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Fetal Pigs and Popcorn: ‘Lessons’ in May’s ‘Art of Nursing’

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

To be frank, the opening scenario in Bernadette Geyer’s poem “Lessons,” featured in this month’s Art of Nursing department, made me uneasy when I first read it—and yet I was intrigued. In the poem, “Mom” has fallen asleep over a medical textbook, and her three daughters “watch as Dad / tosses popcorn, aimed for her slack mouth.” What’s going on here? The father’s action seems mocking, almost cruel.

But as good poems will, “Lessons” reveals more with each reading. The mother’s textbook is full of lurid photographs, including those of “a dissected fetal pig.” The young daughters find their own changing bodies “so embarrassing.” The father’s popcorn tossing makes his daughters giggle, and those garish photos of death recede just a little. Maybe that’s not a bad thing.  Read the poem—it’s free online (please click through to the PDF version)—and sit with it for a bit, see what you think. Then tell us in the comments!

Bernadette Geyer, a writer and freelance editor living in the Washington, DC, area,  received a 2010 Strauss Fellowship from the Arts Council of Fairfax County, Virginia.  Links to several of her poems can be found on her Web site.  She also blogs here about writing, motherhood, and life in “the exiles of suburbia.”

If you’re a poet or a visual artist, we hope you’ll consider submitting your work to us for consideration. Read this blog […]

2016-11-21T13:17:42-05:00May 14th, 2010|Nursing|3 Comments
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New Nurse Keeps Grandma’s Gutsy Resolve, Varied Career in Sights

By Cara Gewolb, BSN. Cara lives in New York City and in January completed an accelerated 15-month BSN program at New York University College of Nursing for those with previous bachelor’s degrees. This longer-than-usual post was passed along to us by Barbara Glickstein, a producer and host of Healthstyles radio show, where Cara recently talked about her grandmother’s career as a public health nurse. We post it today in honor of Nurses’ Week—and also in honor of all the nurses who have recently graduated and are looking for work in a tight market.

My grandmother Frances Reichman Lubin had been the only nurse in her family until I received a BSN in January. As a new nurse I’m a bit unsure of myself, but I’m looking for work and excited to enter my profession. While I’m interested in becoming an ER or ICU nurse, my grandmother’s diverse career reminds me to stay open to opportunity. Her career extended from the 1940s to 1970s and encompassed stints as an army nurse, public health nurse, ICU nurse, teacher, and administrator, as well as time off to raise children and further her nursing education. I keep her example as a funny, gutsy woman who always kept her sense of purpose in my sights as I go forward. She died […]

2016-11-21T13:17:45-05:00May 12th, 2010|career, narratives, Nursing|5 Comments
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The Manifold Talents of Nurses Who Are Artists

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

As the coordinator of AJN’s Art of Nursing department, I’m intrigued by intersections between the two fields: Art and Nursing. About a year ago I profiled several multitalented nurses (The Triple Talents of Some Nurse Bloggers), including Julianna Paradisi, an RN, artist, and writer who blogs about “where science, humanity, and art converge” at JParadisi RN’s Blog. (Her painting Love You to Death appeared on our October 2009 cover.) In March Paradisi launched a second blog, Die Krankenschwester, which emphasizes images. One series depicts rituals followed “From Cradle to Grave”; another considers the iconography of call lights. Paradisi’s work is beautiful and thought-provoking; stop by and have a look.

Recently I happened upon Nurse–Artists International, Inc. Started in 2009 by Kathy Iwanowski, an artist and former oncology and hospice nurse, the organization has an ambitious vision that includes “promoting the arts, humanities, and the therapeutic benefits of creativity in all aspects of life and living,” “creating and collaborating on projects related to arts and health with corporate, educational, healthcare, and other community partners” and “assessing the impact of the arts on health and healthcare costs.” Among its programs are the International Association of Nurse Artists, with membership open to nurses working in any artistic medium; Our Space to Create, a collaborative program for developing arts projects that meet community needs; and the Arts and Health Co-Lab, open to anyone interested […]

2016-11-21T13:17:51-05:00May 5th, 2010|nursing perspective|6 Comments
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Upper-Extremity Deep Vein Thrombosis: How Clinicians at One Hospital Achieved Lower Rates

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

At a suburban hospital in Indiana, clinicians noticed that the incidence of secondary upper-extremity deep vein thrombosis (DVT) at their facility seemed to be on the rise. As Lancaster and colleagues report in the May Emergency, this was alarming: upper-extremity DVT, once thought benign, is now known to be potentially dangerous, leading to complications such as symptomatic or asymptomatic pulmonary embolism, chronic venous insufficiency, and postthrombotic syndrome. Secondary upper-extremity DVT, which accounts for a majority of cases, can be linked to an identifiable risk factor. Patients may present with pain, swelling, and bruising in the area of the thrombosis—but many patients show no symptoms. So it’s essential that nurses know which patients are at risk and how to minimize that risk.

The Indiana clinicians reviewed the literature to deepen their understanding. They also tracked all patients who underwent ultrasonography at their facility and conducted retrospective chart reviews, gathering data for a full year. Several new risk factors were identified, including

  • the use of the large veins at the antecubital fossa for peripheral IV access;
  • the use of harsh medications administered via peripheral IV; and
  • certain peripherally-inserted central catheter (PICC) flushing and care practices.

What they learned prompted several changes to nursing care, and the incidence of secondary upper-extremity DVT at this facility has since declined. To learn more about this quality improvement project and the changes that were implemented, read […]

2016-11-21T13:17:55-05:00April 30th, 2010|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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Nursing Handoffs: Do We Know What Constitutes Best Practice?

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

A systematic literature review on nursing handoffs, written by nurse researcher Lee Ann Riesenberg and colleagues and featured as a CE article this month, might just shock you. The researchers found that although there is  “abundant evidence that poor communication and variable procedures result in inadequate handoffs,” surprisingly little is known about what makes nursing handoffs effective. Which is kind of incredible, given how crucial handoffs are to providing safe and effective patient care.

Of the 95 English-language articles that met the researchers’ inclusion criteria, just 20 reported on research on nursing handoffs, and only 3 were found to be of reasonably good quality (scoring above 10 on a 16-point scale). The researchers concluded that although “the Joint Commission is calling for structured handoffs . . . we found very little evidence to support the use of any specific structure, protocol, or method.”

Barriers and Strategies
But the researchers were able to identify, categorize, and list numerous barriers to and strategies for handoffs that were mentioned in the literature. […]

2016-11-21T13:18:21-05:00April 7th, 2010|nursing perspective, nursing research|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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