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

Editor-in-chief, (emerita), AJN

‘Go Home, Stay, Good Nurse’: Hospital Staffing Practices Suck the Life Out of Nurses

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief

After I last wrote to you from the NTI (the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ annual National Teaching Institute and Critical Care Exposition), I headed back to the exhibit hall to check out the helicopter and the Army’s mobile operating tent. But I didn’t get to either one, because I met a young critical care nurse from a regional hospital in Missouri. We chatted about her workplace, and it was obvious that she was very proud of the work she and her colleagues did. When I asked her, “What’s your biggest issue?”, she said that it was probably staffing. I expected her to cite the shortage and the difficulty of finding qualified critical care nurses. But that wasn’t what she meant—rather she was talking about  bare-bones staffing because of tight budgets. Her hospital routinely switches between two tactics: it sends nurses home when the patient census is low (when this happens, the nurses are paid only $2 an hour to be on call, but must still use a vacation day to retain full-time benefits, a tactic that rapidly depletes their vacation time); or, when the patient census is higher, the hospital imposes mandatory overtime, creating havoc in nurses’ schedules, finances, and personal lives. And people wonder why there’s a nursing shortage! […]

2017-03-28T13:15:48-04:00May 20th, 2010|career, Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research, safe staffing|34 Comments
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Tooting Our Horn

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editorial director/interim editor-in-chief

I know some people think it’s crass and self-serving to announce awards.  Sometimes I agree, especially if it’s the “I” award – I did this, I did that, I’ve been named to this or that commission.

But I have to announce these awards because not to do it is unfair to the many  people who work very hard behind the scenes to get each issue of AJN out the door and in your hands. Every reference and every fact is checked; articles are edited, second-edited, copyedited, and then proofread multiple times. There’s a pre-edit meeting with the author; there’s an art meeting; there are weekly editorial meetings. It takes editors, freelancers, clinical editors, knowledgeable authors with great stories, copyeditors, a librarian, our talented design and production teams, and our editorial and department coordinators to work together to develop each article, each issue. Some of the people who took part in working on these pieces are no longer here and I will be sure they learn about these awards, as it is truly a team effort.

So it’s with pride and thanks to those who made it happen that I share our news about the six (count ‘em – six!) awards to AJN announced by the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors (ASHPE):

GOLD award – Feature Article

The Vietnam Women’s Memorial: Better Late Than Never

Kay E. Schwebke; May 2009;


SILVER award – Signed Editorial 

Who’s Watching?

Diana J. Mason; March 2009 


SILVER […]

2016-11-21T13:17:53-05:00May 3rd, 2010|Nursing|2 Comments
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Are Nursing Strikes Ethical? New Research Raises the Stakes

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN interim editor-in-chief

Nurses at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia have been on strike since March 31st over a number of issues including wages, health benefits, and a “gag order” that could prohibit nurses from speaking out against the hospital. Nurses walking picket lines is not a new phenomenon. What is new is research showing that patients suffer harm when nurses strike.

In March, a paper (subscription only) published by the National Bureau of Economic Research provided some evidence that nurses’ strikes have harmful effects on patients. The authors analyzed strikes (in all, 50 strikes in 43 hospitals) in New York State over a 20-year period and looked at what happens to inpatient mortality rates and 30-day readmission rates for patients admitted during a strike. They found that inpatient hospital mortality increased by 19.4% and that readmission within 30 days increased by 6.5%. The researchers asked, “Is this because [patients] receive less care, or because they receive worse care?” And, in an analysis to see if the results were different in strikes where management hired replacement workers, it showed they were not—outcomes were still worse.

These findings really shouldn’t come as a surprise. How can care be safe when there are fewer nurses than the normal levels (which often are already less than adequate for providing optimum care)? How can care be safe when replacement nurses—whether newly hired or shifted from other positions—are plopped onto units […]

2016-11-21T13:18:09-05:00April 16th, 2010|career, Ethics, nursing perspective|5 Comments
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What Do Medical Researchers and Legislators Have in Common? Conflict of Interest, for One

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN interim editor-in-chief

LiebermanProtestIn a not-so-old blog post I did last month, I reported on a conference I attended in Vancouver.  There, editors from JAMA presented a study revealing that ghostwriting was a major problem for the leading medical journals. Articles were being drafted by writers other than the researchers. In some cases, the writers didn’t have access to all the data, which meant that analyses, conclusions, and—in some cases—recommendations for treatment were based on incomplete or misinterpreted findings.  As described in a New York Times article on the issue, medical product and pharmaceutical companies have much to gain if the safety and efficacy of their products are reported in a positive light.

Conflict of interest is a major concern whenever someone who stands to personally benefit can influence a decision. The National Institutes of Health, which is the leading medical and health research agency in this country, has imposed strict rules for employees limiting consulting and speaking fees involving outside companies and institutions that may have a stake in research outcomes. Most government agencies, research or not, impose rules to avoid conflicts of interest.

Last week, NBC News reported that protestors staged a sit-in at the Hartford, Connecticut, offices of Senator Joe Lieberman, demanding that he stop taking campaign contributions from insurance companies. 

2016-11-21T13:21:04-05:00November 16th, 2009|Ethics, health care policy|0 Comments
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What’s It Gonna Take to Improve Nurse Staffing?

From otisarchives4, via Flickr

It’s easy to forget that nurses are the ones who will continue to provide most of the care in whatever health care system we end up with in the coming years. Unfortunately, two recent announcements about how nurses rated staffing and workloads gave me a nasty sense of déjà vu.

On July 6, the American Nurses Association (ANA) announced the results of an online survey it conducted for several months last year: 70% of the 10,000 plus respondents say staffing is insufficient; 52% said they are considering leaving their job (of these, 42% say it’s because of inadequate staffing). Slightly more than 35% say they “rarely or never” are able to take full meal breaks. Over half say the quality of care has declined and almost half (49.5%) are unsure if they’d want someone they care about treated in the facility in which they work. […]

2016-11-21T13:25:43-05:00July 10th, 2009|health care policy, nursing research, safe staffing|2 Comments
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