By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief
Taken by Dr. Heidi Soeters during Guinea’s 2014 Ebola outbreak, photo depicts red- and green-colored gloves propped on sticks to dry after being washed in a hyperchlorinated solution./CDC
It’s sad but not surprising that Ebola has all but disappeared from the headlines. After all, it’s not an imminent threat here anymore. […]
By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief
A severely dehydrated patient receives IV fluids from Kari Jones, MD, as she is carried by a family member from triage to a tent at the Bercy CTC. Photo courtesy of Samaritan’s Purse.
So another Nurses Week winds down and many nurses have been acknowledged for the fine work they do. But I think more recognition should be given to nurses who go above and beyond their usual nursing work and volunteer to help those in dire circumstances. This month in AJN, one of the two CE articles is called “Responding to the Cholera Epidemic in Haiti.” It details the work of one organization and its nurses. Here’s the overview:
While Haiti was still recovering from the January 12, 2010, magnitude-7 earthquake, an outbreak of cholera spread throughout the nation, soon reaching epidemic proportions. Working through the faith-based nongovernmental organization Samaritan’s Purse, an NP, an epidemiologist, and a physician joined the effort to prevent the spread of disease and treat those affected. Here they describe the prevention and intervention campaigns their organization initiated, how they prepared for each, and the essential elements of their operations.
The article provides essential information about such topics as setting up cholera treatment centers, assessment, rehydration priorities, prevention, enlisting […]
AJN’s May issue is now available on our Web site. And in honor of Nurses Week, we are offering free access to the entire issue for the whole week (May 6-12). Here’s a selection of what not to miss.
Intimate partner violence. A major health care issue, intimate partner violence (IPV) affects almost 6% of U.S. women annually. And while prevalence rates of IPV are similar in rural and nonrural areas, rural survivors face distinct barriers in accessing care. “Intimate Partner Violence in Rural Areas: What Every Nurse Should Know” describes the unique aspects of IPV in rural populations and provides nurses with tools and information crucial to effective intervention. This CE feature offers 2.5 CE credits to those who take the test that follows the article. And don’t miss a podcast interview with one of the authors (this and other podcasts are accessible via the Behind the Article page on our Web site or, if you’re in our iPad app, by tapping the icon on the first page of the article).
Containing cholera. While still recovering from a magnitude-7 earthquake, Haiti confronted a second disaster: a rapidly growing cholera epidemic. The authors of “Responding to the Cholera Epidemic in Haiti,” part of a nongovernmental relief organization team sent to Haiti, describe how they managed more than 23,000 cases of cholera and […]
By Jacob Molyneux, senior editor
Florence Nightingale in Crimean War, from Wikipedia Commons
There’s a very good article about Florence Nightingale in the New York Times right now (“Florence Nightingale’s Wisdom”)—and it’s by a physician.
The author, Victoria Sweet, writes that Nightingale was the last person she wanted to know about or identify with when she was in medical school. Then she gradually began to realize Nightingale’s extraordinary influence on modern medicine as it’s now practiced. As Sweet point out,
So much of what she fought for we take for granted today — our beautiful hospitals, the honored nursing profession, data-driven research.
It’s a good piece, and though you may already know some of what it covers, it’s well worth reading. For those who want to learn more about Nightingale, let me point out a series of short posts we ran back in the summer of 2010 on this blog. In Florence’s Footsteps: Notes from a Journey, written by Susan Hassmiller, senior advisor for nursing at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, detailed the stages of a trip she took that summer as she retraced Nightingale’s steps through England and all the way to the Crimea, all the while contemplating her legacy.
