About Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor

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

They’re Not Taking Away Our Puppies (And God Help Them If They Do)

By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor/blog editor

I am amazed at the amount of time being wasted on the relatively mundane matter of health care exchanges. It seems we are now facing a government shutdown; there are creepy and misleading advertisements funded by conservative billionaires like the Koch brothers in order to scare people from signing up for insurance; some red states have actually enacted laws forbidding the health care navigators from helping people understand the new system and sign up for it, and many of these states have refused to create their own exchanges to help their citizens comply with the new law.

The ACA is a law. You can’t just ignore it if it doesn’t meet your personal preferences or political ideas. Given the heated rhetoric the Republicans are trotting out about it, you’d think the government was trying to take away our puppies, instead of implementing ideas originally floated by Republicans themselves to make life a bit easier for millions of Americans whose life decisions are unduly ruled by crazy health care billing practices, byzantine insurance regulations, discrimination against those who have chronic conditions, insanely varying pricing for simple tests, and the like. […]

2016-11-21T13:06:26-05:00September 30th, 2013|health care policy, Patients|9 Comments
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A Breath of Fresh Air, Relatively Speaking

By Tara Duffy, RN. Tara is an RN at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY, where she works in the Wilmont Cancer Center. 

I hear it, taste it, smell the construction to my left as I walk into the hospital. It is a sight for sore eyes—as in causing them, not soothing them—so I try to pay it little attention.

Her smile catches my attention. I have not seen it in weeks.

“I hear you got outside today?” I ask.

by utahwildflowers/via Flickr by utahwildflowers/via Flickr

The smile widens as I write my name on the whiteboard. She is a vibrant woman, full of life yet dying to be home.

“I did . . . it was greeeeaat,” she sighs.

I instantly envision the hospital surroundings—smokers circle at one exit, construction on the opposite.

“Where did you get to go?” I ask, hoping to learn of some hidden gems beyond these doors.

“Right out front,” she responds, matter-of-factly.

The construction site, I think to myself, instantly dismayed.

“It was sooo great.” Her smile surfaces again.

I suddenly realize she is speaking in relative terms.

“Just that fresh air,” she pauses as I envision the filth and ruckus, “was soooo nice.” She exhales deeply.

My smile widens with hers. I am instantly humbled. I manage an “I bet.” […]

2016-11-21T13:06:31-05:00September 20th, 2013|nursing perspective, Patients|0 Comments
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Chemical Attack Response, Posts for Nursing Students, Ethical Agonies, Blog Carnivals, More

By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor

You’re working in the ED of a 300-bed metropolitan hospital one Sunday morning when you receive a radio transmission from a paramedic whose ambulance is en route with a casualty of a suspected nerve gas attack. The paramedic reports that two additional ambulances are also on the way. Nerve gas? You’re stunned. What should you do first?

quinn.anya/via flickr creative common quinn.anya/via flickr creative commons

That’s the start of our 2002 article (free for a month, until October 5) about chemical attacks and their aftermath. Such an event is not an impossibility here in the U.S. Remember the 1995 attacks in Japan, in which sarin gas was released at several points on the Tokyo subways by members of a radical cult, killing 12 and injuring thousands? And there is now convincing evidence (not to mention horrific photos of the many children killed) that the Syrian government used nerve gas on its own people last week despite widespread prohibitions against its use. In fact, USA Today reported that a number of the nurses and physicians who treated the victims of the gas attack may have subsequently died themselves from exposure to the patients’ clothing and skin.

Our 2002 article describes how nerve gas works on the body, the main […]

2016-11-21T13:06:39-05:00September 6th, 2013|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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The End of a Blogging Era?

By Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor

EmerblogScreenshotFrom August 2005 until August 2013, Kim McCallister ran a blog called Emergiblog, one of the first nursing blogs to gain a certain prominence among nurses on the Web. She told it like it was in her corner of the nursing world, and you didn’t have to always agree with her opinions to embrace her honesty and directness.

If I recall correctly, Emergiblog was one of the three exemplary nursing blogs mentioned in a lunchtime presentation given at our office by health care journalist and social media wizard Scott Hensley. (Hensley is now the writer and editor of the National Public Radio health care blog, Shots.) His excellent presentation, itself given I believe in the form of a newly created blog, gave me just enough know-how to be able to create and launch this blog from scratch on WordPress. […]

2016-11-21T13:06:44-05:00August 23rd, 2013|healthcare social media, nursing perspective|4 Comments
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‘Incompatible With Life’

Shirley Phillips has a doctorate in physical therapy and currently works for a federally funded research and development program studying human performance in aviation. She was an airline pilot prior to her daughter’s birth.

AshleyAndShirley Ashley and Shirley

The pediatrician was working with a medical student when Ashley had another of her 105 degree fevers. The remnants of a birthmark on her forehead glowed crimson beneath the fringe of bangs I used to conceal it. It always seemed like a warning sign designed just for me, her mother.

I sat quietly while the pediatrician asked for permission to share some information about Ashley’s rare genetic condition with the medical student. Given her intellectual disabilities at the age of two, she was probably not going to understand a word he said, but I instinctively reached to cover her ears.

This resulted in the pediatrician saying, “See how her ear canals are curvy? And her ears are set low on her head? Notice her wide nasal bridge, and her barrel-shaped chest. I am certain when Ashley was born they knew right away that genetic testing was needed. Three or more abnormalities, like the club foot, the wide nasal bridge, the . . . ”

“Wait just a minute,” I said, hardly recognizing my own voice as I stammered out my dismay, interrupting the sage and […]

2016-11-21T13:06:46-05:00August 12th, 2013|nursing perspective|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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