Every day I get up and look out my window or go for a drive, and I am fascinated. The beauty of the bare branches outside my window with the assortment of winter birds gathering for a chatty get-together. The glory of the Olympic mountains, across the Sound, the snow helping to bring definition to the slopes and peaks. The wonder of landscapes that are hidden during summer with the full bloom of native vegetation, now more frankly on display with no shy covering of rampant growth.

Several times a week I will proclaim, we are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place. I am known to go on about the Cascades, the Olympics, Mt Baker, Mt Ranier, it is hard to stop.

Recently I have stopped to listen. Within the last 24 hours I have heard from four close friends who also are

As you look at the news today, is there one universal message from the health care and medical community?

We know that insurance options are up in the air, many people are concerned about paying more, much more, than they have in the past. These people are wondering if they can afford it.

We are hearing that the recommended vaccines have changed and been paired down. Well by the CDC they have been, by the AAP, they have not.

Nutrition, what about that? Oh, yeah, what has been known as the food pyramid, in many ways has been inverted.

Over the last number of years there have been topics that were brought into the public health arena, gun violence, LGBTQ rights, DEI initiatives, which are now being excluded from that conversation.

The one universal

I have been a nurse for a very long time, in many settings, in many states, in many specialties. You might ask me, what is my favorite thing about being a nurse. I am not sure I could answer that; there are many wonderful things. However, I can tell you what my least favorite thing is, and that is working on Christmas.

Many nurses are extremely generous; they will take a Christmas day shift or a Christmas Eve shift for a colleague who has children at home. I want to be like them, but I am not, I still hate the idea of working on Christmas.

In my first job out of college I worked on Christmas. I was working in a small town in southwestern Montana, and I had gone to my childhood home in northcentral Montana for “Christmas”. I was scheduled to work at 3:00 PM on

Medical handouts are given to patients, when they are discharged from the hospital, at the doctor’s office, when a test is scheduled, when a new medication is perscribed, anytime there is a need for teaching. When medical teaching is created and distributed, it is meant to be followed. Is it always followed, is it always understood, is it always read?

Having a nurse write your medical handout cannot gaurantee that it is read, I will give you that. However, as far as understandability and likelihood of being followed, as a freelance nurse health writer, I can help you with that.

The most important thing is being able to speak the audience’s language. Nurses are speaking the patient’s language. As a nurse with many years of experience, I know the patient’s language and I

There is a term that healthcare professionals use that makes so much sense to us but may feel very derogatory to patients. Non-compliance.

I have had a patient complain to me, while I was on Leader Rounds, that they had been called non-compliant. They expressed embarrassment and frustration and told me that it was not true, they were compliant! I spent time letting them know that it was only the way it is stated and is not meant as an insult. But was I fully transparent and truthful?

What is the definition of non-compliance? Well, it means that one does not comply with what is asked, that’s easy.

But what does it mean to the healthcare professional, if we are honest, completely honest, even in our frustration. It might mean the patient is not doing what we asked,