About Diane Szulecki, editor

Editor, American Journal of Nursing

‘Brain Rot’ in Nursing Students: And Other September Issue Highlights

The September issue of AJN is now live.

Here are some highlights. Some articles are open access or temporarily free; others will require log-in for access.

The painting on this month’s cover evokes the power of the mind. It’s a nod to “AI Dependency and Brain Rot Among Nursing Students: A Mixed-Methods Study,” in which Sağlam and Kalanlar surveyed and interviewed undergraduate nursing students to explore the relationship between excessive use of AI tools and “brain rot,” or cognitive deterioration associated with overconsumption of digital technologies and online content. The authors note that the concept of brain rot “remains largely unrecognized by nursing academia, despite its potential to influence cognitive, emotional, and behavioral domains.”

Pediatric fractures are a common reason for ED visits, yet distinguishing accidental injuries from those caused by physical abuse remains a complex clinical challenge. The September CE article, “Beyond the Spiral: Identifying Abuse-Related Pediatric Fractures,” clarifies common misconceptions, such as that all spiral fractures are inherently suspicious, by situating them within the broader evidence base related to pediatric orthopedic injury.

The latest article in our Evidence-Based Decision-Making Series, “Dissemination: Sharing the Story,” presents dissemination as a core competency for DNP students and shows how dissemination can be intentionally […]

2026-08-24T10:05:28-04:00August 24th, 2026|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

Workplace Microaggressions, Sleep Anxiety, and More August Issue Highlights

The August issue of AJN is now live.

Here are some highlights. Some articles are open access or temporarily free; others will require log-in for access.

This month’s cover shows a mother changing her child’s burn dressing. As Manman Sun and colleagues discuss in their Original Research article, primary caregivers of children with burn injuries are at high risk for traumatic stress. “The psychological well-being of caregivers is not only linked to their personal quality of life but also serves as a critical determinant in the child’s rehabilitation trajectory,” the authors write. Read “Posttraumatic Stress in Caregivers of Burn-Injured Children: A Cross-Sectional Study” to learn more about prevalence and contributing factors. (Open access) 

A recent national survey found that most U.S. RNs have personally experienced workplace racism. The August CE article, “Racial Microaggressions in Nursing: A Scoping Review,” explores the literature on such experiences and their impact on nurses and patients.

Another open-access Original Research article, “Sleep Worry Among Clinical Nurses: A Cross-Sectional Study,” aimed to investigate the prevalence and correlates of sleep worry (also called sleep anxiety) among nurses in order to guide the development of targeted interventions and management strategies.

This month’s AJN Reports, “Health Hazards in ICE Detention Centers,” […]

2026-07-23T10:35:45-04:00July 23rd, 2026|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

250 Years of American Nursing—and More AJN July Issue Highlights

The July issue of AJN is now live.

Here are some highlights. Some articles are open access or temporarily free; others will require log-in for access.

A Military Encampment in Hyde Park by James Malton, 1785. This drawing is featured in the Nursing the Revolution exhibit currently on view at the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing. For more, see On the Cover.

In recognition of the 250th anniversary of American independence, this special issue of AJN examines nursing’s role in early U.S. history.

  • A photo-essay features images from Nursing the Revolution, an exhibit at Penn Nursing’s Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing in Philadelphia that sheds light on nursing at a time when the concept of the “professional nurse” had yet to emerge.
  • In her Guest Editorial, “American Nursing: 250 Years and Counting,” Penn Nursing professor and dean Antonia M. Villarruel urges amplification of “nursing’s past, present, and future contributions.”
  • In her Viewpoint article, “Nursing the Revolution,” J. Margo Brooks Carthon, the Barbara Bates Center’s director, calls for a reexamination of nurses’ influence on U.S. health care’s roots—and a reclaiming of this history.

Additional articles this month include a

2026-06-25T09:38:01-04:00June 25th, 2026|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

Virtual Nursing, AFib Update, and More June Issue Highlights

The June issue of AJN is now live.

Here are some highlights. Some articles are open access or temporarily free; others will require log-in for access.

How do hospitalized patients feel about the use of virtual nurses for tasks like admissions, discharges, patient education, and answering questions? In their Original Research article in this issue, “Patients’ Experiences of a Virtual Nursing Model in an Acute Care Setting: A Mixed-Methods Study,” Tajudaullah Bhaloo and colleagues explore patients’ perspectives on a co-caring virtual nursing model as part of their care in a medical–surgical acute care unit.

This month’s CE article, “Updates on the Management of Atrial Fibrillation,” (free to access) reviews the latest guidelines from the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, American College of Clinical Pharmacy, and Heart Rhythm Society, highlighting three core components: anticoagulation in nonvalvular AF, rate control, and rhythm control.

The newest installment of our Evidence-Based Decision-Making (EBDM) series, “Evaluation for Clinical Practice Change,” explores evaluation within EBDM and clinical practice–focused projects (EBP, QI, and EBQI), presenting practical QI tools to support clinical practice change. A commentary, “Positioning DNPs to Lead,” accompanies the article.

An open-access Quality Improvement article, “Reducing Blood Culture Contamination Rates in the ED,” discusses […]

2026-05-21T09:53:36-04:00May 21st, 2026|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

TAVR Review, Skin Tone Representation in Nursing Texts, and Other May Issue Highlights

The May issue of AJN is now live.

Here are some highlights. Some articles are open access or temporarily free; others will require log-in for access.

AJN senior clinical editor Christine Moffa’s guest editorial (free to read) addresses the 2026 Nurses Week theme—The Power of Nurses. “If there is a message to carry into this Nurses Week, it may be that the vigilance we practice at the bedside can guide us as a profession,” she writes. “Noticing what is subtle, identifying what is shifting, and acting before harm takes hold, these are skills we already possess.”

Over the past decade, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has become a transformative intervention for patients with aortic stenosis (AS). This month’s CE article, “The Evolution of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement: From Novel to Normal,” (also free to access) reviews current approaches to evaluation, diagnosis, and management of AS before and after TAVR, as well as the evolving role of TAVR in the treatment of AS.

In their original research article, “Dark Skin Tone Representation in Foundational Nursing Textbooks: A Quantitative Image Analysis,” Eleonor Pusey-Reid and John Wong evaluate how prelicensure nursing texts visually represent clinical conditions across diverse skin tones, with a focus on the extent to which dark […]

2026-05-04T09:47:31-04:00April 23rd, 2026|Nursing|0 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