In a previous educator role, I facilitated diversity trainings. One of the exercises I used was called ‘The Lifeboat.’ You’ve probably seen this – or some variation of it: You’re on a sinking ship with six other people. The lifeboat is only big enough to safely hold four of you. You draw straws to decide who will be the captain of the lifeboat. The captain gets to choose which three to take along on the lifeboat,...

February 22, 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the first American astronaut to orbit the earth. John Glenn (who, according to my Dad, is　a distant relative) paved the way for space exploration and showed us all that yes, it could be done! Around the earth first – and to the moon next! 　There were plenty of naysayers. People couldn’t wrap their minds around the idea of sending man to the moon, but since John Glenn’s...

There’s a lot I don’t remember about January 26, 1995, the day that a man opened fire on a busy downtown street in Chapel Hill, NC.  I don’t remember what I was doing there on Franklin Street, which hugs the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill.  Back then, it was a great place to find some new tunes from a used CD store, grab a bite to eat between classes, or pick up stamps from the post office, as e-mail was not as widely...

In an effort to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Wolters Kluwer Health, publisher of the best-selling Nursing 2012 Drug Handbook, is donating a portion of sales from this year’s 32nd edition to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. There are a number of significant changes to this year’s edition including an online component, Lippincott’s Nursing Drug Advisor. Want to win a copy? Leave a post below and...

Hi everyone!  I haven’t blogged in ages so please forgive my absence. It’s been a busy summer thus far, but I’ll do my best to catch you up on what’s new!  I want to first thank Pritchett and Hull, the publisher of Nursing Novellas, for sending me to the National Nursing in Staff Development Organization conference in Chicago last month to share a presentation.  NNSDO was great this year!  I enjoyed catching...

A dozen or so years ago, I attended a concert in South Carolina that made me an instant fan of a musician named Pete Riley.  He took the stage as the opening act for the headliner band.  In his acoustic set, he strummed his guitar a couple of times, introduced himself with an accent that was unmistakably British, then launched into a song that got everyone up off their seats and moving to the music.  The second song...

Lost and Found a short story by Amy Glenn Vega It was the picture that caught my eye and stopped me dead my tracks.  I was on the way out of the grocery store, my right arm loaded up with reusable shopping totes full of food; my left balancing a large bag of dog kibble on my hip. Lost Dog, the flyer read.  The words had been scrawled in pencil by an unsteady hand, and a picture of a goofy-looking tri-color basset hound...

I love the Peanuts cartoons specials.   They bring back fond memories of my childhood, and the fact that the young children in my life can watch them with me and enjoy them as much as I do make me feel like maybe I’m not that old after all.   I love that someone had to actually hand-draw each one the Peanuts gang, paint them with bold colors, and tell their stories, one animation cell at a time.  I adore that the...

I’ve been on a roll with cleaning house as of late, and have turned up all kinds of treasures from the past.  My most recent find was some old school newspapers from my Junior High days.  I was on staff with the school paper and wrote an advice column under the name of Ann Slanders.  Even back then, I was a huge goof. It was my job to bring some comic relief to the pages of the Lance and Shield, so I responded to...