October 2010 - Page 3 of 3

Taking Charge Seriously

By Christine Moffa, MS, RN clinical editor

Most hospitals have charge nurses, although how they’re selected and what they do varies not only between hospitals but often between units in the same hospital. For instance, the first time I was in the role of charge nurse it was because none of the usual suspects were working that day! And my manager’s parting words were, “Looks like you’re getting baptized with fire. Good luck.” Thanks to the work of a quality improvement team, the nurses at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City won’t have to go through what I did.

This month’s Cultivating Quality column, An Evidence-Based Approach to Taking Charge, “describes the planning, implementation, and evaluation of a charge nurse initiative in a large academic medical center.” After reviewing the literature and identifying issues through the use of focus groups, members signed up for different quality improvement teams to develop solutions and action plans.

The following are some of the changes implemented by the teams:

The development of charge nurse core competencies and a definition of the role to be used hospital wide.
A standardized hand-off report to be used between charge nurses going off and on shift.
An orientation workshop using interactive case scenarios.

See the full article for a list of the charge nurse core competencies as well as an example of a case study used during the interactive workshop. Here’s a breakdown of the charge nurse role and its responsibilities:

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:15:27-05:00October 6th, 2010|career, nursing perspective, nursing research|3 Comments

Startling Findings about Men’s Awareness of Male Breast Cancer . . .

… and a look at the benefits of dragon boat racing for breast cancer survivors of either sex.

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Although breast cancer is far less common in men than in women, being a man doesn’t make one immune to the disease. Yet misconceptions about male breast cancer abound. In this month’s CE feature, Men’s Awareness and Knowledge of Male Breast Cancer, nurse researcher Eileen Thomas reports on a qualitative study of 28 men at higher risk (all had at least one maternal relative who had been diagnosed with breast cancer). The goals were twofold: to learn more about men’s understanding and perceptions of this life-threatening illness, and to elicit information that might guide clinical practice and the development of sex-specific educational interventions.

The study findings are rather startling. Nearly 80% of the participants had no idea that men could develop breast cancer. Fully 100% of the participants reported that none of their primary care providers had discussed the disease with them. Asked how they thought male breast cancer was detected, most participants could name only one symptom (“a lump”); one said, “They find it on the autopsy table.” And 43% reported that being diagnosed with breast cancer might cause them to question their masculinity. One participant stated, “I would feel like my manhood was taken away.” […]

Guest Author2016-11-21T13:15:28-05:00October 5th, 2010|nursing perspective, nursing research, patient engagement|0 Comments

Entering the Mainstream? Nursing Research at 25 Years

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief

Last Thursday the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) held its kick-off event to celebrate its 25^th anniversary—and what could be more appropriate than holding a research symposium at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)? Scientists and researchers (nurses as well as others) whose work is supported by the NINR presented highlights of their research. (See here for synopses.)

Why it matters to all nurses. All nurses, researchers or not, should celebrate the growth and accomplishments of the NINR—its establishment provided tangible recognition of the value of the substantial body of research conducted by and/or about the nursing profession. As practitioners, where would we be without research to provide the evidence underlying care interventions or the processes of delivering that care? With the October issue, AJN highlights the NINR’s silver anniversary: on the cover, with a guest editorial by NINR director Patricia Grady, and with a timeline highlighting key milestones and landmark research supported by the NINR (click through to the PDF version to read this article). To give you an idea why nursing research matters, here’s just one entry on the timeline, from 1998:

Nancy Bergstrom, PhD, RN, FAAN, in a multisite study, tests the Braden Scale for Predicting Pressure Sore Risk and finds its predictive capability accurate. The scale is now widely used in nursing homes […]

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Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:15:29-05:00October 4th, 2010|career, nursing perspective, nursing research|1 Comment

Questions of Priority, Written in Vernix and Blood: Two Poems in ‘Art of Nursing’

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Jenna Kay Rindo’s poem “An Ode to My Certified Nurse Midwife” (Art of Nursing, August) brims with the narrator’s gratitude for the clinician who has seen her through a “gloomy complicated gestation” with great skill and compassion. (Art of Nursing poems are always free online—just click through to the PDF files.)

This is no sentimental paean, though. This ode is a gritty read, full of vernix and “unrehearsed pain,” euphoria and shame. The child, we learn, was “conceived completely out of wedlock, / in a rush of holy illicit love.” The narrator at first only wants to know how long she can hide the pregnancy. It’s the nurse midwife whose “jubilant congratulations” never seem to waver, whose “size seven hands covered in / sterile latex” draw the infant’s wide shoulders into the world, and give the young mother courage. It’s an ode, perhaps, to something we strive for but rarely attain: a nonjudgmental attitude.

“It is lucky to live outside the target groups,” begins the narrator of Erika Dreifus’s poem “The Autumn of H1N1” (Art of Nursing, October). She is referring to those considered most at risk for the flu and thus at the top of the list for immunization.

But when she finds herself hemorrhaging and frightened, waiting to be seen by a gynecologist who minimizes her distress, she reveals far more complicated feelings about “the prioritized.” It’s an unusually frank […]

Guest Author2016-11-21T13:15:31-05:00October 1st, 2010|patient engagement|1 Comment