Mary Eliza Mahoney: First African American Nurse

Photo by: By Unknown photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

“Work more and better the coming year than the previous year.”

Such was the motto of Mary Eliza Mahoney. Today, Mahoney isn't a household name like Florence Nightingale, the mother of modern nursing, or Mary Breckinridge, who pioneered the concept of family medical centers and health care in rural areas, — But she deserves the same recognition for her pioneering work in the profession.

New app gives Texas nurses shift flexibility

While hospitals continue to face a nationwide nursing shortage, a Texas-based startup created an on-demand solution to transforming healthcare staffing. The Praos Health app gives Texas nurses and healthcare facilities the power to meet staffing needs with the swipe of their fingertip.

The patent pending Praos web and mobile platform work similar to an ‘Uber-like’ service by matching nurses directly to per diem shifts available at nearby facilities. Nurses can select shifts based on location, pay rate and shift time. The app then sends shift reminders, shift instructions, timestamping, driving directions and facility ratings.

Know Your Legal Rights as a Nurse

Photo by: Nowviral News (Flickr)

“I’m just trying to do what I’m supposed to do. That’s all.” Spoken by Utah nurse Alex Wubbels moments before she was arrested, these words echo a fundamental truth about nurses. Nurses are supposed to protect their patients, and the fact that nurses are the most trusted of all professionals indicates that they largely fulfill this duty.

Do Your Job and See the World: Opportunities to Nurse Abroad

A recruiter once asked prospective hires: “If you were given $3 billion and told you could do anything with it, what would you do?”

How would you answer?

If “travel the world” or “travel somewhere I’ve always wanted to go” are on your list of things to do, here’s some great news: you can get paid to see the world. No $3 billion check required.

The gig is called nursing abroad, and the job description varies: durations last from weeks to years, duties include anything from talking with patients to handling scalpels, and the world is covered, from Argentina to Zimbabwe. Nursing abroad means you’re helping address the international nursing shortage and learning in the process—not to mention going on exotic trips on your days off.

If you’re tired of the same old scrubs in the same old hospital, you might consider expanding your horizons by offering up your services in a new part of the world.

Nursing and Medicine in the Korean War

Photo by: Expert Infantry (Flickr)

Within a month of landing on the beach in Korea in 1950, nurse Margaret (Zane) Fleming and her fellow nurses with the 1st Mobile Army Surgical Hospital were attacked. The group of 13 Army nurses was traveling with the 7th Infantry Division from Incheon to Pusan when enemy forces ambushed them. They ran to a nearby ditch to take cover and watched as gunfire and burning vehicles lit up the sky. At sunrise they ventured out and went to work, treating the wounded. Eight men died, and some of the supply vehicles were lost. None of the nurses were injured.

Because of nurses like Fleming, traveling with troops and working in MASH units, wounded people survived. During World War II, the fatality rate for seriously injured troops was 4.5 percent; during the Korean War, it was reduced to 2.5 percent.