About Diane Szulecki, editor

Editor, American Journal of Nursing

November Issue: Chronic Pain and Opioids, CVDs in Pregnancy, Preventing Patient Self-Harm, More

“[S]eeing this patient, his return, his presence, his enduring love, was a gift. Because some days in health care, you don’t really know what hope you are fighting for or for whom.”—Hui-Wen (Alina) Sato, author of the November Reflections column, “Beholding the Returning Light”

The November issue of AJN is now live. Here’s what’s new:

CE: Implementing Guidelines for Treating Chronic Pain with Prescription Opioids

An overview of five tools outlined in the CDC’s 2016 opioid safety guideline—prescription opioid treatment agreements, urine drug screening, prescription drug monitoring program databases, calculation of morphine milligram equivalents, and naloxone kits—and their relevance to primary care nurses.

CE: Gestational Hypertension, Preeclampsia, and Peripartum Cardiomyopathy: A Clinical Review

The authors discuss three of the most common pregnancy-specific cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors, prevention, assessment, and management.
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2019-10-28T10:00:42-04:00October 28th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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October Issue: Infections in Acute Care, Understanding ‘Omics’ Sciences, Countering Vaccine Misinformation, More

“What we . . . may consider a passing moment in the course of our day—a short exchange with a family member, a few words of encouragement to a patient—might very well be a pivotal life event. . . . we must choose our words and actions carefully.”—editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy, in her editorial, “It’s the Moments That Matter“

The October issue of AJN is now live. Here’s what’s new:

CE: Infection in Acute Care: Evidence for Practice

The author reviews the evidence on preventing and treating common infections in acute care settings, focusing on community- and hospital-acquired pneumonia, surgical site infections, and Clostridioides difficile infection.

CE: Knowledge of Precision Medicine and Health Care: An Essential Nursing Competency

This article provides a background in precision health care and the “omics” sciences—those that use genomic technologies to investigate the molecules in an organism’s cells—and discusses the implications for nursing practice, research, and education. […]

2019-09-30T09:16:31-04:00September 30th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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September Issue: HIV Update, RN-Performed Bone Marrow Procedures, Debriefing Methods, More

“One day—and I remember distinctly that all I was doing was setting up [my mother’s] pills and preparing a few bites of food that I hoped she’d eat—a clear small voice inside me said, ‘You could do this for other people.’”—Linda Beall, author of the September Reflections column, “A Clear Small Voice”

The September issue of AJN is now live. Here’s what’s new:

CE: HIV Update: An Epidemic Transformed

This article describes the current state of HIV treatment and prevention—including HIV risk reduction strategies such as PrEP and PEP—and highlights the common comorbidities often seen in older people living with HIV.

Cultivating Quality: Bone Marrow Aspiration and Biopsy Performed by RNs: A Review of Clinical Practice

The authors discuss the policies and practices of their program to train RNs to perform bone marrow procedures, its clinical and diagnostic outcomes, and the opportunity for nurses to work to their full scope of practice.

Teaching for Practice: Using Debriefing Methods in the Postclinical Conference

This article examines various debriefing methods and describes scenarios in which clinical instructors can use debriefing to turn daily events into teachable moments.

CE: Original Research: Are Milk and Molasses Enemas Safe for Hospitalized Adults? A Retrospective Electronic Health Record Review

The authors of this study evaluated the safety of milk […]

2019-08-26T10:09:33-04:00August 26th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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August Issue: Obesity-Related Cancer, Simulation-Based Education, Secondhand Smoke Screening, More

“A respite for nurses may be more needed than ever. Workplaces are more complex than they used to be and . . . changing faster. . . . And there never seem to be enough people to do what needs to be done.” —editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy, in her editorial, “A Day By the Sea”

The August issue of AJN is now live. Here’s what’s new:

CE: Original Research: The Clinical Research Nurse: Exploring Self-Perceptions About the Value of the Role

This study analyzes how clinical research nurses perceive the value of their practice, specifically as it relates to the care of clinical research subjects and the implementation of clinical research protocols.

CE: Obesity-Related Cancer in Women: A Clinical Review

The author discusses the role of obesity in the development and recurrence of breast, gynecologic, and colorectal cancers in women; describes weight loss interventions that may help overweight or obese patients reduce their cancer risk; and explains interviewing techniques nurses can use with such patients.

Special Feature: The Changing Landscape of Simulation-Based Education

This article details three foundational concepts of simulation-based education: prebriefing, debriefing, and safety in simulation. It also provides examples of academic, hospital- and health care center–based, and in situ simulation programs.

Cultivating Quality: Improving Screening and Education for Secondhand Smoke […]

2019-07-29T13:28:02-04:00July 29th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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Bringing the Faces of Addiction—and Recovery—to Schools

Nancy Labov, RN, CADC. Photos courtesy of Nancy Labov.

A nurse speaks from experience.

In nursing school, Nancy Labov felt a kinship with the patients she encountered during a rotation on a rehabilitation unit. She realized that she wanted to spend her career caring for patients like them. Their struggles with addiction struck a chord: alcoholism ran in her family, and she, too, had a substance abuse problem, though she was in denial about it at the time.

In her mid-20s, Labov got sober; she has maintained her sobriety ever since. She’s also persisted in her mission to help people recover from addiction. As an RN and a certified alcohol and drug counselor, she has spent the past three decades working on rehab and detox units across the country.

Labov is also the founder of Alumni in Recovery (AIR)—a nonprofit through which young adults in recovery give talks at schools in the communities they grew up in. As she discusses in the July Profile in AJN, “Helping Students See the Realities of Addiction and Recovery,” the New Jersey-based volunteer organization fights stigma by opening a dialogue about addiction and showing teens a young, local, and relatable face of recovery.

A peer-to-peer approach is key.

“How do we […]

2019-07-11T08:55:16-04:00July 11th, 2019|Nursing, nursing stories, Public health|2 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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