Dear Readers,

I have been affectionately calling the October issue of Nurses Lounge-DFW our "disaster issue" because we planned a feature on disaster preparedness and a spotlight on ER nurses. However, as we started talking to nurses and emergency planners after Hurricane Ike roared through Texas, it seemed like we should call this our "inspiration issue." We have heard from more people than we can fit into our magazine about how they have helped prepare, address and recover from numerous disasters.

After waiting several days to make sure that we were not interfering in the important work our readers do, we were fortunate to find several nurses from the DFW area who selflessly volunteered their time to assist with the recovery efforts along the Texas coast. As a result, we were able to get firsthand insight into what it's like to be a nurse who chooses to go straight into the storm instead of away from it.

Appropriately, our career spotlight looks at emergency department nursing through the eyes of four local ER nurses.

Our disaster preparedness feature explores the important work that hospital safety planners do and the importance of nurse commitment during those critical practice drills.

As always, if you have a story or meaningful photograph that you would like to share, please let me know at aarmstrong@nurseslounge.com.

 See you in the lounge!

Anthony Armstrong

Our September issue is online! Click here to read our digital version.

Our August issue is now online! You can read our environmentally-friendly digital issue here.

Liko North America has announced the launch of a new "Toolkit" section of its Safe Lifting Portal Web site. The new portal section is designed to assist hospitals and nursing homes with the start-up, development, and on-going support of safe lifting initiatives. The Liko-sponsored Safe Lifting Portal is a pro bono injury prevention site designed to help nurses avoid musculoskeletal injuries caused by lifting and repositioning patients.

The Safe Lifting Portal cover topics such as how to start and deploy a program, how to achieve caregiver buy-in, tracking legislative activities, and calculating projected savings using an interactive return-on-investment calculator. It also includes a monthly electronic newsletter and a question-and-answer column called "Ask the Lift Doctor."

According to Melissa Nowitz, administrator of the Safe Lifting Portal, "Over the course of the three or more years of our portal's existence, many customers have contacted us and asked for individual items to promote safe lifting in their facilities -- ranging from posters to pamphlets -- and this new section allows us to make them available in one convenient location. Also, we are always looking for additional suggestions on how to improve the efficacy of safe lifting programs, and now we have a more direct means of sharing those ideas among healthcare workers and safe lifting committee members."

To access the Toolkit section of Safe Lifting Portal, visit http://www.safeliftingportal.com/toolkit.