Practical Steps for Nurses to Reduce Prescription Opioid Diversion

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

“Opioids diverted from friends and family members who have legitimate prescriptions are a major source of abused prescription opioids.”

More than 800 lbs. of drugs have been collected in Lycoming County, PA, since drug collection boxes were placed in law enforcement agencies over a year ago, allowing residents to safely dispose of unwanted drugs. Here the drugs are separated from their containers before incineration. Photo courtesy of Karen Vibert-Kennedy / Williamsport Sun-Gazette. More than 800 lbs. of drugs have been collected in Lycoming County, PA, since collection boxes were placed in law enforcement agencies over a year ago, allowing residents to safely dispose of unwanted drugs. Here the drugs are separated from their containers before incineration. Photo courtesy of Karen Vibert-Kennedy / Williamsport Sun-Gazette.

Amid recent reports from the CDC drawing attention to a prescription painkiller and heroin overdose epidemic, last week President Obama announced an initiative to address both prescription drug and heroin abuse in the United States. In addition […]

2016-11-21T13:01:50-05:00October 28th, 2015|Nursing, pain management, Patients|0 Comments
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AJN’s October Issue: Breast Cancer, Celiac Disease, the Fall Elections, More

AJN’s October issue is now available on our Web site. Here’s a selection of what not to miss, including two continuing education (CE) articles, which you can access for free.

All women who inherit a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation have a significantly increased risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer or both. This month’s original research article, “Being Young, Female, and BRCA Positive,” explores the psychosocial consequences in young women who test positive for one of these mutations—especially where it concerns marriage and childbearing. This CE article is open access and can earn you 2.1 CE credits.

Diagnosis of celiac disease in adults is often missed or delayed because clinicians often consider it to be a childhood disease. “Celiac Disease: A Medical Puzzle,” provides an overview of this widely underrecognized disease, outlines the pathophysiology and the four types of celiac disease, addresses diagnosis and disease management, and offers illustrative stories in the interest of raising nurses’ awareness of the disease. This CE article is open access and can earn you 2.1 CE credits. For more information, listen to a podcast with the authors.

Being unaware of the realities of licensure can damage a nurse’s career, even permanently. “Common Misconceptions About Professional Licensure” is part one of a three-part series that will discuss nursing disciplinary actions and provides tips for maintaining one’s license in good standing. For more, listen to a podcast with the author, […]

2016-11-21T13:09:11-05:00October 1st, 2012|Nursing|0 Comments
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Campaign-Inspired Hot Summer Friday Thoughts

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Commuting in and out of Manhattan gives me plenty of time to listen to the radio and of course, with Election Day a mere 90 days away, the presidential campaign offers reporters a lot of fodder for commentary. And of course, the evening papers and television stations—both national and local—augment what’s on the radio all day. Here’s a sampling of health care–related campaign news that I’ve heard and read this week.

According to the Kaiser Foundation’s Health Tracking Poll, July figures show that overall, two thirds of Americans support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but when it comes to whether their own states should expand programs, support drops to less than half (49%), while 43% want to keep the status quo. Importantly for candidates, “four in 10 Americans say they could still change their minds on the law.”

My take: The failure of the Democrats to adequately explain the reforms, together with the misinformation from the Republicans (death panels—need I say more?), are leaving the public confused.  The winner in November will be the candidate who can convince the voters that the ACA is either good or bad for them on a person level. (And yes, the economy is now the overriding issue, but health care will keep resurfacing as an emotional and “values” issue in the coming months.)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–Nevada) accused candidate Mitt Romney of not paying taxes for 10 years while he was […]

2016-11-21T13:09:30-05:00August 10th, 2012|health care policy, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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The Affordable Care Act Survives, At Least for Now

Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Senate roll call, Affordable Care Act/by Kurykh, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s been a couple of weeks now since the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and there have been too many articles and analyses to count. The bottom line is that its fate won’t be settled until after the November elections. If the Republicans win the election, the ACA will become the first battleground, as its repeal has been promised by candidate Mitt Romney.

What is concerning is that a great many people pay attention to the rhetoric rather than finding out the facts (remember “death panels”?). This point was well made by political cartoonist Stuart Carlson in this cartoon. It’s hard not to be in favor of many of the provisions—like extending coverage under a parent’s plan for children up to 26 years of age, or barring insurance companies from denying coverage for preexisting conditions.

As nurses, we need to know the facts and go beyond the political rhetoric. We need to be informed for ourselves (anything that has an impact on health care delivery and funding will affect nursing) and for our patients, who will have questions. Get the facts—read the law at the link above, a summary of the law, or the articles we published summarizing how it will affect nursing (our original article, and a 2011 update, both open access until […]

2016-11-21T13:09:43-05:00July 9th, 2012|health care policy, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Obama, Rock Star for Nurses

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN interim editor-in-chief (sent yesterday from her Iphone)

So it’s Wednesday afternoon, June 16, and I’m here in Washington, DC, attending the 2010 House of Delegates meeting of the American Nurses Association (ANA). It’s easy to find the sessions—one just has to follow all the middle-aged women walking in one direction through the lobby (full disclosure: that includes me).

ANA president Rebecca Patton opened the session and announced that there would be a “special surprise guest.” She got about halfway through announcements about parliamentary procedure, using the electronic voting machines, and the other housekeeping details when I noticed a rather large muscular young man with an earpiece slip in the door near me. I noticed several clones of him at each exit. Our “special guest” had arrived.

Patton introduced President Barack Obama and he received a rock star welcome from the approximately 800 attendees. He said he came because he promised he would if nurses supported his campaign and he won the presidential election. He proclaimed, “I love nurses.” (I wonder: when he goes to other groups, does he say, “I love physicians” or “I love auto workers”?) He retold the story of how nurses took care of his wife and daughters when his daughters were born and how the nurses “got him through” when one of his daughters had meningitis and how they gave her such good care.

Obama then spoke about the changes in health care brought about by the Patient […]

2016-11-21T13:17:11-05:00June 17th, 2010|career, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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