Pneumonia Archives - Off the Charts

December Issue Highlights: Community-Acquired Pneumonia, Nurses’ COVID-19 Experiences, More

“As we go forward from this difficult year, we should take great pride in the fact that, perhaps for the first time, nurses’ work, commitment, and skills are visible all over the world.”—editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy in her editorial, “Moving On from the (Unimaginable) Year of the Nurse and the Midwife“

The December issue of AJN is now live. Here are some highlights.

Original Research: Assessing Organizational Focus on Health Literacy in North Texas Hospitals

“This mixed-methods study adds to the growing body of evidence for a lack of health literate practices in health care organizations.”

Community-Acquired Pneumonia: A Review of Current Diagnostic Criteria and Management

This article discusses the 2019 American Thoracic Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America guideline on CAP diagnosis and treatment and provides an update on risk factors, signs and symptoms, and recommendations for treatment, discharge, and prevention.

Special Report: Frontline Nurses Say ‘Never Again’

A summary of a new report from the Frontline Nurses WikiWisdom Forum—an initiative of New Voice Strategies, the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, and AJN—in which nurses share their COVID-19 experiences and offer strategies to successfully manage future health care crises.

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Diane Szulecki, editor2020-11-23T09:26:16-05:00November 23rd, 2020|Nursing|0 Comments

When Family Caregivers Are Unsure

Those who care for ailing family members are often faced with new symptoms or with changes in a loved one’s condition. They have to decide if it’s a natural progression of the disease and “just” another thing to manage, or if it signals a serious problem like a urinary tract infection, pneumonia, or a COPD exacerbation that needs to be addressed. Often, they end up in the ER, in some cases needlessly.

The authors of the original research CE article in this month’s issue, “New Acute Symptoms in Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment: What Should Family Caregivers Do?,” write:

“If caregivers have a clear understanding and awareness of their loved ones’ existing symptoms, they’ll be better prepared to recognize changes and new symptoms. Early recognition makes it more likely that the patient can be treated in place and trips to the ED can be avoided.”

Are caregivers being adequately prepared?

As I write in the March editorial, with over 43.5 million adults providing care to family members, we need to ensure they are prepared to do so by the time their loved one is discharged from the hospital

These caregivers provide complex care—from injections and ostomy care to managing ventilators and tube feedings—and according to surveys conducted by AARP, they […]

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2019-03-04T07:29:14-05:00March 4th, 2019|family caregiving, family caregiving, Patients|0 Comments

February Issue: Caring for Hodgkin Lymphoma Survivors, Acute Flaccid Myelitis, Reducing Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia, More

“I experienced the inestimable value of a healing garden . . . Regardless of diagnosis, age, circumstances, or ability to pay, nature willingly extends her gifts and does not forsake us.”—Elaine C. Meyer, author of the February Reflections column

The February issue of AJN is now live. Here are some highlights.

CE: Original Research: Midlife Hypertension and Hypercholesterolemia in Relation to Cognitive Function Later in Life in Black Women

In light of a lack of research on the associations between vascular risk factors and cognitive function in black older adults, the authors explored the relationship between two such risk factors in midlife—hypertension and hypercholesterolemia—and cognitive function later in life among black women.

CE: Caring for Survivors of Hodgkin Lymphoma

This article—winner of the 2018 Nurse Faculty Scholars/AJN Mentored Writing Award—provides an overview of Hodgkin lymphoma, the most common late effects of treatment, and current recommendations for survivor surveillance and screening.

Cultivating Quality: A Nurse-Driven Oral Care Protocol to Reduce Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia

The authors describe a quality improvement initiative to implement an oral care protocol in the adult in-patient care areas of a level 1 trauma hospital and evaluate its impact on the incidence of hospital-acquired pneumonia.

Legionnaires’ Outbreak in New York City: Some Basics for Nurses

By Betsy Todd, MPH, RN, CIC, AJN clinical editor

In the largest U.S. outbreak of Legionella infection since 1976, when there were 221 cases and 34 related deaths in an outbreak at a Philadelphia American Legion convention, more than 113 cases of the disease have been diagnosed in New York City since mid-July. Twelve people have died.

Legionnaires’ disease is neither rare nor exotic; it is a type of community-acquired pneumonia (it can also be hospital acquired). Symptoms include fever, cough, and progressive respiratory distress. Legionella can also cause a milder, flulike illness known as Pontiac fever that generally resolves without treatment. Because many cases of Legionnaires’ disease are never actually diagnosed, mortality rates are difficult to determine, but the rate currently is estimated at 5% to 30%.

The CDC estimates that 8,000 to 18,000 people are hospitalized with Legionnaires’ disease each year in the U.S., yet only about 3,000 cases are diagnosed and reported. Most cases of Legionnaires’ disease are sporadic, unlinked to any outbreak. The infections often are not recognized as Legionnaires’ disease, for several reasons.