About Corinne McSpedon, senior editor

AJN senior editor

The Health Impacts of Hurricane Harvey—What Nurses Need to Know

Geocolor imagery of Hurricane Harvey on verge of making landfall. Image created by the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere.

As Hurricane Harvey, now a tropical storm, continues to affect a large area of southern Texas and other parts of the South, the full impact on human health has yet to be determined. But it’s clear the flooding has caused a historical crisis in Houston and surrounding areas—and that nurses and other health professionals will be in great demand in the coming days, weeks, and months.

Short- and Long-Term Health Concerns

The short- and long-term health consequences people are facing as they escape rising water levels are detailed in the Washington Post. Although drowning is the most immediate and dangerous threat during a flood, those seeking safety are also endangered by sharp objects and even wild animals caught up in floodwaters. Mold and its impact on human health will be a concern in the coming weeks and months, as water-damaged buildings are reoccupied.

In the meantime, health authorities are worried about the spread of infectious diseases. As sewage contaminates the floodwaters and […]

2017-08-30T10:32:03-04:00August 30th, 2017|climate change, environmental health, Nursing, Public health|0 Comments
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Antibiotic Stewardship: Inherent to Good Nursing Practice

neutrophil interacting with two pink-colored multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria

Although most nurses are aware of the urgent problem of antibiotic overuse in hospitals, some may be unfamiliar with terms like “antibiotic stewardship.” This is partly because few nurses besides those working as infection control preventionists have had a formal role in stewardship programs, explain authors Rita D. Olans, Richard N. Olans, and David J. Witt in “Good Nursing Is Good Antibiotic Stewardship,” which appears in this month’s issue as a Special Feature. In the article, the authors detail how bedside nurses are vital to the success of these efforts.

What Is Antibiotic Stewardship?

Antibiotic stewardship programs offer a formal approach to addressing the current crisis, in which an increasing number of organisms are developing resistance to antimicrobial medications. In the absence of new drugs, stewardship programs have been established to improve the way currently available antibiotics are used in hospitals. These programs aim to:

  • optimize antibiotic therapy.
  • shorten the duration of use of broad-spectrum antibiotics.
  • reduce the number of adverse events.

According to the authors, “because nurses are not typically prescribers of antibiotics, they often don’t see themselves as participants in antimicrobial stewardship programs.” Yet, even though they may not know it, “staff nurses are already performing many […]

2017-08-02T11:36:27-04:00August 2nd, 2017|Nursing, Public health|1 Comment
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Remembering an Air Force Nurse Killed in a Vietnam War Airlift

This Memorial Day weekend, as we remember all nurses who have served in the U.S. military, we spotlight one, Air Force Captain Mary Klinker, who died in a plane crash outside Saigon during the final days of the Vietnam War. She was the only member of the U.S. Air Force Nurse Corps—and the last military nurse—to die in that war.

Capt. Klinker had volunteered to work aboard the first flight of a mission, Operation Babylift, ordered by President Gerald Ford’s administration in the weeks before the fall of Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City). The aim was to move 2,000 South Vietnamese orphans and displaced children to the Philippines and then the United States for adoption.

In addition to Capt. Klinker, more than 300 passengers, including Air Force personnel, Defense Attaché Office employees, and about 250 children, filled the troop compartment and cargo area of the C-5 cargo plane on April 4, 1975. Children were placed together in seats and cardboard boxes. Soon after leaving the airport near Saigon, a substantial malfunction in the rear of the plane led to a forced landing in a field. About 130 passengers, many of whom were in the cargo area, died. Capt. Klinker was caring for children […]

2017-05-26T13:22:46-04:00May 26th, 2017|Nursing, nursing history|0 Comments
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Chemical Exposure: A Preventable Cause of Harm to Children’s Health

“Children are often exposed to. . . contaminants through their behavior—when they crawl on the floor or explore their environment by touching and tasting objects indiscriminately. In addition, because they are young, there is the potential for environmental exposures to negatively impact their health for a long time.”

Photo © Associated Press

Chemicals are ubiquitous

In “Project TENDR,” an article in this month’s issue of AJN, author Laura Anderko, PhD, RN, a professor at the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies, discusses why children are particularly susceptible to environmental exposures to chemicals.

Aside from children’s vulnerability to chemical exposures as still developing individuals, Anderko observes that chemicals are also especially hazardous to children simply because they are everywhere: “ . . . in health care supplies and equipment, the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the cosmetics and personal products (such as shampoos, baby bottles, toys, and thousands of other consumer products) we use.”

Developmental harms of children’s exposure to chemicals

Anderko summarizes the concerns raised by a growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures and pediatric health outcomes:

“ . . . widespread exposure to toxic chemicals can increase the risk […]

2017-05-19T11:27:13-04:00May 19th, 2017|environmental health, Nursing, pediatrics, Public health|0 Comments
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Overactive Bladder in Women: Nurses Can Improve Screening, Management of a Common Problem

“Whether due to discomfort with the topic or a lack of knowledge about treatment options, some women attempt to manage symptoms on their own, a decision that can lead to additional problems…”

Can Significantly Affect Daily Activities

Among women 18 to 70 years old, almost a third are “sometimes” affected by the symptoms of overactive bladder, according to the authors of this month’s CE feature, “Overactive Bladder in Women.” This rate is nearly twice that among men, and prevalence is known to increase in all adults as they age.

Overactive bladder can significantly affect daily activities, with many women altering their routines to ensure a bathroom is nearby. The “hallmark symptom of overactive bladder is urgency,” according to authors Mary H. Palmer, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN, AGSF, and Marcella G. Willis-Gray, MD. Women may experience urgency with urinary incontinence, stress urinary incontinence, or mixed urinary incontinence (in which a combination of these symptoms occurs).

A Tendency to Self-Manage

Despite the impact of this condition on everyday routines, patients often resist talking to their health care providers about symptoms—or do so as an afterthought, as the patient does in the hypothetical case study accompanying this article. Whether due to discomfort with the topic or a lack of knowledge about treatment options, some women attempt to manage symptoms on their own, a decision […]

2017-04-03T10:53:35-04:00April 3rd, 2017|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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