RN Insights

At OHN, we’re always eager to expand our knowledge in order to improve mental health in nursing. Our blog RN Insights brings current learnings, stories, and insights every two weeks from professionals in the fields of nursing, health, and wellbeing directly to you. Check it out!

*If you have a story you would like to share please email us at [email protected]

By Carolyn Minks, FNP Raise your hand if you ever heard any of your nursing cohort announce that they wanted to work in Med-Surg when they graduated. I’ll wait. The answers in my class (from day ONE) went something like: ICU, PICU, NICU, pediatric oncology, ICU, PICU, PICU, ED. I quickly adopted my own answer … Continue reading “From ICU to Home Health: How Did I Know I Wasn’t Where I Belonged?”

By: Anonymous ICU Nurse Manager Get in, sit down, mask off…breathe.  As I sanitize my hands, I exhale the stress of the day while listening to the silence of my car.  The COVID ICU is loud.  These thirty seconds of silence at the end of my day are my favorite.  It’s here that relief, anger … Continue reading “Managing a Pandemic”

By: Hannah Lease BSN, RN Have you made the decision to go to school for nursing and are worrying about how you’re going to survive?  You are not alone, my friend!   A quick little backstory about me… I recently graduated from a 16-month accelerated BSN program in December and took my NCLEX in early February.  … Continue reading “Surviving Nursing School and Beyond: Mental Health Edition”

By Brittney L Wallace, BSN, RN After seven months of floating around the hospital and working the frontline, COVID finally got me. I had awful body aches, excruciating headaches, and chills for over a week. On day ten, it was like a light switch—I felt like my old self again, which meant: it was time … Continue reading “The Day I Got My Label”

Paige Randolph, FNP-C When anxiety sets in, I feel emotionally smothered. It becomes hard to concentrate, to feel emotion, or even think clearly enough to get through day to day tasks. From March to May of 2020 I was working in a major hospital COVID ICU with thirty-six beds. I have never been one to … Continue reading “Feeling Smothered: One Morning in a COVID ICU”

By Renee DuShane, RN I remember saying to myself, “just get up and leave!” before the door opened. Get out of the therapist’s office, go down the office park stairs, and leave, never return. Seeing a therapist came with an overwhelming somatic discomfort that I could only describe as inadequacy. I’d felt it often in … Continue reading “An Anxious Nurse Finds Her Voice”

By Jenna Hoyt BSN, RN When I first decided I wanted to work as a nurse in Australia I was completely overwhelmed by the whole process. You need letters from every previous employer, certified copies of pretty much every form of ID, a letter from each board of nursing you’re registered with (a nightmare for … Continue reading “Travel Nursing in Australia”

By Ashley Reil BSN, RNC-NIC The transition from a “student nurse” to a “new-to-practice” nurse can be a challenging and overwhelming experience, often including relocation, increased personal responsibility, a new schedule of night, weekend, and rotating shifts, and just generally finding one’s “fit” among others who are more established. These factors alone can cause anxiety … Continue reading “The Clinical Educator’s Important Role in Mental Support for New Nurses”

By Shanda N. Whittle DNP, RN, CNL I was reflecting on one of Jean Watson’s Caritas Quotes recently. In it, she speaks about our caring consciousness presence in any given moment and how this presence affects everyone and everything around us. So, what is this ‘caring consciousness presence’ and why is it important for us … Continue reading “Lifestyle Assessment to Nourish Your Mind, Body, and Soul”