Posts Tagged ‘AJN’

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Buyer Beware: Most Online Nursing Schools are Reputable, But How Do You Know?

January 3, 2011

By Maureen ‘Shawn’ Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief

Imagine spending a significant amount of money and long hours of study to earn credits toward a nursing degree—and then finding out that the credits are not transferable to the school where you planned to complete the degree. For some nursing students, this is a reality, not just an exercise in imagination.

In the January issue of AJN, we assigned one of our freelance journalists to do a report examining for-profit nursing programs, many of which are online.

Newspaper articles and other news sources and organizations have reported that some students are getting shortchanged, with nursing students sometimes finding themselves ineligible to take licensing exams and facing crippling debt.

I’ve seen ads for various online nursing programs—indeed, AJN and other reputable nursing journals run these promotions in our pages or on our Web sites. Most are credible organizations and many students have indeed graduated from them or with credit obtained through them and gone on to pursue successful careers. But a few such programs apparently fail to deliver on promises—or may not provide full disclosure about what students can expect.

If you’re contemplating going back to school and are considering an online program, be sure to read our report and follow the recommendations from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing detailed in the article. Going back to school might very well be the best decision you make—but make it carefully, and with full knowledge.

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Posted in continuing education, nursing students, Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments »

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Entering the Mainstream? Nursing Research at 25 Years

October 4, 2010
Logo of the United States National Institute o...

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By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief

Last Thursday the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) held its kick-off event to celebrate its 25th anniversary—and what could be more appropriate than holding a research symposium at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)? Scientists and researchers (nurses as well as others) whose work is supported by the NINR presented highlights of their research. (See here for synopses.)

Why it matters to all nurses. All nurses, researchers or not, should celebrate the growth and accomplishments of the NINR—its establishment provided tangible recognition of the value of the substantial body of research conducted by and/or about the nursing profession. As practitioners, where would we be without research to provide the evidence underlying care interventions or the processes of delivering that care? With the October issue, AJN highlights the NINR’s silver anniversary: on the cover, with a guest editorial by NINR director Patricia Grady, and with a timeline highlighting key milestones and landmark research supported by the NINR (click through to the PDF version to read this article). To give you an idea why nursing research matters, here’s just one entry on the timeline, from 1998:

Nancy Bergstrom, PhD, RN, FAAN, in a multisite study, tests the Braden Scale for Predicting Pressure Sore Risk and finds its predictive capability accurate. The scale is now widely used in nursing homes and hospitals.

AJN’s role in dissemination. What’s critical, though is that the outcomes of research get disseminated to those at the point of care. Researchers tend to publish in research journals, but how many nurses in clinical practice read those journals? As a general nursing journal with a wide readership, AJN covers the “broad view” of what’s important for most nurses regardless of practice setting or role. It’s our mission “to promote excellence in nursing and health care through the dissemination of evidence-based, peer-reviewed clinical information and original research . . . .”

So on this 25th anniversary of the NINR, my hope for the next decade (we can’t wait another 25 years) is that nursing research will move more and more into mainstream clinical journals.

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Posted in nursing innovations, nursing perspective, nursing research, professional identity, public health nursing, Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment »

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AJN’s Top 10 Articles in 2009

January 13, 2010

So, what were the most highly viewed articles of 2009 on AJNonline?

Here’s our Top Ten list – check them out:

1. Sex and Violence in the Media Influence Teen Behavior – duh!

2. Recognizing Sepsis in the Adult Patient - every nurse should know what to look for

3. Bullying Among Nurses – sad reminder that we might be our own worst enemy

4. Leech Therapy – it may be disconcerting, but it works wonders

5. The Marketing of Osteoporosis – how they turned a risk factor into a disease

6. The Nursing Shortage - this problem’s not going away soon

7. Understanding and Managing Burn Pain: Part 1 - it’s still misunderstood . . . and undertreated

8. Infection Control: Whose Job Is It? - unsafe nursing practices, you say?

9. Staging Pressure Ulcers: What’s the Buzz in Wound Care? – definitions matter!

10. Do Rapid Response Teams Save Lives? – well, it sounded like a neat idea . . .

–Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief
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Posted in nursing perspective, nursing research, nursing shortage, palliative care, writing and nursing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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Nurses Write, Right?

November 2, 2009

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN interim editor-in-chief

WRITE

by karindalziel/ via Flickr Creative Commons

As nurses, we have great stories and insight. We see a side of life few other people see. We see people when they’re sick and tired and defeated by illness. We witness the intimacy of people when they’re most vulnerable, when all pretense has been stripped away. We also have a wealth of scientific knowledge about the effects of illness, how to prevent it and manage it, and what it takes to restore individuals to health or at least to the optimum health possible for them.

As an editor, I’m constantly seeking manuscripts. And I mean constantly—I sometimes feel like a beggar, asking people to “please write that as a case study,” or “please submit that (poignant, funny, revealing, uplifting) story,” or “consider doing an update on (name the problem) incorporating new evidence.” Maybe one out of four pieces materializes.

Nurses writing about nursing is vital to the profession. And it’s not just about writing about research. Research advances knowledge but we also need to know how practitioners are applying knowledge. We know “one size does not fit all”—how does practice need to change to meet the needs of diverse groups? What are the problems and issues aound practice? Is the nursing taught in the classroom connected to the nursing we actually do?

We need to document what we do, why we do it, and what are the outcomes. We need to do this not only to share information that can be helpful to colleagues, but also to share it with the wider health care community and the public. How else can other professions and the public know what we do and why it’s important?  

So think about what you have to say about what you do, what you’ve experienced, and what you know that would benefit your colleagues. And then write about it. We consider many types of articles, from research to opinion pieces to case studies to accounts of personal experiences. AJN’s author guidelines are at www.editorialmanager.com/ajn.

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Posted in nursing perspective, nursing research, Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief, writing and nursing | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments »

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AJN Health Care Reform Poll

October 30, 2009

Posted in health care reform | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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A Girl, a Suitcase–a Nurse Who Can’t Forget

September 8, 2009

SeptReflectionsScreen2If I had known how much anguish it would lead to, I might have been tempted not to answer my pager when it went off on that quiet Sunday morning in May. Instead, I innocently dialed the number.

“Cafeteria,” said the voice that answered.

“Hi, this is the nursing manager. Did you page me?”

“We need you right away. A child’s alone down here.”

In the cafeteria I approached the bevy of workers huddled by the phone. “The little girl’s over there,” one of them said, pointing.

A small child was sitting quietly at a table halfway down the room. She had a round face and light brown hair pulled back with a pink barrette, soft curls falling below her ears.

Read the full Reflections essay from the August issue here. As author Joan Greland-Goldstein concludes, “Gina must be in her 20s today, but I still see her as the little girl sitting quietly at the cafeteria table waiting for someone to come back to her.” May ”Gina” someday find that someone.

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Posted in children's health, healing/holistic, nursing perspective, writing and nursing | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

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