About Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor

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

The Little Humiliations of National Nurses Week

By Stephen Cummings, via Flickr.

“When is ‘Kid’s Day’?” That’s what I asked my mother on Mother’s Day one year, after she’d finished opening her gifts from the five of us. And—like many who’ve asked before—I was told, “Every day is Kid’s Day.” This led me to realize that people who have days or weeks dedicated to them must have it pretty bad the rest of the year. Professions with prestige and power don’t have a day or a week. So how can nurses be seen as equal professionals if we have Nurses Week? […]

2016-11-21T13:30:26-05:00May 6th, 2009|career, nursing perspective|6 Comments
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Pediatricians Protect Turf in Medical Homes in Bid to Deny Nurse Practitioners Role in Care Coordination

Photo by faeryboots, via Flickr.

The April issue of Pediatric News, the newspaper for pediatricians, has a front-page story on the official position of the American Academy of Pediatrics to oppose nurse practitioners (NPs) in independent practice. It doesn’t matter that in some areas of the country, the ONLY primary care provider may be an NP or a physician’s assistant (PA).

The National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) has issued a statement that points out their dismay regarding this position by their physician colleagues, noting that there is abundant evidence documenting that pediatric NPs have clinical outcomes that are comparable to those of pediatricians and asserting that NAPNAP will continue to focus on reforming health care to ensure access to care for the nation’s children.

The issue is who will control and be paid for care coordination through medical homes. Physician groups have been insistent that only practices led by a physician should qualify as “medical homes.” This means that an NP or PA in a rural area who has physician backup through telemedicine must pretend that the physician “leads” the practice—and the physician will get the fee for the care coordination even if that coordination is done solely by the NP or PA. Sounds like a good way to reduce access to care coordination, drive up costs, and put frontline practitioners out of practice. Whose interests are being served?

Diana J. Mason, AJN editor-in-chief

2016-11-21T13:31:08-05:00May 4th, 2009|career, health care policy, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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A Random Friday Sample of Feverish and Flu-Related Opinion

It’s been a busy week, with constant updates on the progress of the H1N1 infection (swine flu). Nothing sells a story like fear. How much of what we’re hearing is just media noise? Is the flu really changing most of our lives in any substantive way? Will it? Who’s afraid, and who’s not? Here’s a random sample of fact, speculation, and opinion we came across today.   

A rant: “All pigs are men: why we need to learn to manage infodemics, too…”

From the Wall Street Journal Health Blog, an interesting angle on numbers and severity: “Why Does the Flu Seem More Severe in Mexico: Here’s a Clue.”

Curtis Brainard of the Columbia Journalism Review writes that “blogs have called upon mainstream media to investigate the potential role of large factory farms in breeding and spreading the virus” in Mexico.

A cranky reality check from the nursing trenches: “What kind of country of dummies have we become when the PRESIDENT has to go on TV and tell us to WASH OUR HANDS and COVER OUR MOUTHS when we cough?”

Lastly, some sensible thinking on personal preparedness from Christine Gorman at Global Health Report.

-Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor, and Joy Jacobson, AJN managing editor

2016-11-21T13:31:22-05:00May 1st, 2009|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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“Try Not To, As Often As You Can”: The Word Curmudgeon Waxes Acrimonious on Acronyms

“Doyle Alphabet,” by fdecomite, via Flickr.

A word curmudgeon would have nothing against which to curmudge if writers stopped coming up with newer and stranger ways to say things.

Take the acronym (or initialism, which looks just like an acronym but doesn’t make a pronounceable “word”: HPV is an initialism; HIPAA is an acronym). Use too many acronyms in your article and the introductory paragraphs become de facto glossaries, which the reader will have to return to repeatedly in order to decipher the paper.

At AJN our rule on acronyms is try not to, as often as you can. (Put another way, that’s use as few as you can get away with.) […]

2016-11-21T13:31:29-05:00May 1st, 2009|Nursing|0 Comments
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AJN on Influenza Planning, circa 2007: “Striking a Balance Between Risk and Preparedness”

“Disaster planning based on events such as
floods or hurricanes, which are local or regional in scale,
may be inadequate for responding to a lethal influenza pandemic
that has the potential to overwhelm existing public
health infrastructures. However, if a mild strain of the virus
achieves pandemic proportions, the current public health system
may be able to manage the outbreak relatively easily.
Therefore, the challenge in pandemic influenza planning is to
find a balance between risk and preparedness. Planners and
policy makers must make realistic estimates of the consequences
of a pandemic and allocate limited resources wisely,
so that everyday health care and social needs aren’t shortchanged.
This article examines what we’ve learned from past
influenza pandemics and answers some frequently asked
questions about pandemics and how to prepare for them.”

Read the full AJN article here.

2009-05-15T11:55:48-04:00April 30th, 2009|Nursing|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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