Ann Burgess and Forensic Nursing: AJN Special Issue Highlights

The April issue of AJN is now live.

Here are some highlights. Some articles are open access or temporarily free; others will require log-in for access.

A SPECIAL ISSUE DEVOTED TO FORENSIC NURSING

In this month’s guest editorial, “The Sherlock Holmes of Nursing,” Angela Frederick Amar, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean at the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, gives a compelling overview of the career of forensic nursing pioneer Ann Burgess. She begins this way:

Ann Wolbert Burgess is often described as the “Sherlock Holmes of Nursing,” but that title only captures half of her legacy. While Holmes deduced what had already happened, Burgess’s greatest gift has been her uncanny ability to “see around the corner”—to identify societal crises and clinical needs years, sometimes decades, before the rest of the health care and legal systems recognized them. Throughout her storied career, Burgess has operated at the vanguard of forensic nursing, victimology, and behavioral profiling. Her foresight is characterized by three distinct “turns” around the corner, where she anticipated the future of nursing and justice.

The rest of the editorial is free to read, and is both inspiring (in the best sense) and informative.

The April […]

2026-03-26T14:38:13-04:00March 26th, 2026|Nursing, Nursing education, nursing research, Quality improvement|0 Comments
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Ketamine as a Therapeutic Option, AI and Nurse Staffing, Naloxone Training, and Other March Issue Highlights

The March issue of AJN is now live.

Here are some highlights. Some articles are open access or temporarily free; others will require log-in for access.

In this month’s editorial, “A Turning Point in Psychiatry,” AJN‘s editor-in-chief Carl Kirton discusses key aspects of the current mental health crisis and explores whether a paradigm shift to more rapid treatment with drugs like ketamine and MDMA may be in sight for at least some percentage of those in need (the editorial is always free). Writes Kirton:

“The promise of ketamine therapy is not that it will ‘replace’ everything else, but that it may signal a broader turning point: psychiatry moving beyond slow-onset, monoamine-focused treatments toward interventions that target rapid symptom relief.”

In addition, the CE article (CE articles are free) in the March issue reviews current evidence on ketamine as a mental health treatment. Discussing the use of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression, the authors write:

This article provides “a foundation of clinical information that nurses should understand as they advise patients who are receiving or curious about ketamine” and discusses “the regulatory, ethical, and nursing implications of using ketamine in the treatment of mental health disorders.”

The Viewpoint in this issue, “AI Won’t […]

2026-02-24T09:19:20-05:00February 24th, 2026|Nursing, Nursing education, nursing research, Quality improvement|0 Comments
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Clarifying the DNP Role, Assessing Discharge Readiness: Highlights in our February Issue

The February issue of AJN is now live. Here are some highlights.

In this issue, a review article (CE credit available), “Nurses in the Fight to End Food Insecurity: An Integrative Review,” synthesizes and analyzes findings of nurse-involved studies that address food insecurity, identifying key interventions and outcomes across diverse health care and community settings.

Notably, there are a number of open access articles in this issue:

“Assessing Discharge Readiness and Influencing Factors Among Patients with Aortic Dissection: A Cross-Sectional Study” is an original research (and open access) article. The authors note that this study “revealed that patients with aortic dissection generally had discharge readiness scores at the lower end of the moderate range, indicating the need for improvement. It’s imperative that health care providers emphasize patient education prior to discharge and develop and implement personalized discharge plans.”

The second open access original research article in our February issue is “An Examination of Factors Affecting Bowel Preparation for Colonoscopy: A Meta-Analysis.” According to the authors, “Health care providers, including nurses, should consider these determinants of bowel preparation effectiveness and implement appropriate interventions in a timely manner to enhance patient education and care.”

Our professional […]

2026-01-22T15:16:34-05:00January 22nd, 2026|Nursing, Nursing education, nursing research, Quality improvement|0 Comments
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AJN’s 2025 Book of the Year Awards and Other Highlights of the January Issue

The January issue of AJN is now live.

AJN’s 2025 Book of the Year Awards can be found in the the current issue. Browse judges’ choices in a wide variety of categories.

On this month’s cover is Eyes of Gold 2 [Children of The Sun With Moon Crescent Blood], a work by artist Rizzy Akanji, creative director of Akanji Studio—a London-based art and storytelling house that “uses visual art, poetry, and creative education to raise awareness for sickle cell disorder and to transform lived experiences of pain into expressions of power and beauty.”

Below are articles from the January issue we’d like to draw your attention to:

A review article (CE credit available), “Sickle Cell Disease: Treatment Options of the Past, Present, and Future,” gives an up-to-date overview of what every nurse will want to know about this challenging and painful condition.

“Exploring Retention Among Army Nurses: A Qualitative Study” is an open access original research article based on the authors’ interviews with active-duty Army nurses. It identifies two key priorities that emerged from interviews and subsequent analysis as to why nurses choose to stay.

The second original research article in our January issue is “

2025-12-30T10:00:09-05:00December 30th, 2025|Nursing|0 Comments
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In AJN’s July Issue, a Guest Editorial by Angelina Jolie and Other Essential Reading

The July issue of AJN is now live.

Among the highlights is a guest editorial by Angelina Jolie, “Addressing Health Inequities in Survivors of Domestic Violence,” which explains the importance of bruise detection technologies for patients with varying skin tones. Referencing her daughter, who is from Ethiopia, she writes:

“Even as my family has access to high-quality medical care, simple diagnoses are missed because of race and continued prioritization of white skin in medicine.”

On this topic in the same issue, see the Nurse Innovators column, “Improving Bruise Detection in Patients with Dark Skin Tone.”

A useful read about getting patients up and moving again after surgery is a CE feature article, “Overcoming Movement-Evoked Pain to Facilitate Postoperative Recovery.” which emphasizes a multifaceted approach that includes timely evaluation and comprehensive care planning.

“Improving Medication Safety in the ICU” is about a nurse-led initiative to reduce medication errors by increasing adherence to safety protocols, including compliance with barcode scanning before medication administration.

A Viewpoint addresses a possible solution to the thorny problem of how a hospital and its nurses handle patient access to medical cannabis.

See also the extensive health care news sections, the Journal Watch […]

2023-06-26T10:17:17-04:00June 26th, 2023|Nursing|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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