AJN in June: Gastrostomy Complications, Nursing and Mindfulness, Cultural Competence, More

01AJN0615 CoverAccording to one of the authors of “Cultivating Mindfulness to Enhance Nursing Practice,” the Cultivating Quality article now available in our June issue, mindfulness can be understood as a practice centered around “remembering to pay attention with care and discernment to what is occurring in your immediate experience.” On the cover of our June issue (left), nurses at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston practice mindfulness in a spacious garden, as part of a multifaceted program to help nurses manage stress and make the best of opportunities to more fully connect with patients and families. The article discusses the outcome of the program and how nurses in all settings can use mindfulness-based techniques to enhance their well-being and the care of patients.

Also in the June issue, a continuing education (CE) feature article, “Early Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Tube Dislodgment,” describes the details of a case study of early percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube dislodgment, attempted replacement, and subsequent sepsis that resulted in the patient’s death. This case is used to better inform nurses about gastrostomy techniques, complications, preventive strategies, and proper tube management. […]

2016-11-21T13:02:28-05:00June 1st, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|0 Comments
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Compassion for Those Among Us: Recent Poems in ‘Art of Nursing’

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

In Carolyn Scarbrough’s poem “A Rose By Any Other Name” (Art of Nursing, August), a nurse sees an “opaque rose, unfurling” on a CT scan of an infant’s brain. Recognizing this as “evidence of violent acts,” she knows the outcome will almost certainly be tragic. Yet when she looks from the scan to the exhausted young father, another memory shifts her thoughts from “trauma to love.” With each reading, this poem reveals more about the intertwining of outrage and compassion. (Art of Nursing is always free online—just click through to the PDF file.)

“I try / to meditate on emptiness, // receive the next lungful, ignore / my prattling mind,” says the narrator of Risa Denenberg’s poem “Three-Part Breath” (Art of Nursing, July). The poem’s title refers to a yoga breathing practice, one built on trust; as the yoga teacher says, “There will always be // another inhalation.” […]

2016-11-21T13:12:09-05:00August 12th, 2011|nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Mid-October Rainy Thursday Web Roundup

By Jacob Molyneux, blog editor/senior editor

The nursosphere is thriving and Change of Shift, the always interesting compendium of what’s new on nursing blogs, is up over at Emergiblog.

The health care reform process creeps slowly but surely toward an end someone somewhere can surely envision. One crucial question many are still asking is whether insurance companies might serve consumers a bit more readily and agreeably if they were forced to face a little competition from a public option. After all, isn’t competition supposed to be a good thing?

Most experts don’t expect the H1N1 vaccine to pose any more danger than the seasonal flu vaccine; even so, many Americans (and nurses commenting here, or taking our poll about the mandatory vaccine) continue to be wary, prompting public health officials to engage in especially aggressive surveillance measures in order to quickly detect any possible negative reactions to the vaccine: “Government Keeps Close Eye on Swine Flu Vaccine.”

AJN clinical editor Christine Moffa posted here a while back about how meditation might help cranky or exhausted or overworked nurses stay focused on what matters during the workday. Today the NY Times has a related piece on “doctor burnout” and meditation.

The role of social media in health care is constantly evolving as we all find our way. Its use by hospital workers is at issue in a recent post at Running a Hospital, about one hospital’s decision to ban social media from all its computers. And here’s something else on this: blogger Not Nurse Ratched wonders if social media policies in […]

2016-11-21T13:21:43-05:00October 15th, 2009|health care policy, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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Clearing the Mind: Charles Kaiman, Nurse and Artist

Kaiman's "Self-Portrait," September cover

Charles Kaiman, a clinical nurse specialist in psychiatric mental health nursing at the New Mexico Veterans Affairs facility in Albuquerque, is also an acclaimed artist. This month we feature his work both on our cover and in Art of Nursing. In On the Cover, Kaiman offers thoughts on his painting technique, which he calls “a form of visual meditation,” and describes how it clears the mind.  If you’re in the New York City area in early October, come check out his show at the Blue Mountain Gallery at 530 West 25 Street in Manhattan, October 6 through 31. For more information, visit the artist’s Web site.

Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

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2016-11-21T13:22:12-05:00September 24th, 2009|Nursing|1 Comment
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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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