Recommended Reading from the June Issue of AJN

A virtual RN provides support for a bedside RN on an inpatient unit. The June issue of AJN is now live. Here are some articles in this issue that we’d like to highlight. Note that some may be free only to subscribers.

Initiating Virtual Nursing in General Inpatient Care

This article describes how one hospital developed a virtual RN role for experienced nurses to support bedside RNs and patients on designated general care inpatient units. The photo on our cover this month shows a bedside nurse presenting educational material to her patient, the importance of which a virtual RN looking on from the tablet will help explain and reinforce.

Original Research: Patient Perception of Fall Risk in the Acute Care Setting

This study reveals the disconnect between hospitalized patients’ fall risk assessment results and their own perceptions of their fall risk.

Original Research: The Impact of COVID-19 on Pain Care Among Older Adults

These study findings highlight the many challenges pain management nurses faced, as well as opportunities to improve the health system and enhance nursing practice.

Hospice Nurse Ethics and Institutional Policies Toward Medical Aid in Dying

This article reviews the ethics of requiring nurses to […]

Ready to Write for Publication? AJN’s Manuscript Wish List

The American Journal of Nursing (AJN) is currently seeking article submissions in a number of topic areas and of various types. Please read this short post for more information, and pass the link along to anyone you know who might have a particular area of expertise or interest to write about.

AJN publishes original research, quality improvement (QI), and review articles as CE and feature articles. We also publish shorter, focused columns. Submissions must be evidence based and are peer reviewed.

Clinical features should cover epidemiology, pathology, current research, “what’s new” in knowledge and/or treatment, and nursing implications. Feature articles are usually 5,000 to 8,000 words.

We currently seek articles on these clinical topics:

  • Diabetes management
  • Orthopedic topics—joint replacement, spinal injuries
  • Most pediatric topics—but especially pain, scoliosis, adolescent mental health
  • Best practice in anticoagulant therapy
  • Acute/critical care updates (new guidelines, research)
  • Autoimmune disorders (such as lupus)
  • Infectious disease and public health
  • Polycystic ovary syndrome, gynecologic cancers
  • Managing/troubleshooting skin rashes
  • Parenteral and enteral feeding update

[…]

2022-01-26T10:11:38-05:00January 26th, 2022|career, Nursing, nursing career, writing|0 Comments

What Would It Have Helped to Know as a New Nurse?

An incomplete record of starting out as a nurse. 

When I think back on my first year as a nurse, I always say two things to myself: “I wish I had written more,” and “I wish someone had given me a more realistic how-to manual.” I try to remember patients from back then. What would I have shared, had I written about each one?

I was never not writing about something (sometimes what I wrote was published on this blog), but over time, as I moved away from bedside care and into administration, I wrote differently: policies and program plans, research protocols and systematic reviews. Although I rarely worked directly with patients anymore, their positive outcomes continued to motivate my every word.

I like to think my writing has grown with me. I’ve learned the power of the active voice; the structure required for the APA Writing Manual. 7th edition; and the deepening of understanding that comes from reading and reflection. But I will always wish for more writing—of any kind—from that first year. Even a scribble to jog my memory. This nursing birth of mine, like any birth, began my nursing life in a very specific way. I was challenged and tested, understood and got lost, and, tragically, […]

2023-01-30T10:34:04-05:00October 22nd, 2020|new nurses, Nursing, nursing career|0 Comments

Editing a Journal: Not Bedside Nursing, But Still an Urgency to Get Things Right

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

‘Nurses practice based on what’s in the literature; we need editors who will draw lines and stand firm against publishing biased and inaccurate papers.’

Niklas Bildhauer/ Wikimedia Commons Niklas Bildhauer/ Wikimedia Commons

I recently returned from a meeting in Las Vegas, the land of lights and bells and six-story marquees—and heat (it hit 109 when I was there, but “a dry heat”). The long flight home gave me time to reflect on the meeting I’d attended (of editors of nursing journals) and on what I do.

When I began my nursing career, I always thought I would stay in the acute care setting. I found the fast pace of the ER challenging and never boring. When I moved into a clinical specialist position and then an administrative one, I could still get involved in challenging situations, from dealing with problems that occurred on clinical units or with staff to navigating the politics of hospital committees and community liaisons.

But time passes and paths twist and turn, and here I am the editor of AJN—and it’s the most challenging and professionally fulfilling job I’ve had.

The International Academy of Nursing Editors (INANE for short) meets annually. It’s a loose networking group, mainly held together through a Web site, blog, and […]

Counting Your Blessings

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

A perhaps idealized past: 'Home for Thanksgiving,' Currier and Ives lithograph/Wikimedia Commons A perhaps idealized past: ‘Home for Thanksgiving,’ Currier and Ives lithograph/Wikimedia Commons

At the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., it’s customary to take some time to reflect on our good fortune—to give thanks for what we have. For many of us, it means being thankful for family and good health. But what about all the other people who may make a difference in how we live our lives, who make the world in which we live better or in some indirect way have had an impact on what we do, how we do it, how we feel about life or our work?

Here are some folks I’d like to thank:

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