Book Summary: "A Nursing Handbook for New Grads" by Patricia N. McKenzie, RN is a comprehensive handbook designed to help newly graduated nurses transition smoothly into clinical practice.
Essential Skills, Confidence, and Success Strategies for Nursing Practice
A Practical Guide to Thriving in Your First Nursing Job
From Classroom to Clinical: A Survival Guide for New Nurses
This book provides essential insights into patient care, safety protocols, effective communication, emergency response, medication administration, and interdisciplinary teamwork. Covering topics such as patient advocacy, professional ethics, and best practices in daily nursing routines, this guide serves as a valuable tool for new nurses seeking to build confidence and expertise in their field. With practical checklists, real-world scenarios, and step-by-step guidance, it is an indispensable resource for navigating the challenges of a fast-paced healthcare environment.
Whether preparing for the NCLEX or beginning their first job, new nurses will find this handbook to be a lifeline to professional success and patient-centered care excellence.
New nurses will benefit from practical checklists, real-world scenarios, and step-by-step guidance on handling daily nursing responsibilities. The book also offers strategies to help build confidence, master core competencies, and navigate the challenges of a fast-paced healthcare environment. It includes insights into time management, stress reduction techniques, and professional development opportunities.
Additionally, A Nursing Handbook for New Grads provides a foundational understanding of nursing leadership, patient advocacy, and quality improvement in healthcare. Whether preparing for the NCLEX , starting a first job, or seeking to enhance clinical skills, this handbook serves as an invaluable tool. It is designed to be both an educational reference and a practical companion, offering long-term value throughout the early years of a nursing career.
Whether preparing for the NCLEX or beginning their first job, new nurses will find this handbook to be a lifeline to professional success and patient-centered care excellence.New nurses will benefit from practical checklists, real-world scenarios, and step-by-step guidance on handling daily nursing responsibilities. The book also offers strategies to help build confidence, master core competencies, and navigate the challenges of a fast-paced healthcare environment. It includes insights into time management, stress reduction techniques, and professional development opportunities.
This book is an essential roadmap for success in nursing, guiding new graduates toward clinical competence, confidence, and excellence in patient care. Whether in hospitals, clinics, or long-term care facilities, A Nursing Handbook for New Grads equips nurses with the tools necessary for a successful and fulfilling career in healthcare.
Trump Revives the Monroe Doctrine With Imperial Wars as Medicaid Cuts and ICE Expansion Reshape American Life!
By Norris R McDonald DIJ, CRT, Author, Economic Journalist & Human Rights Activist
President Donald Trump’s second administration is reviving the logic of the Monroe Doctrine through expanded military engagement abroad and intensified austerity at home, reshaping American life through deep Medicaid cuts and a rapid expansion of immigration detention.
New federal data show rising poverty,
accelerating inequality, and widespread
rural hospital closures as Trump’s domestic
and foreign policies shift public resources
away from healthcare and social services toward defense spending and
immigration enforcement.
Critics warn that the administration’s approach reflects a broader turn toward authoritarian governance, with far-reaching consequences for working families, immigrants, and U.S. credibility abroad. Empires rarely collapse with fireworks. They decay quietly—through shuttered hospitals, criminalized poverty, hollowed communities, and normalized fear.
Under Donald Trump’s revived Monroe Doctrine, now grotesquely evolved into what can only be called the Donroe Doctrine, American imperial power no longer confines its violence to distant lands. It has turned inward, devouring its own people while exporting instability abroad.When care disappears, cages appear. A nation that can fund bombs but not births has already chosen collapse.
New data show 43.7 million Americans living in poverty, with inequality accelerating under Trump’s second administration. This is not economic mismanagement. It is deliberate redistribution—upward, racialized, and enforced through punishment. What cannot be governed through shared prosperity is now governed through fear.
One Big Beautiful Bill, One Ugly Reality
The centerpiece of Trump’s domestic agenda, the ‘One Big Ugly Bill’ signed in July 2025, represents one of the most aggressive upward transfers of wealth in modern U.S. history. By 2027, the top 0.1 percent of earners will receive $60.3 billion in tax breaks, averaging roughly $311,000 per taxpayer. Working families, meanwhile, face rising food prices, housing insecurity, and the collapse of public services.
To finance this elite windfall, the bill slashes the social floor. Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program funding face between $911 billion and $1 trillion in cuts over the next decade. These reductions land hardest in rural America, where hospitals rely heavily on public reimbursement and serve poorer, aging populations. This is not fiscal discipline. It is extraction.
Rural Hospitals as Sacrifice Zones
The results are already visible. Since the bill’s passage, rural clinics and hospital wards have closed or downsized across Virginia, Georgia, Oregon, and New Hampshire. Maternity wards have disappeared. Staff have been laid off. Emergency care now requires hours of travel.
Researchers estimate that more than 700 rural hospitals—nearly half of all rural facilities—are at risk of closure, with 338 classified as high-risk due to their dependence on Medicaid. The administration’s response, a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund spread over five years, covers less than a third of projected losses. A society that cannot safely deliver babies but can always fund bombs has already revealed its moral priorities.
ICE Terror as Domestic Governance
As social protections are stripped away, repression fills the vacuum. During Trump’s first year back in office, immigration enforcement shifted from deterrence to terror. Detention capacity expanded rapidly, targeting not only undocumented migrants with criminal records but also families, workers, and asylum seekers.
The musical maestro and Black icon broke down the oppressive segregated barriers of music in racist White America in the 1960. This was when black people did not even have the right to vote. After achieving success Michael’s participated social struggle by way of speaking up to corporate America for the rights of other black artistes. Michael Jackson’s iconic musical achievements includes winning 13 Grammy Awards, including 8 for his albumTriller.
