About Betsy Todd, MPH, RN

Former clinical editor, American Journal of Nursing (AJN), and nurse epidemiologist

‘Guided by Why’: Notes from the 2017 AACN Conference

Clareen Wiencek, left, and Christine Schulman

AJN‘s clinical editor Betsy Todd recently had a chance to speak with outgoing AACN president Clareen Wiencek and president-elect Christine Schulman about their plans and accomplishments. This post includes her podcast conversation with the two critical care nurse leaders, as well as a summary of highlights from the annual conference. For other updates from recent nursing and heath care conferences, visit our On the Road page.

As always, this year’s National Training Institute and Critical Care Exposition (“NTI”), the annual meeting of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), offered hundreds of educational sessions along with thought-provoking “supersession” addresses. Five “visionary leaders” were honored on the opening day: […]

2017-06-07T12:21:23-04:00June 7th, 2017|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

AJN Facebook Readers on Influences, Public Attitudes to Nursing, Practices of Yesterday

We loved readers’ contributions to AJN’s celebration of Nurses Week.  For those who missed our Nurses Week Questions of the Day on Facebook, here are some highlighted responses to some of the questions:

What nurse has most influenced your nursing career?

There were many shout-outs to mentors by name, lauded for their grace, commitment, integrity, vast knowledge, and patience, or described as nurses who “role-modeled intelligence, compassion, and professionalism.”

Moms, grandmothers, and wives were often mentioned, as were instructors in both RN and LPN schools, and charge nurses. One nurse described being mentored by a paramedic, who “showed me how to remain caring in a system that so many times does not have time for the small things.” Another cited “every nurse I’ve ever worked beside” as a mentor, because other nurses model both the best and worst of nursing practice.

What do you think the general public doesn’t understand about nurses and nursing?

The number one frustration expressed in these answers was that we are often thought of as caring but not intelligent—that “we don’t know what to do until a doctor tells us.” But as one nurse succinctly put it, “We know what’s going on with you before you or the […]

2017-05-31T15:49:58-04:00May 31st, 2017|Nursing, nursing perspective|2 Comments
Read More

‘Blind Spot’: Reflections on Caring for a Severely Disabled Son

 “When I think of the term disability, a huge basket of a term, I think of the duration and breadth of my son’s life.”

The author and Luke

Much is being written these days in both the nursing and general press about the plight of family caregivers. As one myself, I’m well acquainted with the difficulties of maintaining a “normal” life (and meeting other responsibilities) while trying to ensure the safety and survival of a person you love. But what if your caregiving commitment begins at someone’s birth and lasts a lifetime?

In this month’s AJN, nurse Diane Stonecipher writes with grace and clarity about the challenges of lifelong caregiving at home. Even for an RN with committed and loving co-caregivers (her husband, her other sons), the work and worries are daunting.

“If Luke is our job, so to speak, there are also no sick days, holidays, vacation days, or ‘mental health days.’ We have cared for him while ill and injured, or until we simply cannot. By some miraculous grace, we have tag-teamed his entire life.”

The days, weeks, months, and years of those who care for severely disabled family members are probably difficult for others to appreciate, if you are one of those who care you […]

2017-07-11T12:16:22-04:00April 7th, 2017|Nursing, nursing stories|0 Comments
Read More

Nurses Try Out Plant-Based Diet, Report Health Benefits

            If you don’t take care of your body, where will you live?

Photo from Shutterstock.

This adage, sometimes attributed to Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, reminds us that the personal choices we make are important. Drugs and procedures are unlikely to ensure continuing good health, especially if we don’t first attend to the basics. And when it comes to personal choices, nothing is quite as personal as food.

Maybe this is why some nurses and physicians are so quick to dismiss decades of promising research on the effects of meatless diets. “People will never change the way they eat; it’s not worth talking about.” But as Michael Greger, a general practitioner specializing in nutrition and an advocate for plant-based diets, once said in a lecture I attended, “That attitude may be one of the true leading causes of death and disability.”

In “A Plant-Based Nutrition Program” in this month’s AJN, Joanne Evans and colleagues describe the results of a “personal experiment” in which nurses at three faculty-led community health clinics associated with George Mason University followed a plant-based diet for three weeks. Their goals were to

2017-12-19T10:03:39-05:00March 22nd, 2017|Nursing, nursing research|11 Comments
Read More

Worked at Home During the Blizzard? Not Nurses

Photo: MTA New York City Transit / Marc A. Hermann/via Wikimedia Commons

We’ve come through another blizzard here in New York. Many people worked from home that day (we did, at AJN, since the office was closed), or enjoyed the luxury of spending the day safe at home with family. But most nurses had to find a way to get to work.

Long Slog to the Bronx

Many years ago, I worked the evening shift at a hospital for the terminally ill. I was assigned to work on the day of a blizzard. I love my work and had no one to worry about at home, so I was determined to get to the hospital. I usually took a bus across the Bronx to work, but the buses weren’t running. My only option was to take the subway […]

2017-03-20T09:40:52-04:00March 17th, 2017|Nursing, nursing stories|3 Comments
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