About Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor

Senior editor, American Journal of Nursing; editor of AJN Off the Charts.

In AJN’s July Issue, a Guest Editorial by Angelina Jolie and Other Essential Reading

The July issue of AJN is now live.

Among the highlights is a guest editorial by Angelina Jolie, “Addressing Health Inequities in Survivors of Domestic Violence,” which explains the importance of bruise detection technologies for patients with varying skin tones. Referencing her daughter, who is from Ethiopia, she writes:

“Even as my family has access to high-quality medical care, simple diagnoses are missed because of race and continued prioritization of white skin in medicine.”

On this topic in the same issue, see the Nurse Innovators column, “Improving Bruise Detection in Patients with Dark Skin Tone.

A useful read about getting patients up and moving again after surgery is a CE feature article, “Overcoming Movement-Evoked Pain to Facilitate Postoperative Recovery.” which emphasizes a multifaceted approach that includes timely evaluation and comprehensive care planning.

Improving Medication Safety in the ICU” is about a nurse-led initiative to reduce medication errors by increasing adherence to safety protocols, including compliance with barcode scanning before medication administration.

A Viewpoint addresses a possible solution to the thorny problem of how a hospital and its nurses handle patient access to medical cannabis.

See also the extensive health care news sections, the […]

Recommended Reading from the June Issue of AJN

A virtual RN provides support for a bedside RN on an inpatient unit. The June issue of AJN is now live. Here are some articles in this issue that we’d like to highlight. Note that some may be free only to subscribers.

Initiating Virtual Nursing in General Inpatient Care

This article describes how one hospital developed a virtual RN role for experienced nurses to support bedside RNs and patients on designated general care inpatient units. The photo on our cover this month shows a bedside nurse presenting educational material to her patient, the importance of which a virtual RN looking on from the tablet will help explain and reinforce.

Original Research: Patient Perception of Fall Risk in the Acute Care Setting

This study reveals the disconnect between hospitalized patients’ fall risk assessment results and their own perceptions of their fall risk.

Original Research: The Impact of COVID-19 on Pain Care Among Older Adults

These study findings highlight the many challenges pain management nurses faced, as well as opportunities to improve the health system and enhance nursing practice.

Hospice Nurse Ethics and Institutional Policies Toward Medical Aid in Dying

This article reviews the ethics of requiring nurses to leave […]

Black Boxes in the Operating Room: Improving Quality of Care and Patient Safety

What’s covered in this post?

  • Black boxes record video, audio, and data from multiple sources in the operating room (OR), such as cameras, microphones, patient monitoring equipment, and medical devices.
  • By offering transparency on the multiple simultaneous processes in the OR, black box data can be used to improve safety and efficiency, train staff, and onboard new nurses.
  • The data can be used for retrospective analysis of specific events or aggregate analysis to detect patterns and variations in practice over time.
  • Black box data has been used to improve and standardize OR processes such as handling tissue samples, handoff communication during shift changes, and pre-surgical patient positioning.
  • The data is de-identified and is normally deleted within 30 days.
  • Finding what went right and learning from it is the goal, not pointing fingers.

Figures in the OR as recorded and de-identified by an OR Black Box. Image courtesy Surgical Safety Technologies.

Rebecca McKenzie, DNP, MBA, MSN, RN, assistant vice president of perioperative services at Duke University Hospital, recently spoke with AJN about her hospital’s use of black boxes in operating rooms (ORs) to standardize key processes to improve safety and efficiency, train […]

May Issue Highlights: Febrile Neutropenia, Pediatric Oncology Pain Management, Reducing CLABSIs

The May issue of AJN is now live. On this month’s cover is Day Off, digital art by medical student Brian R. Smith, who explains: “This work depicts an overworked, exhausted health care worker. On their day off they find peace and respite through a walk in the forest.” Here are some articles in this issue that we’d like to highlight. Note that some may be free only to subscribers.

CE: Febrile Neutropenia in the Chemotherapy Patient

The authors discuss the identification and management of neutropenic fever, including the rapid initiation of antibiotic treatment and ongoing symptom management.

Nurses’ Experiences with Racial, Ethnic, Cultural, and Religious Discrimination in the Workplace: A Qualitative Study

“Although the encounters themselves were fleeting, their impact was enduring. Early-career encounters were most challenging, and participants grappled internally with lasting effects for years.”

Wanted: More Nurses in Office

“At a time when health challenges loom large in policymaking circles, some nurses think more members of their profession should be playing a direct role.”

Best Practices in Pediatric Oncology Pain Management

“Poorly managed pain […]

The Nursing Shortage: Foreign-Educated Workers Aren’t a Long-Term Solution

CGFNS VisaScreen Applications by Country of Education, 2022. Reprinted from CGFNS International. CGFNS Nurse Migration Report 2022: Trends in Healthcare Migration to the United States.

“Rather than relying on importing foreign-educated nurses, high-income countries should aim to ensure an adequate domestic supply of new nurses as well as retention of those already in the workforce.”

Increased nurse migration as a stopgap in the United States.

Demand for nurses in the United States is expected to grow to 3.3 million within this decade. But without quick action to replenish the nursing workforce, analysts project a potential shortfall by 2025 of 10% to 20% or as many as 450,000 RNs. To close this gap, the United States would need to more than double the number of new graduates entering and staying in the nursing workforce every year for the next three years.

An immediate solution would be for the United States to authorize increased migration of qualified nurses from other countries. But faced with growing shortages of their own, countries that historically have exported nurses could impose restrictions, as the […]

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