Journal of Nursing Jocularity

Here we are in February, with hearts and flowers everywhere we look. Of course, the images that we’re being bombarded with aren’t anatomically correct, but that’s alright – you can pack more chocolates into the box with the ‘traditional’ design!

And isn’t that what the holiday is all about? Chocolate, in all of the wonderful flavors and shapes and marvelous vending machines that never run out, even in the middle of a shift-that-just-won’t-stop…

Some people are surprised by nurses’ devotion to chocolate.  After all, we’re health care providers.  We’re doing our best to make sure everyone’s fit as a fiddle.  So how can we advocate so strongly for chocolate?

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans.  It’s obviously a vegetable. Vegetables are good for you. Mystery solved!

Of course, February isn’t entirely about romance, or as we call it, chocolate.  It’s also National Heart Month, a celebration of all things cardiac.  Throughout the month, we’ll be sharing great heart humor as we find it, and encourage you to send in your favorite joke about the old ticker.

To get things started, here’s a perennial favorite (and just in time for tax season!)

A new arrival, about to enter hospital, saw two white coated doctors searching through the flower beds.

“No,” replied one of the doctors. “We’re doing a heart transplant for an income-tax inspector and want to find a suitable stone.”

“A cancer diagnosis doesn’t mean you lose your sense of humor,” Izzy Gesell said. A noted speaker and author, Izzy partnered with Roz Trieber to write Cancer and the Healing Power of Play. The JNJ is honored to have Izzy join us to talk about the role of laughter and play in living with cancer, how humor can change the atmosphere in the workplace, and what to do if you’re sure that you’re not funny.
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An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.

A nurse stays up until midnight because there’s at least six hours until the shift is over!

What will 2011 hold? It’s hard to see from here — those psychic glasses we ordered from a late night infomercial have yet to arrive — but we know some things for sure:

There will be patients who challenge us, who change our lives, and who remind us why we got into nursing in the first place. Sometimes we’ll laugh, sometimes we’ll cry, and always- we have the chance to make a difference in their lives. (more…)

Happy Holidays to One and All! One of our favorite things about the season is how it makes us all look at the world a little differently. Being surrounded by family and friends, planning parties and picking the perfect present, merry music and holiday cheer – for good or for bad, the cumulative effect is surely to change our perspective.

Sometimes this is good.  We find ourselves smiling more, enjoying special times with those we love and looking forward to celebrating every treasured tradition.

Sometimes, this is not so good.  Holidays come loaded heavily with expectations, and many of us try to ‘do it all’ — on top of everything we’re already doing, which can be (for the understatement of the year!) quite a lot.  The pressure can leave us resenting the very times we’re supposed to cherish the most…and that’s before we get to work! (more…)

As the Thanksgiving holiday draws near, it occurs to us here in the hallowed halls of JNJ that so much of what REALLY defines nursing, what TRULY sets the profession apart, can truly only be learned from a surprising source: the turkey farm.

Our team of dedicated researchers traveled to turkey farms, watched hours of documentary television, and ordered many truly delicious sandwiches to learn those essential lessons in order to share them with you. (more…)

It had been a rotten, rotten, rotten shift. Without getting into details that we’re just not supposed to get into, let’s just say that one of our favorite patients — a tiny little girl, born too early and with too many cards stacked against her — didn’t make it through the shift.

We took it hard. It had been touch and go from day one with her, but we’d hoped for more ‘touch’ and less ‘go’.  When we lost her, it wasn’t unexpected — but no matter how long you do this job, you’re never really ready for a bad outcome.  (more…)

What’s the most essential resource a nurse has at their disposal?

That’s a hard question to answer.  Sure, we’ve got all this training and medical know how. It’s really pretty hard to make it through the work day without either.

But for many nurses, particularly at this time of year,  a sense of gratitude is nearly as critical.  The nature of what we do, each and every day, gives up plenty of opportunities to say “Thank you!”

Thank you, when the wee baby who’s been gasping for every breath, finds the strength to make it through the night…and the night after that…and the night after that.

Thank you, when the patient who comes in in approximately 235 pieces, leaves the hospital in one (plus a few extra parts, just for good luck!) (more…)

It’s October and that means Halloween — time for all the ghosts, goblins and things that go bump in the night! But we’re not generally *really* terrified by Halloween’s horrors.  The witching hour is usually met not with howls and shrieks — but with laughter, joy ringing into the night.

Laughter.  It’s always there with us, even when we’re ‘scared’.  It’s easy to laugh when we’re pretending.  Yet it is when we’re not pretending,  when we’re scared for real — when the doc has delivered bad news, or worse, has no news to deliver yet — when we don’t know what is going to happen, or how it’s going to happen, or how we’re going to pay for any of it — that laughter proves its true value. (more…)

• A day in the life of a radiologist. Ok, a little foul language–but funny! http://ow.ly/2wqOr #

Laughter may be the best medicine — but that’s not the only thing it is. Humor is a tool, a resource that costs nothing and can be deployed anywhere, 24/7, every day of the year. Humor can be our secret weapon, the tool we use to fight back against feelings of overwhelm, fear, frustration, stress, and more.

Not everyone is familiar with the use of humor. Terminally ill patients often report being told, “If you knew how sick you were, you wouldn’t be laughing right now!” by their family and friends. In fact, it is when we’re truly ill — or when we’re confronted with serious illness in another — that humor becomes so very important.

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