About Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor

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

What’s New on the Nursing Blogs?

By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor/blog editor

Matthew Bowden/Wikimedia Commons

So what’s new on the nursing blogs. I’ve been checking around today, and here are a few good things I’ve found so far. Please let me know if there are any really new and lively nursing blogs we should add to our nursing blogs page. We need some new voices, and I’m sure they’re out there.

Burnout. At Nursing in Hawaii (this blog changes its name periodically to reflect the current location of its peripatetic owner), we find a pretty interesting and roundabout kind of post, “Nurse Burnout, Reality Shock, Marlene Kramer,” that addresses the stages of nurse burnout in a really useful and practical way (after discussing an early seminal book on the topic, what this has to do with the development of the Magnet program, and a few other items). Here’s an excerpt, but I’d suggest reading the whole thing for a look at this seemingly universal issue for nurses.

the honeymoon. This is where the new nurse is still being oriented and everything is wonderful. The preceptor is so smart! The staff is amazing! The paycheck is HUGE! we all love to be around such a person and delight in the innocence of youth.

crash and burn. the onset of this is hard to predict, but usually about the six-month mark. Takes place when the nurse starts getting feedback from every direction, not […]

2016-11-21T13:09:27-05:00August 22nd, 2012|nursing perspective|2 Comments
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A Slyly Witty Essay on an Apparently Aphasic Patient, Plus a Plug for Submissions

By Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor

I edit many types of articles, but one certainty each month is that I’ll be editing our Reflections essay. This month’s is by Kathryn Mason, MSN, RN, PCCN, formerly a clinical educator and now a QM/PI project manager at the same hospital. Called “A Man of Few Words,” the essay is about that patient who is hard to connect with because she or he can’t (or won’t) speak. The piece has a surprising ending. Here’s an excerpt from the opening paragraphs, but please click the title above and read the whole short essay.

The nursing care plan called for dressing changes to the foot four to five times per week. I made at least three of those visits each week and my routine with Willy became fairly rote. He sat in the same chair each time, with his foot propped on an ottoman; I was positioned in front of the foot, my back to his decrepit television. I would chatter away to compensate for his lack of dialogue, regaling him with stories of my children, the weather, or whatever other bits of news came to mind. Sometimes he would give me his rapt attention and at other times he would be more intent on the news or a game show. (To read more, click here.)

To submit an essay for consideration, please take two minutes to read the Reflections guidelines, a short Word file that describes what we are looking for and not looking […]

2016-11-21T13:09:29-05:00August 13th, 2012|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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One Instructor’s Updated Nightingale Pledge

Editor’s note: This post by Lorita Renfro, BSN, RN, proposes an updated version of the Nightingale Pledge. The author is a clinical nursing instructor in the ADN/VN programs at Kaplan College in San Diego and is currently working toward an MSN with an educational focus. Let Lorita know what you think. Would your version differ in any way?

Florence Nightingale in Crimean War, from Wikipedia Commons

As the science of nursing evolves, one aspect of nursing remains the same: the art. We see it when we are inspired to do the best for our patients, develop higher standards, and provide care from our hearts. This inspiration is the basis of all good nursing practice.

The science of nursing is seen in the interventions that provide comfort and protect our patients from harm. In the past, this protection often meant cleaning floors and carrying bed pans. My father believed until the day he died that what I did was to “help the doctors” heal the patients.

This may still be true at times, but the science of nursing is now also represented by innovation, intuition, strength, and the responsibility of being a team member who collaborates in […]

2016-11-21T13:09:36-05:00July 31st, 2012|career, nursing perspective|20 Comments
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Transitional Care: How the Affordable Care Act Would Have Helped My Father

By Susan B. Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior adviser for nursing at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This post is also being published at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Human Capital blog.

When I heard that the Supreme Court had upheld the Affordable Care Act, I immediately thought of my father. He suffered mightily at the end of his life. Plagued with multiple chronic illnesses, he spent his last year in and out of hospitals. He received good hospital care, but his health deteriorated every time he left the hospital.

He simply couldn’t keep track of a growing list of prescriptions, tests, and doctor visits. He accidentally skipped antibiotics, which led to infections, which landed him back in the hospital. He accidentally skipped blood tests, which landed him back in the hospital. It seemed that every time he came home, he’d land back in the hospital. I lived thousands of miles away and couldn’t be the advocate that he needed.

What he needed was transitional care—he needed a nurse to meet with him during a hospitalization to devise a plan for managing chronic illnesses and then follow him into his home setting. He needed a nurse to identify reasons for his instability, design a care plan that addressed them, and coordinate various care providers and services. He needed a nurse to check up on […]

2016-11-21T13:09:41-05:00July 12th, 2012|nursing perspective|10 Comments
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Web Stuff: Meds and Heat, Noise Epidemic, Nurses and Smartphones at Work

 

Flickr/National Archives and Records Administration

Medicines and summer heat. Anyone with one or more prescription medicines might occasionally wonder whether there’s a better place to store them than a kitchen cabinet. This is especially true for meds mailed to you in three-month supplies rather than the one-month supply we used to get.

Here’s a brief article at the NPR Shots blog that notes a few meds that you particularly should be concerned about, emphasizes that areas of extreme heat or humidity are the worst location (so-called “medicine cabinets” in humid and hot bathrooms are not so great, nor are cabinets over stoves, in direct sun, or the like). While most medicines can tolerate a certain amount of abuse, the ideal environment for most of them (except those that need refrigeration) is room temperature, which doesn’t mean Fahrenheit temperatures reaching into the 80s or 90s. I’ve sometimes wondered why someone doesn’t just invent a type of medicine storage container that can be locked if need be, limits humidity, etc. Steal my idea—please! Are there any strategies you find effective for safely storing medications?

Smartphones at work: OK, in case you didn’t know it, most nurses are using smartphones at work:

In 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that 72 percent of physicians use […]

2016-11-21T13:09:42-05:00July 11th, 2012|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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