COVID-19: It’s Not Only About Hospital-Based Nurses

‘We all just went charging towards this monster…’

We’ve all seen the photos of nurses in PPE providing care to patients who are obviously very ill with COVID-19. These nurses have justifiably received recognition and accolades for their commitment to duty under the most challenging circumstances and often at great personal risk.

I recently spoke with Megan Brunson, the president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), who is also a supervisor in the cardiovascular ICU at Medical City Dallas Hospital.

Brunson described her own experiences, but also what she was hearing from her colleagues as they all “just went charging towards this monster called COVID.” She also talked about how the organization was rapidly developing resources, not only for clinical care but to help nurses deal with emotional stress. One initiative is partnering with DearWorld.org to create a collection of portraits and stories from nurses caring for patients with COVID-19.

Disrupting work in many settings.

But it behooves us to realize that this pandemic has not caused stress and critical challenges just for acute care nurses; nurses in many settings have been challenged and have had their work disrupted.

In the last two weeks, I spoke with nurses and nursing leaders of several organizations to learn about how the coronavirus pandemic has changed their work. […]

2020-05-15T17:09:36-04:00May 15th, 2020|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing roles|0 Comments
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NPs ‘Move Mountains’

Rear Admiral Susan Orsega, chief nurse officer of U.S. Public Health Service

Last week I attended the annual conference of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) in Denver. Yes, I was there for the record attendance (over 5,000) and the record heat wave (104 degrees). As with most large nursing conferences, there were numerous concurrent sessions—but here, many of them were like skills labs, including things not part of most RNs’ skill set, like performing a thoracentesis.

What was also different from other meetings was that the legislative and policy sessions, which were of high interest to me in order to find out how NPs are doing with scope of practice authority, were closed to media. No one could say exactly why.

Audio interview with U.S Public Health Service CNO Susan Orsega.

I did get a chance to speak with the keynote speaker, Rear Admiral (RADM) Susan Orsega, MSN, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, chief nurse officer and assistant surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service. She focused on the critical role of NPs in addressing health inequities. She urged NPs to become active advocates to improve health, and, mindful of our Colorado setting, she charged them to “Go, move mountains.” You […]

2018-07-06T08:27:26-04:00July 6th, 2018|Conference reports, Nursing, nursing perspective, Public health|0 Comments
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Critical Care Nurses: Heading Home to ‘Focus the Flame’

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

AACN president-elect Teri Lynn Kiss AACN president-elect Teri Lynn Kiss

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) National Teaching Institute ended last Thursday, just in time to get folks home for Memorial Day weekend. Last week, my post was about the opening session and awards. Here are some more highlights from the rest of the week:

Concurrent sessions were plentiful—too many to choose from. My top two favorites were one on transfusing blood and blood products and another on managing pain, agitation, and delirium. New this year were sessions related to health care financing, a nod to the fact that all nurses need to be cognizant of the cost of care. My other “must attends” were the poster sessions—these are largely by up-and-coming researchers and teams doing innovative projects. current AACN president Vicki Good current AACN president Vicki Good

Handling conflicts with colleagues. A “super session” by Christine Cashen, a professional speaker, had everyone on their feet in a standing ovation. Extremely funny and with a clear message about handling conflict with colleagues (a very big issue in nursing, as we know), Cashen was a […]

2016-11-21T13:04:42-05:00May 27th, 2014|career|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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