About Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor

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

Notes from the Web

Here are a few items of interest on today’s Web as these huge wet snowflakes actually start to accumulate on rooftops here in NYC and the horizon (New Jersey, that is, across the thin wedge of the Hudson River you can see from AJN offices) closes steadily in:

Kim at Emergiblog has a nice post dealing with changing her mind about whether or not she wanted to get a BSN.

And this post by Anne Dabrow Woods at In the Round (excerpted below) got our attention for its honesty about the difference between treating a condition in the hospital and treating it at home in a family member—and also because it put a human face on an article we ran in our February issue about ostomy complications and management.

My oldest daughter was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis when she was 7 years old and despite aggressive treatment for her disease; she required a total colectomy, temporary ileostomy, and an ileo-anal anastamosis when she was 12. As a nurse I thought I was equipped to care for her ileostomy; was I ever wrong. I had experience taking care of hospitalized patients with ostomies, but I quickly learned caring for someone who is active is a totally different story.

In his most recent post, Anonymous Doc is as usual thoughtful and honest (except for that anonymity thing, of course . . . which does, whatever its drawbacks, kind of free him up as a writer). He moves from […]

2016-11-21T13:19:09-05:00February 25th, 2010|health care policy, nursing perspective, students|0 Comments
Read More

The Job Description Doesn’t Say You Get to Choose Your Patients

He was a pedophile, just released from jail after 20 years. His diabetes required two different types of insulin. He had acute renal failure and a recent ileostomy.

“They didn’t know what to do with him,” the previous nurse said, “so they dumped him on our doorstep.”

The Reflections essay in the March issue of AJN tells one nurse’s story of holding fast to her responsibility to provide compassionate and quality care to all patients, whatever they may have done in the past, whoever they might be. We hope you’ll click the link above, read it, and let us know your thoughts (the best version to read is reached by clicking through to the PDF version).

Bookmark and Share

2016-11-21T13:19:11-05:00February 24th, 2010|career|8 Comments
Read More

Revamping CE

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN interim editor-in-chief

I finally got to the bottom of my inbox. There I found a transcript of a Webcast I had listened to back in December. I had forgotten about it and am amazed that there wasn’t more buzz around it because there’s a call for a drastic overhaul of continuing education for health professionals.

 

On December 4, the Institute of Medicine released a report, Redesigning CE in the Health Professions, which is the result of consensus recommendations by (what else?) a group of experts.

The experts were harsh in their criticisms, claiming that there are “major flaws in the way CE is conducted, financed, regulated and evaluated.” They also noted conflicts of interest and varying regulations from state to state, and pointed out that the scientific basis of CE is underdeveloped and lacks an interdisciplinary format.

You can read the full report online—but briefly, it calls for a federal “blue ribbon panel” to develop an interprofessional, independent Continuing Professional Development Institute to provide oversight to ensure reforms, new processes and accountability. 

Changes are coming . . . and it’s about time.

Bookmark and Share

2016-11-21T13:19:12-05:00February 22nd, 2010|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

Color Me Wrong – Medication Errors and Color Coding

By Peggy McDaniel, BSN, RN

There has been a recent push by some manufacturers to promote color coding for product identification. Of course, even with the best intentions, these color-coded products have not reduced the incidence of medical errors and may actually promote errors.

The February Nurse Advise newsletter from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) (click here to subscribe to the newsletter) reports a medication error in which a nurse injected oral medication from an oral syringe into a Bard PowerPICC (percutaneously inserted central catheter). The PICC line is manufactured in a purple color and may have been confused with an enteral feeding system from Covidien, which is the same shade of purple. Even though the nurse was using an oral syringe, she was able to hold it up tightly enough to the open female luer of the PICC tubing to inject the oral medication intravenously. This error highlights both a “misconnection” and a color-coding confusion.

[…]

2016-11-21T13:19:14-05:00February 19th, 2010|Nursing|1 Comment
Read More

Nurses Under Fire: Cleared in Texas, Embattled in California

By Shawn Kennedy, interim editor-in-chief

By now you’ve probably heard that last Thursday Anne Mitchell, the Texas nurse who found herself fired from her job and on trial after reporting a physician for what she felt was poor medical practice (see our report in the October 2009 issue) was found not guilty (her colleague, Vicki Galle, had her case dismissed prior to trial). It only took the jury about an hour to exonerate Mitchell of criminal charges and uphold her right to advocate for patients. (Day-by-day reports from the trial were made available on the Texas Nurses Association  (TNA) Web site.)

The case garnered national attention—at its core was a nurse’s right (duty, really) to safeguard patients in her or his care. It seemed a no-brainer, and almost incredible that the case even came to trial. Last Friday, I spoke with TNA president Susan Sportsman, PhD, RN, who agreed, saying she was surprised the case went forward, especially after the state medical board agreed that what the nurses did was appropriate. Sportsman said, “This is the role of nurses—it’s required that we report what we see to safeguard patients. This nurse was just doing her job, what she was supposed to do.”

Like nurses everywhere, Sportsman was “delighted and ecstatic” about the verdict. Sportsman noted a guilty verdict would have discouraged nurses and others from coming forward about poor care out of fear of losing their jobs and facing prosecution.  Perhaps […]

2016-11-21T13:19:19-05:00February 16th, 2010|Nursing|3 Comments
Read More

Comment ground rules

1. Please be respectful.
2. We moderate all comments.

Content disclaimer

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.
Go to Top