About Christine Moffa, PhD, APRN, PMHNP-BC

Christine Moffa, PhD, RN, is the senior clinical editor at the American Journal of Nursing (AJN).

Becoming an NP: The Growing Issue of Finding Clinical Placements

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While weighing the decision to become an NP, I thought about the time and money it would take to get into and through the program. I was very interested in the subject of psychiatry and thought it was a good fit for my personality and skill set. I found a program that worked for my schedule and budget and was able to complete the program. I’ve now been in practice for two years. What I didn’t have to worry about when I weighed the pros and cons of becoming an NP was where I would do my practicum or clinical rotations. That’s because the school I attended arranged those for me. However, many NP students are not as fortunate.

The growing difficulty of finding a placement.

Like many colleagues, I have been contacted by students on multiple occasions who are trying to arrange their own clinical placement. There are also numerous posts on message boards and social media from students pleading for someone to take them on at their clinical site. Students have reported having to sit out multiple semesters or not being able to graduate because their schools have left them with the responsibility of securing these arrangements on their own. Others report driving several hours to attend sites far from home or even moving temporarily to get to a practicum site.

One would expect that, when paying thousands of dollars in tuition, the school collecting this money would include the responsibility […]

2022-06-23T10:36:29-04:00June 23rd, 2022|Nursing|1 Comment
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Understanding Trauma-Informed Care in Nursing Practice

When I first started my nursing career, I worked on the pediatric inpatient unit. I remember feeling sad and upset when getting report on my patients who had experienced terrible trauma in their young lives. I wondered how they would make it to and through adulthood after having survived abuse, neglect, witnessing violence, or serious illness or injury.

That was over 20 years ago, and now many of these patients are showing up in the health care system carrying their pain and bad memories with them. They may be the adult we meet with a substance or alcohol use issue, chronic pain, or help-rejecting behaviors. They might be the patient whom colleagues have labeled “difficult.” Or they might be chronically late for appointments or fail to show up at all. Frequently, people with a history of trauma can be further traumatized by an interaction with an uncaring health care system and choose to avoid getting the care they need. They may be experiencing symptoms of PTSD along with their other reasons for seeking health care.

Practicing trauma-informed-care (TIC) can help address this problem. June is PTSD awareness month, and we’d like to highlight our April CE feature, “Trauma-Informed Care in Nursing Practice.” Authors Elizabeth Dowdell and Patricia Speck point […]

2022-06-15T14:09:56-04:00June 9th, 2022|Nursing, patient engagement, Patients|0 Comments
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Use of an App for Improved Documentation During a Code

A code or rapid response announced over the hospital PA system typically leads to a flurry of activity and a swarm of people responding to the patient’s needs. Many steps of the ACLS algorithm happen rapidly and concurrently, and can be difficult to track with accurate timestamps by the person assigned the role of scribe.

Clear and accurate documentation is critical for post-event analysis to demonstrate the team did everything according to standards and determine if things could have gone better. Many facilities use a code sheet kept on or near the crash cart and others use real-time charting in the EHR. Often the details are written on scrap paper and added to a document later. All of these methods are cumbersome and can lead to inaccurate data collection.

Using an app for documentation during code events.

This month’s Cultivating Quality article, “Improving Accuracy in Documenting Cardiopulmonary Arrest Events,” describes the use at one hospital (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston) of a handheld electronic device for code documentation that makes it simpler and more organized to capture this information.

The project took place on four medical–surgical pilot units, where nurses were trained in the use of a documentation app for live cardiopulmonary arrest events. The American Heart Association’s […]

2022-06-15T14:10:43-04:00April 21st, 2022|Nursing|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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