I Dare You to Drink the Vinegar

  There’s a certain kind of wisdom that lives in the in-between moments of a nursing shift. It’s that space between the assessments and clinical documentation, the medication checks and the purposeful rounding, between the hand sanitizer pump and the how-are-you-this-morning. It’s a wisdom that doesn’t get measured or calculated in “hours of care” or captured in patient flow spreadsheets. It’s about presence. It’s about being with the patient, not just doing things to or for the patient. The longer I stay in this beautiful profession we call nursing, the more convinced I am: this is the core of our work. It’s the core of our profession and  our discipline (and if you recently graduated from an undergrad nursing program or are deep into your MSN you are intimately familiar with that debate)​ The Quiet Work of Being With the Patient It’s tempting, even seductive, to imagine that “knowing the patient” happens during a comprehensive assessment, or at medication administration time...

  Many years ago, when I was a Clinical Instructor in one of Vancouver’s major research-based nursing programs, I had the privilege of working with a group of senior undergraduate nursing students completing their final rotation in an acute inpatient mental health setting. If you are a nurse educator, you already know this: those final placements are often intense, students are balancing theory and practice, integrating new knowledge, and beginning to see themselves as professionals. These students are stressed out. There are sleepless nights, anxious moments with staff nurses and physicians, and there are tears. More tears than I would have thought before I became a Clinical Instructor. At that time, the unit’s Patient Care Coordinator, who I will describe as a seasoned nurse (the spicy variety) nearing retirement, was a nurse I knew from when I started my career as a new graduate in the same hospital, on those same units. She had decades of experience in acute mental health care ...

Mental health nurses in Canada have an opportunity to be a leading force that drives health care innovation in 2025. How can we do collectively take the lead on this? The answer lies in strongly advocating for and embracing optimization of the scope of practice of Registered Nurses, Registered Psychiatric Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, and Nurse Practitioners (who are also RNs) and increasingly integrating informatics into their work. As the country confronts evolving mental health needs and the growing complexity of health care systems, nurses who work in mental health have unique opportunities, and also responsibilities to shape informatics, elevate care quality, and assume leadership roles in digital transformation. Understanding “Mental Health Nurse” in Canada The term “mental health nurse” is inclusive of both Registered Nurses (RNs) and Registered Psychiatric Nurses (RPNs) who are educated and licensed to provide specialized care to people experiencing mental health issues an...

To the general public, the word nurse may conjure the image of someone in scrubs, in a hospital setting, moving from one patient to the next. You might think of kindness, efficiency, perhaps a steady hand inserting an IV, of a taking a blood pressure. What’s harder to see, sometimes, is the extraordinary depth beyond a background character on Grey's Anatomy or Juliana Margulies in ER. In many ways nursing is not just a job, but a lens through which many of us experience life, humanity, and the world itself. For those of us who are nurses, the profession often feels like something woven into the very fabric of our being. Is it a “calling”? Maybe. But not in a Florence Nightingale Victorian-era way. That way is a little colonial and martyrish. It’s less about destiny and more about possibility, and strength, the possibility to explore the landscape of human health across a lifetime, in ways that reach far beyond the bedside or the clinic. Nursing is not just a list of tasks or a rol...

Simulated scenarios involving topics like suicide, patient violence, and self-harm can be powerful learning experiences, but they’re also emotionally charged and potentially distressing for learners. When not handled thoughtfully, debriefings after such scenarios can inadvertently re-traumatize participants or create a sense of shame, blame, or withdrawal. That is why integrating trauma-informed approaches into simulation debriefing is not just best practice, it is essential for psychological safety, sustained learning, and building resilient health professionals. Understanding Trauma-Informed Debriefing A trauma-informed approach recognizes that trauma is pervasive and can profoundly impact an individual’s sense of safety, trust, and engagement. Central to trauma-informed debriefing are the principles of safety, choice, collaboration, trustworthiness, and empowerment. Guiding Principles: Safety : Learners feel physically and emotionally secure. Choice : Participants have agency in deb...