June Issue Highlights: PPE Shortages, Opioid Use Disorder, More

“Nurses’ work has become powerfully visible.”—editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy in her June editorial, “Nurses: Courageous, Committed, and Fed Up”

The cover image of our June issue is a watercolor painting, Human, by Ohio artist Jim Leitz. Created in March, the painting is a tribute to the experiences of frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The June issue is now live, and features continuing coverage of COVID-19, plus many articles on other topics in nursing and health care. Here’s what’s new:

Original Research: The Relationship Between Food Insecurity and Cost-Related Medication Nonadherence in Older Adults: A Systematic Review

The authors conducted a comprehensive review of the literature to explore the connection between these two significant public health issues. The evidence suggests a correlation and points to the need for more effective interventions.

Opioid Use Disorder: Pathophysiology, Assessment, and Effective Interventions

A review of the development of opioid use disorder, available screening tools, medical treatments, and behavioral interventions that have demonstrated efficacy in reducing substance use.

Back to Basics: Abnormal Basic Metabolic Panel Findings: Implications for Nursing

In this article in a new series designed to improve acute care nurses’ understanding of laboratory abnormalities, the author discusses important values in the basic metabolic panel, including the electrolytes potassium and chloride as […]

2020-05-26T09:23:33-04:00May 26th, 2020|Nursing|0 Comments
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Managing Acute Pain in People with Opioid Use Disorder

Photo © IStock.

Have you ever used the Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale (COWS) to ascertain whether your patient might be experiencing opioid withdrawal?

Considering the current prevalence of opioid misuse, it’s not unlikely that a patient admitted for a non-drug-related cause could be a person who uses opioids—someone who may or may not have shared that information with you.

The Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale is one of many helpful points of assessment and management discussed in this month’s CE article, “Acute Pain Management for People with Opioid Use Disorder.”

Compassionate, informed, nonjudgmental care.

This article, not specifically about unrevealed opioid intake, focuses on the management of acute pain in a person who is known to use opioids because they are currently on medication-assisted treatment (MAT)—that is, someone receiving methadone, buprenorphine, or naltrexone for opioid use disorder who is also experiencing acute pain from (for example) cancer, or after surgery or trauma.

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2018-10-29T08:03:46-04:00October 29th, 2018|Nursing|0 Comments
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October Issue: Treating Hemorrhagic Shock, Pain Management and Opioid Use Disorder, Workplace Violence, More

“Violent behavior seems to be an . . . increasingly frequent occurrence in hospitals and nursing care facilities. More and more, such violence is the result of intentional harm.” —editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy in her October editorial

The October issue of AJN is now live. Here are some of the articles we’re pleased to have a chance to publish this month.

CE: The Use of Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta in Treating Hemorrhagic Shock from Severe Trauma

Efforts to prevent death from hemorrhagic shock have resulted in the emergence of a new tool—resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA), a less invasive option for controlling hemorrhage in noncompressible areas of the body. This article outlines REBOA, describes its evolution, and discusses various considerations, pitfalls, and nursing implications.

CE: Perspectives on Palliative Nursing: Acute Pain Management for People with Opioid Use Disorder

The authors of this article—one in a series on palliative care developed with the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association—discuss how to manage acute pain effectively in patients receiving medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder, which incorporates methadone, buprenorphine, or naltrexone.

Original Research: Journalists’ Experiences with Using Nurses as Sources in Health News Stories

The authors of a 2018 replication of the 1997 […]

2018-09-28T10:05:14-04:00September 28th, 2018|Nursing|0 Comments
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High Opioid Overdose Numbers Spur State, City Initiatives

State 2015 overdose death rates compared with national rate. (CDC image)

As we report in an October news article, recent studies have shed light on the growing scale of the opioid crisis in the United States. Among the latest statistics:

  • 33,000 Americans died in 2015 from an opioid overdose, a high percentage from the use of synthetic opioids such as illegally manufactured fentanyl.
  • The diagnosis of “opioid use disorder” climbed 493% from 2010 to 2016 in Blue Cross Blue Shield claims.
  • Around 4.31% of Americans ages 12 or older use prescription pain relievers for nonmedical uses.

Increasing Naloxone availability.

The findings underscore the urgent need to take steps to combat the crisis—a need that has prompted states and cities to attack the issue using various methods. Baltimore’s health commissioner, for example, issued a standing order for naloxone to be available at all of the city’s pharmacies. Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design collaborated to create NaloxBoxes—emergency naloxone boxes installed at city social service centers that enable any bystander to administer a rescue dose.

Speeding access to addiction treatment.

And, to minimize delays in patients’ receipt of medication-assisted opioid addiction treatments like methadone, New York State has reached agreements with two insurance companies to end their […]

2017-10-23T08:50:26-04:00October 23rd, 2017|Nursing, Public health|1 Comment
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AJN in September: Pain Management in Opioid Use Disorder, STIs in the U.S., Teaching Vs. Unit Needs

AJN0915.Cover.OnlineOn this month’s cover, perianesthesia nurse Carolyn Benigno helps prepare a young patient for surgery at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. The photo, the first-place winner of AJN’s 2015 Faces of Caring: Nurses at Work photo contest, shows Benigno practicing “Caring through Play.” The art of working at a pediatric hospital, she says, is “learning how to play with children so that part of your nursing care is play.” Such play can both distract a child in the moment and help the child cope with the disorienting experience of hospitalization.

For another piece on how nurses try to make hospitalization less stressful for children, see this month’s Cultivating Quality article, “Improving Pediatric Temperature Measurement in the ED.”

Some other articles of note in the September issue:

CE Feature: “Acute Pain Management for Inpatients with Opioid Use Disorder.” Inpatients diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD) commonly experience acute pain during hospitalization and may require opioids for pain management. But misconceptions about opioids and negative attitudes toward patients with OUD may lead to undermedication, unrelieved pain, and unnecessary suffering. This article reviews the current relevant literature and dispels common myths about opioids and OUD. […]

2016-11-21T13:02:02-05:00September 2nd, 2015|career, Ethics, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective|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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