3.5 minute read

HUDDLE

🫀Happy Valentine’s Day, Readers!

While today is often associated with romantic love, it reminds me of the countless ways love enriches our lives. From silly laughter shared with siblings to heartwarming conversations with colleagues, from the unconditional love of our pets to the quiet moments of self-care, let’s celebrate love in all its beautiful forms. 

This year, Team TNB cooked up a few special Valentine’s treats for you. My fave is celebrating nursing love stories. Do you have a love story of your own? Tell me here. 

🫀 PS- How many Valentine’s Day cards are sent every year? Find out here.

🫀 PPS- History’s first Valentine was written from a very unromantic locale in the early 15th century. Find out where here.

Today's Top Beats

🧠 Meet Your Nervous System
🏈 Post Super Bowl PTO
🚬 Tips From Former Smokers

HANDOFF

Dang, It’s Dengue

Exacerbated by factors like El Niño and climate change, Brazil is facing a severe outbreak of dengue fever, a sign of things to come in the Americas. It’s expected to have more than 4.2 million cases this year — last year, the total cases for all 42 countries in the region was 4.1 million. Efforts to mitigate the outbreak face challenges such as insecticide resistance, the circulation of multiple dengue serotypes, and inadequate vaccine supplies, highlighting the urgent need for proactive measures and adequate medical care.

Spots in the Spotlight

Amid global measles outbreaks, anti-vaccine activists have been downplaying the disease’s severity and dismissing it as a mild childhood illness. Despite warnings from health agencies about its serious complications, including death, measles is resurging worldwide, with a 45-fold increase in Europe from 2022–2023. Experts say the anti-vaccine movement and their “selective memory” are partly to blame, and their tactics ignore the suffering associated with measles and the importance of vaccination.

It’s Time to Quit

Some 21% of healthcare workers across the globe are tobacco users. If you fall into that category, you may want to check out the CDC's returning campaign, Tips From Former Smokers. The agency showcases seven individuals' stories to encourage quitting smoking, with a focus on the harms of menthol cigarettes. This includes stories about smoking to cope with LGBTQIA rejection, suffering a smoking-related heart attack at age 36, and having to try multiple smoking-cessation tools before finding something that works. 

TODAY'S TOP VITAL

22.5 Million

The number of US employees who had planned to miss at least some work the day after Super Bowl Sunday.

PRN

MAP OF THE MODERN NURSE WITH DEBRIEFING THE FRONT LINES

Meeting Your Nervous System 

Meeting Your Nervous System 

The goal of nervous system work is to create personal awareness as a foundation for regulation. This fostered awareness allows you to reflect rather than react. As you become aware of your biological responses, noting what each state feels like, there is an increased capacity to observe your emotional states, a greater ability to self-soothe, and an increased tolerance of complex sensations and situations. The sequential order of the ANS is key to understanding how the nervous system anchors in regulation and reacts to challenges. 

Three Components of the ANS

• Ventral Vagal: System of Connection 

  • Meet the demands of the day

  • Connection and communication

• Sympathetic: System of Action (Activation) 

  • Filled with chaotic energy

  • Driven to escape

  • Regulates breathing 

• Dorsal Vagal: System of Shutdown

  • Drained of energy 

  • Disconnected

  • Regulates digestion 

What autonomic state do you find yourself living in most often? Join DTFL's next CE workshop, Meeting Your Nervous System!

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TODAY IN THE CHART

BULLETIN BOARD

SUPPLY ROOM

A Wearable Valentine

Crushing hard on someone this Valentine's Day? Let them know the nurse-y way with this fun shirt!

BREAK ROOM

Happy Valentine’s Day! 

In celebration of this day of love, watch how these sweet nurses’ life-long romance sparked from an emergency. It is bound to pull at your heartstrings!

DISCHARGE INSTRUCTIONS

Think you’ve found that special someone in a co-worker? Come back tomorrow when Sarah from New Thing Nurse dishes on love and relationships in the workplace.

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