7 Proven Benefits of Positive Thinking

1. Decreased negative stress.
2. Greater resistance to catching the common cold.
3. A sense of well-being and improved health.
4. Reduced risk of coronary artery disease.
5. Easier breathing if you have certain lung diseases, such as emphysema.
6. Better coping skills during hardships.
7. Increased quality of life.

Hurry!

More Nurse's Week

"America's nurses are the beating heart of our medical system." President Barack Obama

Nurse's Week

Happy Nurses's Week to all members of that esteemed profession!

Clinical Scenarios with High Risk for Second Victim Response

There are many different types of clinical events which can evoke a second victim response. Examples of high risk situations that may induce a stress response include the following:
 Unanticipated clinical event involving a pediatric patient
 Unexpected patient death
 Preventable harm to patient
 Multiple patients with bad outcomes within a short period of time within one clinical area
 Patient who ‘connects’ to health care professional’s own family
 Long term care relationship with patient death
 Clinician experiencing his or her first patient death
 Failure to detect patient deterioration in timely manner
 Death in a young adult patient
 Notification of pending litigation plans
 Community high-profile patient/event
 Health care professional who experienced needle stick exposure with high-risk patient
 Death of a staff member or spouse of a staff member

http://www.mitsstools.org/uploads/3/7/7/6/3776466/foryouteam_high_risk_clinical_scenarios.pdf

Sometimes it Feels This Way

Promise

Learning from Mistakes

When I was a young nurse, in my first job, we had nursing students on our floor frequently.  There were still pediatric units in community hospitals, and we had a very good one for learning the basics of pediatric nursing.

One day, one of these young students made a (minor - no patient harm occurred) medication error.  This is the worst nightmare of a student, to make a mistake while not even a "real" nurse yet.

The instructor was apoplectic.  She dressed the student down loudly and publicly.  The student sobbed.

I couldn't stand it.  When the instructor had gone on her way, I pulled the student into an empty room.  She cried, and I let her.  But I told her, every human on the planet makes mistakes.  We strive hard for perfection, especially in healthcare, but mistakes continue to happen despite our very best efforts.  Hopefully, I said, we learn from our mistakes and go on to be better clinicians.

I never saw this girl again.  I hope she went on to become a great nurse.  And I hope she helped others when they made mistakes.

I went on to becme a nursing instructor myself later in my career.  Whenever a student erred, or came close to error as I hovered nearby to prevent them, I remembered that other student.

I still believe mistakes can make us better at what we do.  I still believe in handling them with dignity.  I still believe in giving support when it is needed.  I hope you do, too.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. ~ Oscar Wilde

Healing the Healer

Today, I'd like to share with you the trailer from a documentary film on the impact of medical error involvement for clinicians.  Though the emphasis here is on physicians, I think that this applies equally across all professions.

This Site is for You

Hello and welcome to Athena's Shield, a place of support and understanding for second victims of medical traumas.  What is this, you may ask?  Who is affected?

Any medical professional who has played a role in patient care in which outcomes were less than ideal.  Any doctor, nurse, dentist, pharmacist, therapist, aide or other healthcare worker who is suffering guilt and other manifestations of a patient care incident gone awry.

Perhaps you made a medication error.

Maybe a patient died who was not expected to expire.

Maybe you were disciplined at work.

Or, you are at the center of civil or criminal legal action.

Whatever has happened to you, this is a community of people who understand and want to help.  Feel free to share your story, ask for help or seek referrals.  Please poke around the site and look at our FAQ page, our Literature Page, and the listing of Common Symptoms.  Please feel free to leave a comment to ask any questions you may have.