About Amy M. Collins, managing editor

Managing editor, American Journal of Nursing

AJN’s January Issue: Perceptions of Employment-Based Discrimination Among FENs, Self-Management of Incontinence, Book of the Year Awards, More

AJNJANAJN’s January issue is now available on our Web site. Here’s a selection of what not to miss, including two continuing education (CE) articles, which you can access for free.

Experts say that nursing shortages could reappear as soon as 2015. Historically, foreign-educated nurses (FENs) have been essential in filling those spaces. This month’s original research article, “Perceptions of Employment-Based Discrimination Among Newly Arrived Foreign-Educated Nurses,” surveyed FENs to determine whether they perceived they were being treated equitably in the U.S. workplace.

Earn 2.5 CE credits by reading this article and taking the test that follows. If you’re reading AJN on your iPad, you can listen to a podcast interview with the author by clicking on the podcast icon on the first page. The podcast is also available on our Web site.

Incontinence can have many distressing physical and social outcomes, and many sufferers try to deal with the condition on their own. “Self-Management of Urinary and Fecal Incontinence” provides nurses with strategies that can be incorporated within the framework of self-management to control urinary, fecal, or dual incontinence. Earn 2.3 CE credits by reading this article and taking the test that follows.

Violence is a recognized public health problem in the Unites States, and the media’s focus on recent tragic stories has likely reinforced the common perception that mental illness causes violence. “Mental Health and Violence,” an article in our Mental Health Matters column, reviews the relevant research and describes how all […]

2016-11-21T13:05:44-05:00December 26th, 2013|career, nursing research|0 Comments
Read More

Happy Holidays!

AJNHolidayCard

Bookmark and Share

2016-11-21T13:05:47-05:00December 23rd, 2013|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

AJN’s December Issue: Working During a Pandemic, HIV Foot Care, Healing Pet Visits, a Focus on Narrative

AJN1213.Cover.OnlineAJN’s December issue is now available on our Web site, just in time for some holiday reading. Here’s a selection of what not to miss.

Working during a pandemic. Flu season is in swing, but how do nurses feel about working during a flu pandemic? Researchers investigating terrorism and catastrophic events found that up to 96% of health care workers reported being unable or unwilling to work during some emergencies, with some infectious diseases associated with the highest rates of unwillingness. “Predictors of Nurses’ Intentions to Work During the 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) Pandemic,” December’s original research CE, suggests that providing adequate resources during an emergency (such as personal protective equipment) will not only ensure the safety of patients, nurses, and nurses’ families, but may also increase nurses’ willingness to work in times of crisis. Earn 2.5 CE credits by reading this article and taking the test that follows. If you’re reading AJN on your iPad, you can listen to a podcast interview with the author by clicking on the podcast icon on the first page of the article. The podcast is also available on our Web site.

HIV foot care. Peripheral neuropathy, which causes debilitating symptoms such as burning pain and sensation loss in the foot, continues to be prevalent in people with HIV, but is often overlooked. “HIV Peripheral Neuropathy and Foot Care […]

2016-11-21T13:05:57-05:00November 27th, 2013|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
Read More

AJN’s November Issue: Voices of New RNs, Intraosseous Vascular Access, Measuring Dyspnea, Coccidiodomycosis, More

AJN1113 Cover OnlineAJN’s November issue is now available on our Web site. Here’s a selection of what not to miss.

New RNs. Hospitals invest in orientation or residency programs for newly licensed nurses, but turnover rates for first-year nurses remain relatively high. This month’s original research article, “Hearing the Voices of Newly Licensed RNs: The Transition to Practice,” looks at the orientation experience of new nurses in order to explore how institutions can best transition new nurses from an academic to a clinical setting. If you’re reading AJN on your iPad, you can listen to a podcast interview with the author by clicking on the podcast icon on the first page of the article. The podcast is also available on our Web site.

Starting an IV. Nurses are often faced with the challenge of starting an IV line in a patient who is dehydrated, has suffered trauma, or is in shock. This month’s Emergency CE feature, “Intraosseous Vascular Access for Alert Patients,” describes how nurses can use this fast, safe, and effective route for delivering fluids and medications when IV access fails. Earn 2.1 CE credits by reading this article and taking the test that follows. Don’t miss the video demonstration of the placement of an intraosseous  (IO) needle in the proximal tibia using an IO access power driver (click on the video icon on […]

2016-11-21T13:06:12-05:00October 25th, 2013|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
Read More

A Patient’s Take on Patient Satisfaction Surveys

PSS

By Amy M. Collins, editor

As an editor at AJN, I come across a lot of information on performance measures and Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) surveys. It’s a hot topic that we’ve covered several times, with some health care providers railing against these surveys and questioning whether satisfaction during a hospital stay is the same as quality care (see the September Editorial and the July 2012 Viewpoint for more on this).

Yet as usual, reading about a topic isn’t entirely the same as experiencing it. A few days after undergoing a small, non-emergency, in-office medical procedure, I was surprised to find a patient satisfaction survey in my e-mail inbox. Busy and flooded with many other e-mails, I was tempted to banish the survey to the trash can, especially since I didn’t feel I had much to say. But curiosity got the better of me.

The survey started off easily enough, as I clicked through questions such as “Was your waiting room time under 15 minutes?”; “Were the receptionists polite?”; “Was our facility clean?”

But as the survey crept forward, I began to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of questions. Many questions seemed redundant; for example, I answered about five related to waiting times. Are they trying to catch patients out on inconsistent answers? All the while a green bar at the top […]

2016-11-21T13:06:17-05:00October 14th, 2013|patient engagement|1 Comment
Read More

Comment ground rules

1. Please be respectful.
2. We moderate all comments.

Content disclaimer

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.
Go to Top