On this month’s cover, nurse Sarah Carruth comforts a young patient at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. This photo is the second-place winner of AJN’s 2015 Faces of Caring: Nurses at Work photo contest, in which readers worldwide submitted candid photos of nurses on the job.

When the child’s parents had to leave the room and he became unsettled, Carruth held him and comforted him with a stuffed toy. She says the photo captures the important type of quiet moment that often gets lost in the bustle: “It can be so busy that you forget about the times when you get to show that you care.”

Having worked as a pediatric nurse for 15 years, Carruth knows that meeting the emotional needs of children is a crucial aspect of caring for them. “It’s not just about giving medicine and assessing vital signs,” she says. “They need the time to be loved.”

Some articles of note in the February issue:

Original Research: “Latino Nurses in the United States: An Overview of Three Decades (1980–2010).” Latinos are underrepresented in the nursing workforce. The authors of this article find that while the overall number of Latinos has grown dramatically in the U.S. over the 30-year study period, the number of Latino nurses has not. As the Latino population in the U.S. continues to increase, nursing education programs and institutions will need to do […]