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

Editor-in-chief, (emerita), AJN

Welcome to Nursing’s New Grads!

Nervous and excited is normal.

It’s late June and by now most new grads are beginning their careers. Based on tradition, most of you will be working in the acute care setting. Some may have found positions, like my niece did when she graduated, in out-of-hospital surgical centers, or perhaps you’ve taken a position in a nursing home or long-term care facility. Wherever you’ve landed, we know you’re likely to be a mix of nervous and excited.

First, don’t worry—everyone, even the nurse manager who scares you, was new once. Over time, you’ll get more comfortable with your skills and gain confidence.

Photo by Ashley Gilbertson / The New York Times / Redux.

The basics.

Be prepared, show up on time, ask questions; be the person you’d like to work with. Offer to help others when you can and you’ll find it easier to ask when you need a hand.

One of our younger editorial board members, Amanda Anderson, has written several articles for our Transition to Practice column, all aimed at recent nursing school graduates. The articles range from preparing for the first day on the job to delegating and how to give report, and other topics. The latest, “

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2019-06-25T09:52:50-04:00June 25th, 2019|Nursing|1 Comment
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Approaching Ostomy Care with Confidence

A first experience of as a nursing student.

I encountered my first stoma as a nursing student and the incident is seared into my memory. It was in the first semester of my medical–surgical nursing course. The patient was a middle-aged man three or four days post-op after a colon resection. I was very nervous, but figured my instructor would know what to do. My stomach dropped when she confessed that she was not all that familiar with stoma care but was confident we’d figure it out with some help from the staff.

Fortunately, the head nurse of the surgical ward (I’m dating myself: yes, it was a ward and yes, her title was head nurse, not nurse manager or patient care coordinator) was very experienced with new ostomy care. She helped both of us gather the correct supplies and briefed us on what to assess and do. We were able to competently change dressings, change the ostomy appliance, and make the patient comfortable. However, I don’t think I encountered another patient with an ostomy until a few years later. By then my knowledge had faded. I had to seek a refresher.

Stoma assessment and common complications.

Photo by Amelie-Benoist / BSIP / Alamy.

I am very pleased that Susan Shelton […]

2019-06-11T11:56:29-04:00June 11th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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AACN: Going Strong After 50 Years

Once again, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) proves it knows how to host a gathering—especially when it’s celebrating its own birthday.

Around a kitchen table in Nashville.

It was in 1969 that nurse Norma Shephard invited several nurses to a meeting; sitting around her kitchen table in Nashville, Tennessee, they formed what has become one of the largest and most successful nursing specialty organizations in the world. Five years later, in 1974, the AACN held its first annual National Teaching Institute (NTI) in New Orleans (I was there!). Today, the AACN numbers over 200 chapters and 100,000 members.

Its annual May NTI meeting is one of the largest nursing meetings, and this year’s meeting in Orlando was no different, with about 8,000 attendees, 200 educational sessions, and 400-plus exhibitors of products, educational and health care organizations, and recruiters. It takes about two days to really “do” the NTI exhibit hall.

From ‘nursing as hospital expense to nursing as investment.’

“Our Voice Our Strength” was the theme chosen by AACN President Lisa Riggs, […]

2019-06-06T12:11:05-04:00June 6th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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When Children Hurt

As an ER nurse, I saw a lot of people in pain, either arriving at our door to have their pain relieved or enduring the pain of needed treatments, knowing that the interventions were necessary. In my experience, though, there’s nothing worse than seeing a child in pain, and the younger the child, the more awful it was.

You began the encounter with a sick or injured child who was already frightened by the circumstances that had caused their parents or guardians to bring them to the hospital. It’s hard to get past the frightened eyes and tears, the little ones trying to burrow into their mother’s shoulder and not wanting to be put down on a paper-covered table. And this was before even attempting any assessment.

Nurse uses Wong–Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale to help assess patient’s pain. Photo by Gerry Melendez/The State/MCT via Getty Images.

Factors to consider in assessing a child’s pain.

We were taught that “pain is what the patient says it is,” and that still seems to be true of children’s reports of pain. But there are many factors that need to be considered, such as […]

2019-05-23T10:18:37-04:00May 23rd, 2019|Nursing, patient experience, Patients|0 Comments
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Nurses Week: A Time to Reflect on the Incredible Work Nurses Do

The Nurses Week theme this year as set by the ANA, “4 Million Reasons to Celebrate,” points to our numbers. I appreciate the concept, but I’m not in love with this theme—I don’t think our numbers are what make us worth celebrating.

What really matters.

What we should celebrate is nurses’ continued commitment, day after day, to making people’s lives better. Sometimes, that takes effort that goes above and beyond. That’s the focus of my May editorial, “The Unwavering Courage of Nurses.” It’s also depicted in the May issue cover photo (for background, read “On the Cover“): nurses literally running for their lives and the lives of their patient, just ahead of flames from the deadliest fire in California’s history. And it’s what makes some Red Cross nurses so special: see this article by Debby Dailey and Linda MacIntyre (listen to the podcast of my conversation with the authors, too).

I think Nurses Week is important, not so much for the public who, judging by their votes in the most recent Gallup poll, already think highly of us (a good reminder for […]

2019-05-03T08:39:55-04:00May 3rd, 2019|Nursing, nursing career|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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