January Issue: Antineoplastic Drug Administration and PPE Use Among Nurses, Helping Students Be ‘Gritty,’ Much More

“Grit is an essential component of a great nurse. Hardy, tenacious, tough nurses are the result of experience and knowledge.”—Linda Koharchik, author of the January Teaching for Practice column

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

CE: Original Research: Antineoplastic Drug Administration by Pregnant and Nonpregnant Nurses: An Exploration of the Use of Protective Gloves and Gowns

Despite longstanding recommendations for the safe handling of hazardous drugs, it’s not known whether nurses—including those who are pregnant—wear protective gloves and gowns when administering chemotherapeutic drugs. This study examines this practice among nurses in the Nurses’ Health Study 3.

CE: Addressing Food Insecurity in Vulnerable Populations

The authors discuss the factors that contribute to food insecurity and the populations at greatest risk, as well as screening tools and resources for vulnerable patients.

Teaching for Practice: Helping Students to Be Gritty

Strategies for fostering grit—a trait marked by perseverance and resilience and associated with success—in nursing students.

Cultivating Quality: Early, Nurse-Directed Sepsis Care

This article describes a single-center, multiyear quality improvement initiative designed to promote early recognition and treatment of sepsis and examines its effect on sepsis-related mortality rates, bundle adherence, and the need for rapid response team calls.

Book of the Year […]

2019-01-02T09:30:30-05:00January 2nd, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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August Issue: Pain in Nonverbal Children, Sepsis Update, Particulate Matter Exposure, More

“I didn’t really know what to do . . . . This happened to other people’s families, not mine. I was supposed to be reading the monitors and titrating the drips. I was supposed to be taking care of the patient. I was supposed to be comforting the family. I was the nurse.” —Tonja Padgett, author of this month’s Reflections essay, “The Crazy Aunt or the Nurse“

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

CE: Original Research: Pain in Nonverbal Children with Medical Complexity: A Two-Year Retrospective Study

Children with medically complex conditions often experience pain, but in the absence of self-report, assessing pain can be challenging. The authors of this article sought to describe the signs and symptoms parents of such children find worrisome, the sources of pain in these children, and how to best assess their pain.

CE: A Review of the Revised Sepsis Care Bundles

An update on recent revisions to the sepsis care guidelines, including development of the new one-hour bundle, plus screening and assessment tools to identify sepsis in the ICU, in the ED, on the medical–surgical unit, and outside the hospital.

Environments and Health: Nursing Practice and Particulate Matter Exposure

Both indoor and outdoor particulate matter […]

2018-07-27T09:18:49-04:00July 27th, 2018|Nursing|0 Comments
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Staying Current with Sepsis Tools, Definitions, and Practices

© Alamy Stock Photo.

Whatever happened to SIRS? Why don’t we use the term “severe sepsis” anymore? And what’s a qSOFA score?

Changing knowledge, changing practices.

Since the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine launched the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) in 2002, there has been an ongoing search for best practices.

Education campaigns have focused on early diagnosis and aggressive treatment. Best practices continue to evolve rapidly. As our understanding of sepsis pathophysiology has increased, definitions have changed and “sepsis bundle” interventions have been updated. […]

2018-02-09T09:57:19-05:00February 9th, 2018|guidelines, Nursing|0 Comments
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February Issue: Updated Sepsis Guidelines, Chinese American Immigrants and Diabetes, Improving OR–ICU Handovers, More

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

CE: Original Research: Physical Activity Among Chinese American Immigrants with Prediabetes or Type 2 Diabetes

The benefits of exercise for patients with type 2 diabetes have been studied extensively, but not among Chinese American immigrants diagnosed with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. The authors of this mixed-methods study analyzed this population’s levels of exercise intensity, examining the types of activity performed, as well as the barriers to such activity.

CE: Managing Sepsis and Septic Shock: Current Guidelines and Definitions

This article discusses recent updates to the Surviving Sepsis Campaign’s sepsis treatment guidelines, changes in the sepsis bundle interventions, and the new definitions and predictive tools introduced in the Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock.

Moving Closer to the 2020 BSN-Prepared Workforce Goal

The authors report findings from the four-year Academic Progression in Nursing initiative to identify and develop the most promising strategies for creating a more highly educated nursing workforce.

Cultivating Quality: A Multidisciplinary QI Initiative to Improve OR–ICU Handovers

This QI study […]

2018-01-26T09:32:47-05:00January 26th, 2018|Nursing|0 Comments
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Sepsis Perfusion Assessment: A Matter of Seeing and Touching

A heightened level of care.

Sepsis is estimated to strike up to 3.1 million people in the United States each year, and in 2014 resulted in over 182,000 deaths. Patients who develop sepsis are subjected to an onslaught of procedures and interventions, from cardiac monitoring and transfer to the ICU to frequent blood sampling and insertion of central lines and urinary catheters. It is a frightening experience and requires attention to the patient’s experience and interventions to mitigate stress.

According to a clinical feature article in our October issue, “Assessing Patients During Septic Shock Resuscitation,” the revised six-hour bundle from the Surviving Sepsis Campaign includes a recommendation that, after initial fluid resuscitation, patients’ perfusion and volume status should be reassessed.

Noninvasive bedside indicators of perfusion and volume status.

click image to expand

This article focuses on measuring capillary refill time (CRT) and the skin mottling score (SMS; see figure at right) and details the evidence underlying the correct way to perform these assessments and how to incorporate findings into the overall plan of care.

One of the key advantages of these two measurements is that they are noninvasive and require no equipment—just the eyes and touch of an astute nurse—yet they are highly valuable in the overall […]

2017-10-27T10:05:47-04:00October 27th, 2017|Nursing|0 Comments
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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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