Black assertiveness in language, literature, politics, music and the arts was among the highpoint of the 1960’s and 1970s in white, racist, segregated America.
Michael Jackson’s rise to fame, as a Blackman, is therefore, of historical significance, given the oppressive social milieu in America.
“I am black and I am proud,” James Brown shouted. Therefore music was another political and cultural arena of battle in the 1960s.
The evolving political ethos of the 1960s was characterized by the Black civil rights struggle. This was a period when dogs were being set on black people: when those who stood up for justice were being killed.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr. was the leader of the overall social justices fight. However here, without losing sight of the broad socio-political context, we are focussing on Michael Jackson. as an iconic, musical maestro, who became a Black trail-blazer.
Michael Jackson became a bright star. He was, like many others, in his own way, a lighthouse shining the glorious potentials of Black people fighting to affirm human dignity.
Michael Jackson’s contribution to the Black civil rights movement was in various forms. As is recorded here by one writer on FanPop.com …
Given this perverse reality, various nefarious, diabolical schemes were used to keep Black folks at the bottom of the political, social and economic ladder.
It was out of this ethos, this boiling pot of cultural and social ferment, that Michael Jackson emerged to become a masterful musical messenger.
The Jackson 5 rose to the top in a racist era of the 1967 when Emmet Till and many others were killed for their natural given rights. Michael Jackson and his siblings, Jackie, Randy, Tito and Jermaine contribution to music is exemplary. Janet, Latoya, Rebbie and JohVonnie complete the Jackson family. Janet Jackson went on to have a stellar music career.
In music, therefore as artistes, —- by becoming endeared in the hearts, mind and soul of America —- their achievements helped to shatter the myths and racist stereotypes imposed on Black people.
Their success undoubtedly help breakdown political social, cultural and racial barriers.
Michael was caught up in the tidal waves, crashing against the brutal seawalls of injustice. His successes, through his music, helped to strengthen Black pride and dignity. All successes were saluted; all pain was shared.
This was the same spirit that drove Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, Marcus Garvey, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Bob Marley, among others, to become true Black Lighthouse keepers; to help us see our way out of darkness and spiritual despair.
Despite oppressive conditions, in sports ‘n’ arts, music and other ares of life, Black people’s spirit could not be crushed.
Michael Jackson’s excellence is unchallengeable. His musical and artistic achievements are legendary.
Michael Jackson’s achievements includes:
Michael Jackson was inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice. He has won 13 Grammy Awards, including 8 for the album, Triller
* Michael has won 13 Grammy Awards, including 8 for the album Triller.
* He has been twice inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
* He opened doors for other black artistes on radio and TV.
* Billions of people worldwide have been influenced by his music, songs and performances.
Michael Jackson has made a tremendous, perhaps unrivaled, contributed to the elevation of black self-esteem, especially in the younger generation.
Michael Jackson visited the People’s Republic of China in 1987, but although he never performed there, his spirit lives on among the younger generation.
Wang Jingyuan is a Chinese musical aficionado who has been imitating Michael Jackson for many years.
Wang Jingyuan is a Chinese fan with his ‘life-like’ Michael Jackson performances. (As seen in his YouTube video above). And it is in this sense, we see that Michael’s spirit is alive among fan’s worldwide.
Despite, the painful tragedies of Michael Jackson’ life, and his sudden demise, doesn't take anything from the black legendary, King of Pop culture.
Michael Jackson, The King of Pop Culture
People of all races, culture, religion, ethnic and social background have embrace Michael Jackson.
Michael Jackson helped to desegregate music and culture in America.
Michael Jackson was an exemplary artiste who despite any limitations, demonstrated his love and compassion for people, the arts and the environment.
Despite the tragedies, at the end of his career, clearly, there is no equal to Michael Jackson, in terms of his creative genius as a song writer, choreographer, singer, and iconic, legendary performer.
…AFRO CARIBBEAN HEALTH & WELLNESS VYBZ
Great surprising health benefits and Traditional use of Jamaican Senna …. wonderful ‘King of the Forest!’ herb!
‘King of the forest’ (Senna Alta) as been long used in Jamaica as a traditional herb for ‘bush medicinal’ purposes.
In Jamaica, studies indicate that king of the forest could also be effective in reducing blood pressure, confirming one traditional use.
TRADITIONAL USE AS A MEDICINAL HERB
Overall, the most common use is as a laxative but a small cup of tea seems to be ok.
A tea made from the leaves of king of the forest is used in the Caribbean and particularly Jamaica to fortify and cleanse but a tea made from the leaves can be used topically for various skin conditions.
· Antibacterial
· Antimicrobial
· Anti fungal
· Analgesic
· Anti-hypertension
· Anti-inflammatory properties
HOW TO MAKE KING OF THE FOREST TEA
*Use 1 leave per cup
* Let in sit in a covered cup of boiled water
* Add 1 teaspoon of honey or, 1 cinnamon stick for taste.
You can also drink your tea unsweetened since it is pleasantly mild
Garden-lovers will enjoy the beauty and natural shade it brings.
It is great to wake up to the bright golden early morning sunlight appear
to embrace and kiss the rhythmic swaying, king of the Forest plant.
such natural beauty is invigorating to you soul!
It bringing joy to your eyes, heart and mind.
Bees and butterflies love the Senna plant too.
King of the forrest is a beautiful addition to your garden.
It adds aesthetic value or, ‘eye-candy’ and'; if you are like me,
a quiet reading and writing spot!
[NOTE: Studies about the nutritional and health benefits of King of the Forrest
is reported online but may not have been reviewed by health experts.
