About Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor

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

The Mindfulness Antidote to V-Day

By Christine Moffa, MS, RN, AJN clinical editor

by Foton28/via FlickrI can’t resist acknowledging that dreaded day that’s coming up this weekend. Whether you are a believer in Valentine’s Day or a skeptic who thinks it was created by greeting card companies and florists, you can’t escape it. There are commercials all over TV, signs in every drug store, and now a movie with it in the title (which I had planned on seeing, until I read some reviews). My personal feeling has been that it makes single people feel lonely and pathetic and people in relationships disappointed with the ones they have. Not to mention that it’s impossible to get a good meal at a decent restaurant. A friend of mine who’s a social worker told me she’s thankful it falls on a weekend so she will be spared dealing with back-to-back appointments of heartbroken clients. 

This is the perfect time to practice my latest self-help discovery: mindful self-compassion. Christopher K. Germer, author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion: Freeing Yourself from Destructive Thoughts and Emotions (pardon the shameless product plug; neither I nor AJN has been paid off in any way!), posted an exercise on his blog during the holidays this past December that I think is a good fit for getting through this weekend (if you or someone you know finds it difficult). He suggests:

If you feel lonely […], see if you can stop and name the experience (“I’m […]

2016-11-21T13:19:21-05:00February 12th, 2010|Nursing|4 Comments
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DSM-V Draft Ready for Public Comment–What’s It To Nurses?

As many of you know, a draft of the proposed DSM-5 is just out and it’s bound to stir plenty of comment and controversy. First, I’ve got to congratulate the DSM-5 crafters for making the draft public and for seeking public comment. That’s right: the APA wants to hear from members of the public, not just medical professionals. So let them know what you think.

Meanwhile, let me offer some preliminary comments:

1. Internet addiction isn’t included, which is fine by me and likely will save the APA much sniggering and criticism.

2. Bipolar disorder type 3 or subthreshold bipolar disorder is not included either and that is definitely a victory for critics like me who’ve long held that the softening of mood disorders–such as with bipolar disorder type 2–has led to millions of Americans being overdiagnosed and overmedicated.

Read more of this post at Furious Seasons, a thoughtful blog belonging to a health care journalist who has long suffered from mental illness (I can’t seem to link directly to the specific post, but at least for today it’s still at the top of the blog’s landing page).

We draw your attention to his observations because we’re interested in how nurses—perhaps especially psych nurses, but all nurses, or, for that matter, nurses who are patients—may be reacting to the release for public comment of a draft of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Your thoughts are always welcome here; we also hope to cover this in more detail in the journal […]

2016-11-21T13:19:23-05:00February 12th, 2010|Patients|0 Comments
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Weathering the Storm in PR

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief

As I’m writing this, I’m lucky enough to be in Puerto Rico, out of the record-setting snow storm that just hit the Northeast (and further south as well). But I’m still following the news of the storm and “real life” (sun and sand in February is so not real life) and trying to keep up with work e-mail a bit so it won’t overwhelm me when I get home (it will anyway).

Which brings me to my point: how difficult it is to shake off real life today and just relax. As I’m sitting here in the hotel lobby using the Internet connection, I see at least a dozen other people on laptops and another dozen or so on cell phones. As I look out the large windows to the palm trees and blue sky, I realize there is something definitely wrong with the picture—I’m not out there stocking up on Vitamin D. I’d better go—for health reasons, you understand.

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2016-11-21T13:19:25-05:00February 11th, 2010|Nursing|2 Comments
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Loud and Clear: A Nurse Discovers the Hazards of Learning Spanish By Audio

By Alice Facente, MSN, RN

I was determined to learn to speak Spanish. To deliver truly competent nursing care to my many Spanish-speaking patients, I felt compelled to gain a working knowledge of the Spanish language. I found a four-week course offered at the local community college, entitled “Spanish for the Medical Professional.” Perfect! I enrolled and eagerly went to the first class. My five classmates and I immediately started learning about the parts of the body, numbers, dates, how to ask and tell your address, and how to tell time. It was surprising how much we learned in that first three-hour class.

To reinforce what we had learned the professor instructed us to purchase a pocket medical Spanish guide, as well as the corresponding audio CD, which could be played at home or in the car. I wanted to get started quickly. On the way home from class I dutifully put the CD in my car tape player and repeated the Spanish translation after the English narration.

“Good morning: Buenos días.”

“I am the nurse: Soy la enfermera.”

So far, so good. At this rate, I began to think, I would be fluent in a short time. I listened to the CD every chance I got.

“Do you have a headache? Le duele a usted la cabeza?”

A few days later, I gave a gracious, elderly neighbor a ride home from the grocery store. As she slowly buckled herself in, I turned the key in the ignition. Immediately, the CD asked in loud, clear English, “Does […]

2016-11-21T13:19:30-05:00February 10th, 2010|Nursing|1 Comment
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Want to Achieve the ‘Greatest Good’? Listen to Your Patients

Ethical dilemmas abound in nursing practice. Consider these commonplace scenarios:

* An angry patient threatens to leave the hospital against medical advice. Should you hold him against his will?

* A cancer patient fears chemotherapy. Should you give less detailed information about the effects of anticancer drugs?

* An obese home care patient with pressure ulcers refuses to cooperate in turning. Should you turn her anyway?

Such conflicts between the patient’s wishes and the nurse’s perception of the patient’s best interests occur regularly. That doesn’t make these ethical dilemmas any easier to resolve, but how nurses approach them can significantly affect clinical outcomes. Taking the time to listen to patients—and to integrate relationship skills with principles of ethical practice—can help nurses achieve solutions that are both ethical and appropriate for individual patients.

ky olsen/via Flickr

That’s from the February issue of AJN, in which nurse–ethicist Doug Olsen (who has in the past written for this blog on ethical issues related to mandated H1N1 vaccinations for nurses) offers a thoughtful discussion that may resonate for all nurses who’ve ever faced a situation like those in the above examples. It may seem obvious or cliched to say that listening to patients can help solve apparently intractable problems—but just because listening as a skill is hard to measure doesn’t mean that it’s not sometimes effective where more rigid tactics would fail.

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2016-11-21T13:19:32-05:00February 9th, 2010|Ethics, Nursing, patient engagement|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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