About Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)

Editor-in-chief, (emerita), AJN

Remembering Veterans – All of Them

In the November 2010 issue of AJN, we published an editorial, “Families are Veterans, Too,” recognizing the stress and sacrifices of families of those who serve in the military. On this Veterans Day, we’re sharing an excerpt of that editorial below, and also offering free access to “Caring for Families with Deployment Stress,” the article mentioned in the editorial. This article was also published in the November 2010 issue and, unfortunately, is still very much pertinent, given that many families are still experiencing the stress of having a loved one deployed to a conflict zone. We honor and thank all those who have served.

As Erin Gabany and Teresa Shellenbarger explain in “Caring for Families with Deployment Stress,” that stress can be considerable. In families with children, deployment means that a two-parent household becomes in effect a single-parent one; when a single parent is deployed, grandparents, aunts, or uncles may find themselves filling that role. The deployment period may be especially difficult for families of soldiers in the National Guard or in reserve units—they’re less likely to be living on or near a military base or to have access to its resources and to other families going through the same experience. They’re also likely to have less income when the reservist’s civilian pay stops. Such stressors can play a role in a range of physical, emotional, and behavioral problems.

Nurses in all settings—not just those in clinics serving military families—may […]

2019-11-11T13:44:06-05:00November 11th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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Precision Medicine as a Nursing Competency

Precision medicine, genomic-driven treatment, phenotyping—it all sounded like too much dense material to cover in one article. But I’m happy to say that the authors of the October CE feature, “Knowledge of Precision Medicine and Health Care: An Essential Nursing Competency,” take this complex content and present it in a clear, straightforward, and interesting way.

‘Omics’ sciences.

We’re delighted to be able to bring you this timely and important content. As the authors explain, advances in the study of genes have given rise to the ‘omics’ sciences—the study of how genes function and how treatments can be tailored to an individual’s genetic makeup, i.e., precision medicine. While we’ve long found ways to tailor care to specific characteristics determined all or in part by genetic differences—–for example, prescription lenses to correct vision, blood typing—the completion of the Human Genome Project has given impetus to using genomics in many areas of care.

The completion of the Human Genome Project . . . provided insight into both mutations (genetic variations that occur in less than 1% of the population) and polymorphisms (genetic variations that are sufficiently common to be considered normal). Genetic variations confer not only such unique individual characteristics as eye color and blood group, but also susceptibility to such diseases as sickle cell and Tay–Sachs as well […]

2019-10-15T11:56:26-04:00October 15th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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Emergency Nursing 2019: Interactive Learning and Today’s Health Crises

The medical transport helicopter was at the ready. Meanwhile, the trauma team was in the midst of resuscitating a man. The crowd of onlookers remarked on the extreme pallor of the patient and were ready to jump in to help as needed. Fortunately, this was not a real life trauma but a scene in the exhibit hall of the sold-out Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) meeting in Austin, Texas, last week.

Four thousand ED nurses spent four days at Emergency Nursing 2019 attending educational sessions, skills labs (including a mock ED and a cadaver lab), and CE classes; viewing exhibit hall products; and relaxing in ‘Awesome Austin,’ celebrating themselves and the important work they do.

Documentary film producer Carolyn Jones (The American Nurse; Defining Hope) opened the meeting by presenting previews from her current documentary on emergency nurses, In Case of Emergency, a project in collaboration with the ENA for its 50th anniversary, to be released in May 2020. Jones and her film team traveled to seven EDs around the country, from an urban ED to rural farm country, to document ER nurses at work. […]

2019-10-07T10:13:54-04:00October 7th, 2019|Conference reports, Nursing|1 Comment
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Giving Feedback: Good and Bad

Most organizations require annual employee evaluations, which are often tied to how an employee is rated and influence future promotions and salary adjustment. For many employees, that’s the only formal feedback they receive about their performance. But that’s no longer thought to be the most effective way to manage and develop staff.

Beyond the traditional employee evaluation model.

In “The Art of Giving Feedback” (free until October 1) in AJN‘s September issue, author Rose Sherman describes the other types of feedback that managers should be doing routinely:

  • appreciation feedback, which acknowledges an employee’s work and effort
  • coaching feedback, which focuses on performance and developing employee skills

It’s easy to give feedback to a stellar employee, the one who consistently exceeds expectations. It can get uncomfortable for many managers when they need to give feedback to employees who need to improve in some areas. Some managers let things go, hoping the employee will improve over time or work around the issues.

The costs of avoidance.

But avoiding the issue can have consequences for everyone, according to Sherman:

“ . . . when problematic behavior is not addressed, it lowers the morale of the team and erodes trust in the leader. A failure to address performance issues on your team can have serious ramifications. When […]

2019-09-18T11:42:38-04:00September 18th, 2019|career, Nursing, nursing career|0 Comments
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Milk and Molasses Enemas – A Tradition to Keep

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

I recall giving an “M&M” enema when I worked as a nurse’s aide in high school. The small community hospital medication room had a jar of molasses in the cabinet, and I watched the nurse mix ½ a cup of the thick syrup with ½ cup of milk and put it in an enema bag. She then handed it to me and said, “C’mon, it’s easy, I’ll show you how.” And it was, and it worked pretty quickly. Older nurses and physicians swore by it.

By the time I was out of nursing school and working in clinical practice, commercial preparations seemed to be the standard. But as the song goes, “everything that’s old is new again.” This month in AJN, Jackline Wangui-Verry and colleagues’ paper, “Are Milk and Molasses Enemas Safe for Hospitalized Adults? A Retrospective Electronic Health Record Review,” describes their investigation of this long-time and oft-used intervention for constipation.

Examining the safety of a long-established, ‘last resort’ practice.

The authors “wanted to learn whether this approach is actually safe and effective or more of a ‘sacred cow’ . . . .”

This study focused on safety and a follow-up study will include efficacy. They evaluated the hospital records of 196 hospitalized adults who received an M&M enema after laxatives or stool softeners failed to produce a bowel movement. No serious complications—“allergic reactions, bacteremia, […]

2019-09-11T10:41:01-04:00September 11th, 2019|Nursing, nursing research|3 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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