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States Seek to Limit Health Officials’ Powers to Act

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, public health measures to control the spread of the virus have provoked fierce debate. In recent months, at least 15 state legislatures have passed or are considering bills to limit the legal authority of public health agencies, according to the Network for Public Health Law, which has partnered with the National Association of County and City Health Officials to document the situation. In addition, lawmakers in at least 46 states have introduced bills to rein in the power of governors to take action in public health and other emergencies.

The anger fueling these actions stems from the perceived overreach by health officials, resulting in a backlash of legislative attempts to limit their authority. These include measures to prevent the closure of businesses or allow lawmakers to rescind mask mandates.

In addition, some state courts have limited the emergency and regulatory powers that governors used to respond to the pandemic. Demands for “individual freedom” spurred some of these state actions, though their consequences are likely to be more far reaching. […]

2021-11-18T10:25:06-05:00November 18th, 2021|infection control, infectious diseases, Nursing, Public health|0 Comments
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Who Cares for the Nurses Who Care for You?

‘An epidemic of nonstop.’

According to Provision 5 of the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics, “the nurse owes the same duties to self as to others, including the responsibility to promote health and safety, preserve wholeness of character and integrity, maintain competence, and continue personal and professional growth.” Yet all too often, nurses are viewed as heroes, and this heroization, while perhaps well-intentioned, may exacerbate a reality in which nurses put caring for others ahead of caring for themselves.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a worsening of an issue that has long plagued the nursing profession: “an epidemic of nonstop” in which the lack of basic self-care such as bathroom and meal breaks has become the norm and nurses literally “work until they drop.” The many stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic further heightened the need for nurses to care for themselves.

Workplace benefits and financial protections vary widely for nurses.

Approximately three-quarters of all health care workers, including nearly 90% of nurses, are women. COVID-19 brought to light the gaps in benefits among these workers.

In order to support nurses whose ability to work had been affected by the pandemic by providing them with direct financial assistance through emergency grants, the American Nurses Foundation partnered with Nurses […]

2021-11-10T10:41:13-05:00November 10th, 2021|COVID-19, Nursing, nursing career, women's health|0 Comments
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In All Nature’s Glory: One Patient’s Presurgical Ritual

‘Join me.’

I walked into the preoperative waiting area one morning, ready to begin my day. Standing outside my first patient’s bed bay, I asked through the drawn curtain if I could enter. Silence. I waited and then called out the patient’s name again. Again, nothing. I peeked behind the curtain. There was the patient standing in all of nature’s glory, arms extended in front of the window—eyes closed.

I stepped back and then heard her say, “Come in, join me.” I felt caught off guard, unsure of what to do. But I was also curious, so I went in.

The patient turned her head towards me and said, “Just stand next to me—the collective mind brings more energy.”

So I did. The view from this patient’s room showed a river running alongside the facility. Like her, I looked out onto the river. The sun was beginning to rise and the sky was a beautiful blend of pink and blue. I closed my eyes and a sense of serenity gently settled over me.

We stood together in silence for just a minute or two. Then the patient turned to me, grabbed her gown, and said, “Now, how can I help you?”

I found that I was smiling as I heard myself say, […]

2021-10-27T09:46:54-04:00October 27th, 2021|Nursing, nursing stories, patient engagement|1 Comment
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The Essentials for Nurses About Recognition and Treatment of MIS-C

‘A massive systemic inflammatory response.’

While on the whole the United States is seeing a decline in COVID cases, this most recent wave of the Delta variant has seen an unprecedented number of children infected and hospitalized for COVID-19.

While children generally fare better than adults from the virus, infection may make them susceptible to a rare condition known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).

This rare but serious condition was described by Shields and colleagues in our May issue as “a massive systemic inflammatory response that has physiologic correlations to Kawasaki disease, Kawasaki disease shock syndrome, toxic shock syndrome, macrophage activation syndrome, and cytokine release syndrome.”

The CDC reports that, as of October 4, the number of patients meeting the case definition for MIS-C was 5,217 (up from 4,000 reported in June) and the total number of deaths meeting the case definition was 46.

The CDC case definition includes the following:

2021-10-28T10:36:09-04:00October 20th, 2021|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Nursing|0 Comments
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Alleviating Some Pressure for Acute Care Nurses

Holding huddles during a shift helped to keep nurses informed of hospital-wide and unit-based updates and allowed staff to express their concerns and ask questions. Photo by James Derek Dwyer / Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

It’s well-known that nurses are facing relentless pressure and challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it doesn’t seem to be resolving anytime soon. While we know that short-staffing is a huge problem and needs to be addressed, hospitals also need to adopt strategies in the here and now to alleviate some of these stressors. AJN recently published several articles detailing the creation and employment of such strategies.

One such article, “Supporting Frontline Staff During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” can be found in our September issue. In the article, nurse leaders from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston describe the challenges nursing staff faced during the COVID-19 surge in the spring of 2020 and the actions taken to support them. […]

2021-10-07T09:50:09-04:00October 7th, 2021|Nursing, safe staffing|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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