About Corinne McSpedon, senior editor

AJN senior editor

What Nurses Need to Know About Cybersecurity and Patient Health

Ransomware attacks are well recognized as causing an increasing number of disruptions to health care services as well as steep economic losses, but their impact on patient health outcomes has been less easy to determine.

A suspected ransomware death.

A report published recently in the Wall Street Journal details the potentially fatal effects of cyberattacks. “A Hospital Hit by Hackers, a Baby in Distress: The Case of the First Alleged Ransomware Death” (subscription may be required) describes a lawsuit contending that a child born at an Alabama hospital in 2019 during an eight-day cyberattack subsequently died because the building’s disabled computer systems prevented staff from properly caring for the infant.

A Becker Hospital Review post last week further highlights the reported links between cyberattacks and patient outcomes. It describes the above lawsuit, as well as findings from studies by the Ponemon Institute and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, that suggest a link between such attacks and increased mortality rates.

Caption: Medical devices and applications connect to the Internet of Medical Things in a variety of ways, including via USB connectors, Wi-Fi, sensors, LTE wireless data connection, and other wireless technology such as Bluetooth. Reprinted with permission from Al-Turjman F, et al. Intelligence in the […]

2021-10-11T10:51:32-04:00October 11th, 2021|Nursing|0 Comments
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Pregnancy and COVID: What We Now Know

Meagan Garibay, RN, BSN, CIC, an infection preventionist at Comanche County Memorial Hospital in Lawton, Oklahoma, received the COVID vaccine in December 2020, when she was 35 weeks pregnant. Photo courtesy of WAVE 3 News.

Few aspects of pregnancy and birth have been unaffected by the COVID pandemic. In the past year, pregnant people and their health care providers have had to alter everything from the way they assess risk to the manner in which care is accessed.

Although little information about pregnancy and COVID was available early in the pandemic, emerging evidence is providing a clearer picture. As a result, in the past year recommendations have shifted—sometimes radically so—for both women and their health care providers. Based on the latest available research, this month in AJN Reports we cover what we now know about COVID and maternal health, including guidance about risk and vaccination.

Higher risks for pregnant people with COVID.

As the articles explains, research suggests pregnant people who have COVID are at higher risk of […]

2021-06-03T08:43:24-04:00June 3rd, 2021|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Public health|0 Comments
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A Year of Nursing, in Photos

During National Nurses Week, a reflection on nursing in the pandemic and plans to continue spotlighting the global contributions of nurses and midwives.

Photo courtesy of Jhpiego, by way of International Confederation of Midwives.

One photo shows a proning team at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago turning a patient. The photo that accompanies this post shows a midwife in head-to-toe personal protective equipment as she provides breastfeeding counseling to a woman wearing a mask and holding her newborn in a hospital bed in Kabul, Afghanistan. A third focuses on more than 150 white clogs—each pair representing a nurse’s life lost during the pandemic—placed on the lawn outside the U.S. Capitol.

Reflections on the essential care nurses provided this year.

These are just some of the images included in the May issue’s feature article, “A Look Back at the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.” This photo-essay highlights the diverse experiences of nurses and midwives globally in the last year and the variety of ways they responded to these circumstances.

The photos depict resilience—a group of nurses and physicians with their names and smiley faces drawn on […]

2021-05-07T11:05:47-04:00May 7th, 2021|Nursing|0 Comments
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Congress Adds a Nurse

U.S. Representative Cori Bush goes to Washington.

U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO). Photo courtesy of Cori Bush.

“It’s critical that nurses have a seat at the table when it comes to the policies coming out of Congress. Every single policy needs a nurse’s eye. We talk a lot about the social determinants of health, because it’s all connected . . . nurses see things in a different way.”

As described in this month’s Profiles column, U.S. Representative Cori Bush, RN, arrived in Washington, DC, in January, bringing with her a nurse’s eye and experience as an activist and pastor.

An election representing several firsts.

Her election marked several firsts: she is the first nurse and Black woman Missouri has sent to Congress, and she is also the first woman representative in her district in its almost 200-year history. Bush joins two other nurses in Congress, Representatives Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas and Lauren Underwood of Illinois. […]

2021-03-12T11:21:43-05:00March 12th, 2021|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing roles|0 Comments
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10 Years After Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, an Actionable Preparedness Reminder

The 10th anniversary of this disaster is a reminder to review the availability, accessibility, and dosing of potassium iodide.

In the midst of a global health pandemic, it’s difficult to imagine focusing on the seemingly more nebulous threat of a nuclear accident. Yet the 10th anniversary of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster on March 11, which occurred following an earthquake and tsunami, serves as an important reminder of the unexpectedness of these events and the need for greater preparedness, especially among health care providers.

Climate threats to nuclear plants raise concerns.

“More than one-third of Americans live or work within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant,” the authors of the February issue’s Environments and Health article, “Lessons from Fukushima: Potassium Iodide After a Nuclear Disaster,” point out (the article will be free until March 21).

As the frigid weather last month in Texas demonstrated, sources of power are particularly vulnerable to severe weather events. This threat is especially acute for U.S. nuclear power plants, many of which are situated in areas, such as along the East Coast, susceptible to extreme weather. Hurricanes in the Atlantic, for instance, have been occurring more frequently and intensely in recent years.

Concern that such climate change events could lead to a nuclear accident has heightened awareness of the need for preparation.

Ensuring potassium iodide availability as a public health preventive measure.

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2021-03-03T12:05:23-05:00March 3rd, 2021|climate change, environmental health, Nursing, Public health|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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