About Amanda Anderson, MPA, MSN, RN

Amanda Anderson is a PhD candidate and research project assistant at the State University of New York University at Buffalo School of Nursing and a fellow in Clinical Scholars, a national leadership program supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is also on the editorial board of AJN.

Some Notes on Miss Colorado’s ‘I’m Just a Nurse’ Speech

By Amanda Anderson, a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City currently doing a graduate placement at AJN.

I’m a sucker for beauty pageants. There’s something about the old-fashioned simplicity that fascinates me. While Miss America is, at its roots, a generous scholarship program, it’d be hard for me to say that I tune in for anything other than the sparkle and style.

With that said, I still love a Miss Congeniality angle, which this year’s Miss Colorado seemed to proffer in a much-praised speech. Similar to Sandra Bullock’s character, Gracie Lou Freebush, Kelley Johnson’s nurse-specific monologue was both engaging and educational. But her talent struck a little closer to home—she used the phrase “I’m just a nurse.”

Her two-minute speech won her a second-runner-up prize, as well as millions of hits online. But what did it get us nurses?

Sure, all PR for our profession is great, but the age-old, ubiquitous slur that served as the tagline for much of Ms. Johnson’s monologue makes a lot of us uneasy. Although Ms. Johnson very skillfully ended her monologue by refuting her initial proclamation, the public expression of it deserves a second look.

“Just a nurse” is not a new phrase to our profession; a brief scroll through Tumblr will do more than update the casual viewer. However, most of us steer away from association with the phrase; it discredits, it’s a conversation killer, and it has long been seen as a sarcastic way […]

2016-11-21T13:02:00-05:00September 15th, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|4 Comments
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Patient Satisfaction and Nursing: Listening Matters, Whatever the Situation

By Amanda Anderson, a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City currently doing a graduate placement at AJN. Her last post on nursing and patient satisfaction surveys is here.

by runran/Flickr Creative Commons by runran/Flickr Creative Commons

During this hospital stay, how often did nurses listen carefully to you?
1. Never
2. Sometimes
3. Usually
4. Always

Listening Carefully About Patients
“Her crit is dropping with each bowel movement, and she just won’t stop bleeding,” said my night shift colleague during the early moments of my shift.

As soon as she finished telling me the rest of my new patient’s care, I got on the phone for the ordered blood. Waiting for the first of many products to be delivered, I went to see her. As I poked around the hanging drips and fluids, checking dosages and orders, setting alarm limits, I heard my patient’s voice:

“Hello, hello? I’m so anxious. I just fell asleep for a moment and now I’ve woken up and I’m terrified. I think I need to be changed again, and I just don’t know what to do, and who are you?”

My colleague, busy with the details of resuscitation, hadn’t said much about my new patient’s anxiety. Anxiety, too often coded as neediness, is clinically important, especially in a patient with questionable stability, and doubly in a patient […]

2016-11-21T13:02:10-05:00August 7th, 2015|narratives, Nursing, nursing perspective, Patients|3 Comments
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Surveys Aside, One Crucial Precondition for Real Patient Satisfaction

callbellBy Amanda Anderson, a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City currently doing a graduate placement at AJN. 

During this hospital stay, after you pressed the call button, how often did you get help as soon as you wanted it?
1. Never
2. Sometimes
3. Usually
4. Always
5. I never pressed the call button

Everyone is talking about patient satisfaction these days. Purposeful rounding, responsiveness, and customer service are discussed in meetings, on blogs, and in conversations at work. An entire science has been created out of satisfaction, with whole journals devoted to patient experience and paid officers tracking scores and strategies. Since hospital reimbursement is linked to how happy patients are, we’ve suddenly gotten serious about satisfaction.

But behind the sterile questions on the HCAHPS survey, real stories about real people reside. I find myself often forgetting the flesh and blood that’s represented by each checked box, and am learning to realize that, while satisfaction is something to be striven for, dissatisfaction is something to be learned from.

In a series of posts, starting with this one, I’ll share stories of my own missteps—ones that may have caused my patients to answer never instead of always to questions about my care. The events described here helped me realize that, score or no score, responding to call bells actually matters at the human level:

Sarah […]

2016-11-21T13:02:20-05:00June 29th, 2015|Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|9 Comments
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Five Steps to Make Writing a Research Paper Less Daunting

By Amanda Anderson, a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City currently doing a graduate placement at AJN.

By DeclanTM, via Flickr. By DeclanTM/Flickr

It takes a certain kind of super strength to be a grad student in springtime. Some days, I’d rather sit on a bench and watch the daffodils sway in the breeze than search for citable references to back up assigned claims. But after three years of graduate study, I’ve found a method that eventually grounds me. A looming deadline helps me hunker down with all necessary objects—iPad, keyboard, headphones, dirty stares for chatty undergrads. Most of my time is spent searching, until I’m finally ready to write. Edits are fairly quick, and my adherence to APA (American Psychological Association) style comes naturally now.

My system for writing a research paper is not new or undocumented. Research papers span all disciplines, but with little structural variation—a research paper is simply that: a paper that discusses research. Once I am able to will myself to focus, my research papers can be written in five basic steps.

Write a Thesis
Writing a research paper (for a school assignment or a work evidence-based practice project) can be intimidating, but fear can be eased by starting with just one sentence. A thesis statement should […]

2016-11-21T13:02:29-05:00May 28th, 2015|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research|1 Comment
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Cochrane Reviews: An Oft-Overlooked Evidence Source for Nurses at the Bedside

By Amanda Anderson, a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City currently doing a graduate placement at AJN.

“Research holding the torch of knowledge” (1896) by Olin Levi Warner. Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C./Photo by Carol Highsmith, via Wikipedia

Long ago, in an ICU far away, I picked up the habit of saying, during rounds, “Well, you know, research suggests the practice…” I have trouble remembering who taught me this tactic, but it has always been a highly effective way of advocating for my patients.

The eyes of doctors, never ones to be silenced by a nurse who reads research, usually light up at the challenge.

I’ll admit that, for a while, many of my conversational citations came from ‘clinical pearls’ or tidbits I read from certifying organizations via social media. While my knowledge was based on credible sources, my analysis was topical, at best.

Then I started graduate school. Although my program isn’t a clinical one, the need to seek out evidence for class assignments intensified my practice of trying to apply research evidence at the bedside.

It’s tricky to find and discuss credible research as a bedside nurse. Services like Lexicomp and UpToDate, which most hospitals hold subscriptions to, compile […]

2016-11-21T13:02:38-05:00May 1st, 2015|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research|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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