notify our attitudes that things are different today. As Vickie Milazzo says, “we are nurses and we can do anything!” We need to update our thinking to agree with what the rest of the world already thinks about us. You don’t get rated as the most trusted profession for 10 years running without being great at what you do.

So Happy Nurses Week! Give you’re self a pat on the back for the great work you do in the multitude of settings that you practice in. Then when you are finished, take the next step to make your profession even greater.

Written by Donald Wood ARNP who is the author of ‘The Intelligent Nurse’. Utilizing 21st Century skills to enhance patient safety and satisfaction, Donald presents talks and seminars to nursing groups. Contact him at info@blythe-wood.com.

Five Online Wellness Programs You Will Love

It is still the beginning of the year, but any time is a great time to explore wellness plans. I’ve found five really great ones that are worth noting. In fact, I think you’ll love them as much as I do.

Humana Challenge – Walk the Course Kit
You’ve seen their TV commercial with the snazzy music and people dressed in golf gear, walking. Go to their site for tips and information on incorporating walking into your daily routine. I love the idea of making walking more fun.

The Life Game by MindBloom
Need some guidance in mapping out life changes? Try this free online tool, Life Game, to get started. You can use the tool to strategize some of your health and spiritual changes.

Real Age by Dr. Oz
Though it has been around for some time, Real Age is a great way to figure out your “real” age based on health and lifestyle factors. The test and resources are free.

ShareCare.com
Share Care is Real Age’s parent organization. Register with ShareCare.com to follow experts in a variety of health and wellness areas as well as receive great information and guides to make decisions about your life.

Nourish Interactive Game for Kids
Do you want your children to learn basic nutrition facts? Maybe you need to learn them too. Well, Nourish Interactive has this great game for just that. It’s easy and fun but it’s also visually appealing.

I think I’ve covered something for everyone. Be active, informed and above all, be well.

14 Unforgettable Ways to Show Yourself Some Love

Married or single, women need to feel loved and adored. February is the month we celebrate love, generally of the romantic kind, but I suggest we show ourselves some love. Being kind to you is the one way you can be kind to others, right? The best gifts are the ones we know how to receive.

1. Make your medical and dental appointments for the entire year.

2. Buy yourself some flowers or a plant; buy something that you’d normally wish to receive from someone else.

3. Cook one meal that is healthy but good and one of those recipes you’ve been waiting to try. Make loving yourself that occasion.

4. Take yourself out on a date. It doesn’t matter where or when, just go by yourself and be determined to enjoy the experience.

5. Give yourself a pep talk before beginning your day.

6. Take advantage of a free trial of Netflix, Amazon Prime or Hulu Plus and watch some movies all by yourself on your laptop or TV.

7. Dance by yourself.

8. Take an exercise class that is challenging or do something like wall climbing.

9. Excuse yourself from the family dinner and take yourself out to the nearest coffee or tea shoppe for one or the other and some dessert.

10. Steal away to hear your own thoughts.

11. Go have a therapeutic massage.

12. Re-frame yourself by making an appointment to have new head shots or a portrait taken at a photography studio.

13. Have a makeover and take selfies, then dare yourself to post them on Facebook.

14. Talk to yourself about you and share all of the ways that you’re proud of you. Tell yourself how much you like you. Tell yourself that God loves you.

I am absolutely certain there are more than 14 ways to show love to yourself, what are some of your ways? Share them please.