March Issue: Brain Death Criteria Update, Inadequate Physical Activity in Female Cancer Survivors, More

“. . . there is no underestimating the power of meaning to bolster individuals and the power of meaninglessness to sap them of the will to go on.”Henry Bair, author of the March Reflections column, “Waiting for Jerry”

The March issue of AJN is now live! Here are the highlights:

Original Research: Arthritis-Related Functional Limitations and Inadequate Physical Activity Among Female Adult Cancer Survivors

This study uses data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to examine the extent to which functional limitations due to arthritis are predictive of low physical activity levels in female cancer survivors.

CE: Brain Death: History, Updates, and Implications for Nurses

The authors review the development of brain death criteria, describe recent controversies and criteria updates, and discuss considerations for nurses who care for patients declared dead by neurologic criteria. […]

2020-02-24T09:40:14-05:00February 24th, 2020|Nursing|0 Comments

A Sense of Meaninglessness and Disconnectedness: Addressing Spiritual Distress Among Cancer Survivors

“I lost a critical year of my life, and now I can’t move forward. I feel stuck. My life is passing me by, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore.”

This quote is from a composite case example that focuses on the spiritual distress experienced by some cancer survivors. Treatment may be over with, and the prognosis may be excellent. All signs may point to the probability of a cancer-free future. But after confronting a potentially life-threatening diagnosis, many survivors struggle with a sense of meaninglessness or disconnectedness.

In “Assessing and Managing Spiritual Distress in Cancer Survivorship” in the January issue of AJN, Timiya Nolan and colleagues explore the concept of spiritual distress and its impact on a person’s quality of life.

A topic that often goes unaddressed.

The authors emphasize the need for clinicians to actively screen for this problem and learn how to initiate conversations with patients. Clinicians are often reluctant to raise the issue of spiritual well-being, and thus wait for survivors to voice any spiritual concerns. While this approach is effective in some cases, if the conversation never occurs, the survivor’s spiritual needs may be unmet. […]

2020-01-16T10:15:37-05:00January 16th, 2020|Nursing, patient experience, Patients|0 Comments

January Issue: Spiritual Distress and Cancer, Recruitment of Foreign-Educated Clinicians, AJN Book of the Year Awards, More

“Nurses and midwives together constitute half of the global health workforce, and by declaring 2020 the ‘Year of the Nurse and Midwife,’ the World Health Organization is recognizing their critical roles in achieving global health goals.”editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy in her editorial, “Putting 2019 Behind Us”

With the new year upon us, the January issue of AJN is now live. Here are the highlights:

CE: Original Research: The Recruitment Experience of Foreign-Educated Health Professionals to the United States

The authors discuss the current state of international recruitment and report on the findings of their study of foreign-educated health professionals and recruiters to further illuminate the recruitment experience.

CE: Assessing and Managing Spiritual Distress in Cancer Survivorship

This article describes the concept of spiritual distress and illustrates how nurses can incorporate into practice evidence-based recommendations for addressing cancer survivors’ spiritual needs. […]

2019-12-30T08:20:07-05:00December 30th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments

Alerting Nurses to Late Effects of Pediatric Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment

“As of January 2010, there were an estimated 379,112 survivors of childhood and adolescent cancers, of whom 35,253 (9.3%) had been treated for Hodgkin lymphoma,” according the American Cancer Society—as summarized in Cardiotoxicity and Breast Cancer as Late Effects of Pediatric Hodgkin Lympoma (HL) Treatment,a CE feature in the April issue of AJN.

Author Joanne Lee Candela, an adult NP in the survivorship program at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, hopes to raise awareness among all nurses of “residual risks associated with the various HL treatments, thereby promoting appropriate screening and, as needed, referral for specialty care.” The below table, from the article, depicts selected potential late effects of Hodgkin lymphoma treatment. Click to enlarge.

Table1HLlateeffectsThe article points out that “two of the most prevalent and life-threatening late effects are female breast cancer, secondary to chest radiation as well as to any underlying genetic tendencies, and cardiotoxicity and its sequelae, which are related to chest radiation that encompasses the heart and to the anthracycline component of chemotherapy.” […]

AJN in November: New Cancer Survivorship Series, Holistic Nursing, Safe Opioid Use, More

AJN1115.Cover.2nd.inddOn this month’s cover, a nurse provides care to a patient at Clearview Cancer Institute in Huntsville, Alabama. The photo was chosen as the third-place winner of AJN’s 2015 Faces of Caring: Nurses at Work contest. Photographer Kim Swift shot the photo while shadowing her sister, a nurse, for a day. Swift sought to capture what she calls “the trust factor” between patients and nurses. She found a prime example of that relationship when she noticed the way one patient looked at her nurse as he explained an aspect of her cancer treatment.

To read the first in a series of AJN articles on cancer survivorship from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, see “Adverse Late and Long-Term Treatment Effects in Adult Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Survivors.” This article—the first of several on cancer survivorship—summarizes the identification, evaluation, and management of potential treatment-related effects in adult survivors of hematopoietic stem cell transplants, with special focus on cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Some other articles of note in the November issue:

CE Feature:Imagery for Self-Healing and Integrative Nursing Practice.” Research suggests that that the use of imagery can help reduce patients’ pain and anxiety and improve their quality of life and outlook on their illness. The second article in a five-part series on holistic nursing describes how imagery can be used to encourage patients’ healing process and […]

2016-11-21T13:01:49-05:00October 30th, 2015|Nursing|1 Comment
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