Sounds like I’m not the only one who has privacy concerns about Facebook and other social networking sites. I received a message from a reader who also worries about possible identity theft and I’ve talked to friends who have pulled their birthdays from Facebook for that very reason. And what if you casually chat about the details of someone’s illness on a social networking site? As nurses, we’re acutely aware of HIPAA. Isn’t that compromising privacy?

I’ve been reading almost daily ...

The 31st Annual Conference of the Association of California Nurse Leaders started out with John Garamendi, Lt. Governor of California, who starting out with a few facts: 6-7 million Americans are without healthcare in this country and the “social compact has unraveled,” he said. The system is fragmented and one third of health care is spent on administrative costs.

He compared this to the Medicare system which started 41 years ago and has only 2% administrative costs and ...

I’ll admit it. I just don’t get Facebook. I don’t want to be poked, prodded, or asked to be a fan of something. And I have enough friends, thank you very much, without getting electronic requests for more. My nephew recently invited me to join and I accepted, lured by the promise of easy access to family photos. Now he communicates with me regularly via Facebook. What’s wrong with a regular old e-mail?

Apparently, nobody cares that I’m lukewarm about Facebook. According to their site, ...

Yesterday, my editor-in-chief Judith Mitiguy emailed the staff this link https://www.health.harvard.edu/topic/stress with a simple note: “Some good advice for busy, stressful times.” Talk about an understatement! I immediately clicked on the link, and found a website with some highly useful information nurses will want to pass on to their patients, friends and families.

The Stress Resource Center was developed by Harvard Health Publications at Harvard Medical School, with the goal ...

My new hero is the mom who just gave birth to octuplets in Southern California. What a woman! What a fete! What a relief to have them all born alive!

But what this woman plans to do next is what makes my jaw drop and earns my total admiration. She's planning to breastfeed all eight of her babies--six little boys and two little girls.

I can only imagine what the logistics will be to carry this off. I am sure her breast pump will be running day and night to get sufficient ...

Last week at this time I was among the masses of people in DC trying to find an entrance to the mall to watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama. I never made it to the actual mall but I was able to get a view of the crowd packed into the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony.
I was lucky to be there and witness history and it is a day I will never forget. But there is one thing keeps running in my mind since the trip and it's something that happened about 40 years ago.
During ...

By Mary Ellen McLaughlin

I was a practicing nurse for 10 years before I moved into the world of infertility. As a nurse, I had been asked by Robin von Halle, the owner of a local egg donation agency, to perform injections on egg donors. It was an extra job at the time but I began to get to know the patients and their stories. I loved the personal interaction, which was at a different level than what I’d experienced during my 10-to-12-hour shifts at my position at the doctor’s office. ...

Pam Meredith reports on Twitter (pam_NurseEditor):

Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy was taken to Washington Hospital Center in D.C. after collapsing at luncheon after the swearing-in ceremony. She reports he is up and talking post seizure. CNN reports that the seizure was brought on by exhaustion. Sen. John Kerry reports that Kennedy's "Irish dander is up."

Sen. Robert Byrd is fine after having to leave the luncheon. News reports say he was upset after ...