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Nurses Concerned About Removal of Key Children’s Health Advocate at EPA

At the end of September, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with no explanation, placed the director of the Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP), Dr. Ruth Etzel, on administrative leave. This sidelining of a vocal children’s health advocate as the office was heading into October, Children’s Environmental Health Month, was concerning for all who work in children’s environmental health.

The OCHP’s essential role.

The OCHP was created under an executive order in 1997 as public consciousness was increasing about the special vulnerabilities of children to environmental hazards. It is housed in the Office of the Administrator so as to be able to provide guidance to EPA leadership and ensure that children’s health protection is prioritized throughout the agency’s activities. This is essential because, as many have observed, children are not simply miniature adults—what they eat, drink, and breathe can profoundly affect their physical and mental development, while their hand-to-mouth and on-the-floor activities put them at greater risk for exposures from environmental hazards.

The office provides essential resources for health professionals and the public on environmental health issues such as environmental triggers of asthma and how parents can reduce exposures, reducing exposures to lead, and air quality in schools. The OCHP-produced report, America’s Children and […]

2018-10-31T11:54:23-04:00October 31st, 2018|environmental health, health care policy, nursing perspective, Public health|0 Comments
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Worker Health Charts: Comparing the Health and Safety of Your Nurses to the Nation

Is this facility’s problem unique?

Most health care facilities conduct regular employee surveys to identify and address problems among their workforce. However, it can be difficult to for a facility to determine if the issues identified in their employee survey are unique to their institution or similar to what is happening at other facilities nationwide.

To answer this question, it would be helpful for health care facilities to have a national data set for comparison. Recently, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) created Worker Health Charts, a tool that charts data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), and other national and state-level data sources. The data cover various topics ranging from psychosocial exposures in the workplace (e.g., high job demands and work–life imbalance) to chronic conditions (e.g., cancer and high blood pressure) found among certain jobs, industries, or demographics. Nurse managers and occupational health staff can use Worker Health Charts to include questions in employee surveys and compare their data to national statistics.

How national data can inform a local plan of action.

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2018-10-17T11:05:56-04:00October 17th, 2018|Nursing|0 Comments
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A Mother and a Nurse

Kristy Rodriguez, BSN, RN, works as a nurse in Florida.

As a mother and a nurse, I have often found myself with the dilemma of whether to inform others in a health care setting that I am a nurse. I say this because it can go either way: some look at it as a blessing that they can easily explain things to you using medical terminology, while other nurses may take it as a threat. And I understand these concerns. As a nurse I have come in contact with both attitudes—the helpful and the threatening—among family members and patients who work in health care. It has been helpful to have a family member or patient who understands at least the basics and is eager to learn. Then, on the other hand, it can be a nightmare with the patient or family member who uses the statement “I’m a nurse” as a kind of threat.

A son’s troubling symptoms.

My story all started about three years ago, a day that my son’s life would forever be changed, and mine with it. It was the spring of 2012 and my son was 12 years old and developing as a normal boy should develop. A stomach virus had recently swept through our house and sickened my son and his […]

2018-09-28T14:34:00-04:00September 27th, 2018|Nursing|2 Comments
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A Day in the Emergency Room for a Nurse Who Loves Her Job

Another day begins.

nursing shoes, always left in the car

It’s hard to explain how I feel after yesterday . . .

I wake up and head to work with a smile. I’m wearing my normal attire, blue scrubs. The color is rather ironic. I put my shoes on in the car like always. The shoes never go inside, as they bear remnants of the day before.

I walk in to meet my tribe. We laugh off the previous day’s challenges as we start over. Patients come in and are greeted with the warm Southern welcome of this community emergency room.

Coughs, chest pain, leg injuries, moms, dads, babies, grandmas. A patient with my story who is fighting battles that I fought years ago. My heart aches. I give her hope. She is optimistic. I’m soaring, feeling high on life.

A girl who lost a baby. My heart aches. Why does this happen? What do I say? How do I comfort her? I pray for her. I make a funny joke, at which she has a two-second reprieve from grief and we share a laugh. I feel peace.

A boy is vomiting and writhing in pain. He is scared as he gets his first IV. It’s in and he’s proud of himself for not […]

2018-08-16T10:20:32-04:00August 16th, 2018|Nursing|2 Comments
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The 2018 ANA Membership Assembly: Making True Dialogue a Reality

By Katheren Koehn, MA, RN, FAAN, executive director of the Minnesota Organization of Registered Nurses (MNORN) and a member of AJN‘s editorial board.

I have been a member of the American Nurses Association (ANA) for over 40 years, an active member for about 35 years. I “grew up” in the association as a delegate to the House of Delegates. I learned to “edit on the fly” by debating perhaps hundreds of resolutions introduced by state nurses associations at the annual, then biannual meetings of the highest level of governance of ANA.

Debating resolutions.

Resolutions had a formal structure of “whereas” and “be it resolved.” Whereases contained the facts; the be-it-resolved contained the actions delegates wanted the ANA to enact. Whereases could not be edited or debated; be-it-resolveds could be edited and debated for hours, or until someone remembered to use the Robert’s Rule “Call the Question.” Debate over resolutions had more to do with proving your point than listening to another’s point of view. It was great theater, but I don’t know how often those resolutions moved our profession forward. I’m sure some of them did, but I remember the debate more than the resolution.

Making the ANA governing body a membership assembly.

When the 2012 ANA House of Delegates voted to change the governing body of the association […]

2018-07-30T08:49:53-04:00July 30th, 2018|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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