“In the name of prevention, millions of Americans have accepted the idea that it’s reasonable to treat a risk factor such as bone loss or high cholesterol as if it were a disease,” writes Maryann Napoli, associate director of the Center for Medical Consumers, in her April AJN article, “Marketing Osteoporosis.” […]
The editorial staff of AJN includes both RNs and non-nurses. You can always tell who the RNs are by their reaction to photos of ugly wounds. The nurses love them and some of the non-nurses don’t even want to look at the photos. Case in point: the April CE article on leeches for wound healing. I think the photos are great. But many of the non-nurses find them disgusting. Are nurses simply sensitized to looking at ghastly images of wounds and abnormalities? Or do those who become nurses have a different sensibility? As a teenager, I used to love to babysit the children of a physician. After the kids were in bed, I’d comb through his medical library in search of the odd and gruesome images. I found them fascinating. I look forward to the New England Journal of Medicine each week and turn first to the Images in Clinical Medicine. A bit weird, I suppose. Or is it?
–Diana J. Mason, RN, AJN editor-in-chief emeritus
Anyone who knows me will tell you: I am not what you would call an optimist. And looking for the silver lining during times like this is hard for anybody. The recession has been stressful for many people. This kind of stress can lead to increased anxiety and depression as well as loss of sleep, increased smoking and drinking, and stress on personal relationships. Yet I can’t help but see some positive effects of the recession. […]
What kinds of poll questions would you like us to ask? Our first one (still active) was about nursing and the economy. Too boring? Too depressing? Too obvious? What kinds of questions matter to you? We’d like to know.
We won! To follow up on my last post: At a debate today at the Royal College of Nursing’s so-called “fringe session” at its annual International Nursing Research Conference, Elizabeth Anionwu, emeritus professor of nursing at Thames Valley University in Middlesex (near London), joined me in arguing in opposition to the statement, “research should be published in the highest impact journals available.” […]