About Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor

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

It Bears Repeating: ‘A Smart Doctor Listens to the Nurses’

AprilReflectionsIllustraionBy Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor

The April Reflections essay in AJN—Reflections is a monthly one-page column we’ve run for many years inside the back cover—has an unambiguous title: “A Smart Doctor Listens to the Nurses.”

Written by a pediatrician whose mother was a nurse, it gives a vision of continuity in the health care profession rather than opposition, of mothers and daughters, and seems particularly relevant as debates continue about whether or not nurses should be allowed to practice to the full scope of their abilities and knowledge. Here’s the opening paragraph, but it’s free, and we hope you’ll read the entire short essay:

I was in the hall outside a patient’s room with a new crop of interns and residents. As usual, they had all made rounds first thing in the morning, checked on new lab results, examined their patients, and were now ready to report everything to me, the attending. And, as usual, these bright, eager residents, though anxious to do a good job, hadn’t thought to talk with the nurses taking care of their patients.

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2016-11-21T13:07:58-05:00April 1st, 2013|career, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Making It Safe: Skills to Promote Healthy Conversation at Work

Photo from otisarchives4, via Flickr. Photo from otisarchives4, via Flickr.

Medora McGinnis, RN, has written several previous posts for this blog. She is now a pediatric RN at St. Mary’s Hospital in the Bon Secours Health System, Richmond, Virginia, as well as a freelance writer.

What makes communication at work feel safe? We can all identify situations that “go south”—we feel instantly uncomfortable in the work environment (or anywhere, really) if we are accused, blamed, insulted, or overlooked. It’s easy to recognize when our communication is not safe, not going well, and not professional. So what makes it safe?

Effective communication can only take place when all parties feel safe; we must feel comfortable sharing our clinical insights without fear of the reaction we might get from the other party. While we can’t always know what their reaction will be, by learning to make it safe we can learn to talk with anyone about anything. New nurses in my hospital go through a six-month “RN residency” program in which we meet once a month for education, journaling exercises, and sharing. The book Crucial Conversations: Tips for Talking When Stakes Are High was used in our training to help us further develop our communication skills in the workplace. As a first-year nurse myself, I’ve found that some of the book’s ideas have played a big role in my learning curve.

Mistake #1: Watering down the content so the message doesn’t get across.

When […]

2016-11-21T13:08:00-05:00March 27th, 2013|career, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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A Chinese Dialysis Nurse’s Moving Story About Chronic Illness

Skip Navigation Links“I’m preparing for the university entrance exam,” he often told me. He was upbeat and grateful, despite the disease. I admired him for his strength and spirit and felt terrible that he’d been diagnosed so young.

CaptureThe March Reflections, “Skipped Two Times,” submitted to AJN by a dialysis nurse from China, is about a potentially avoidable crisis in the health of a young man with renal failure secondary to lupus. It’s about chronic illness, patient self-management, and a nurse’s remorse.

To my knowledge this is the first Reflections essay by a Chinese nurse that we’ve published. We’ve already heard from more than one reader who was moved by the story. It’s free, so give it a look.—JM, senior editor

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2016-11-21T13:08:11-05:00March 7th, 2013|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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‘To Profess’ – A Poem on the Passing of Donna Diers, PhD, RN, FAAN

Diers_DonnaDonna Diers, 1938–2013

I’ve seen several notices about the February 23rd death of this true “living legend” of nursing. The terms used to describe her or her contributions to nursing include “champion of nursing research,” “advocate,” “captivating storyteller,” “caring mentor,” and “inspirational figurehead.” I’d add unpretentious, wise, warm, and witty. I can’t say I was a friend—our dealings were because she was on AJN’s editorial board and its journal oversight committee. But I felt her warmth and support and appreciated her encouragement and suggestions, always given in a straight-talking, to-the-point fashion. I’ve saved one particularly encouraging e-mail she sent—she always had the right words.

There will undoubtedly be many tributes to Donna—and deservedly so. We will have one in our April issue, which is already at the printer. And here’s a tribute from the Yale School of Nursing, where she was the former dean and still teaching until just before her death; it lists her many accomplishments.

The following poem by Jeanne LeVasseur, a nursing professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, will appear in our May issue, but we were so taken with it that we want to share it with you now.—Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief


To Profess
By Jeanne LeVasseur, PhD, MFA, APRN, RN

—In memoriam, Donna Diers

On the day she died, most of us didn’t yet know,
like Icarus falling from his century
the wax wings disappearing in the green water,
just Daedalus weeping, it took time for that great circle to ripple out.
And […]

2016-11-21T13:08:11-05:00March 4th, 2013|career, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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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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