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

Editor-in-chief, (emerita), AJN

Frontline Nurses Speak Out – A Health Care Crisis That ‘Didn’t Have to Be This Way’

Themes of heartbreak, heroics, exhaustion, sadness, and anger.

Previously on this blog, I posted about the Frontline Nurses WikiWisdom Forum, an initiative AJN joined back in March to bring forth the experiences and thoughts of nurses working at the point of care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with Cynda Rushton (Johns Hopkins School of Nursing & Berman Institute of Bioethics and AJN editorial board member) and Theresa Brown (nurse, author, and AJN contributing editor) and the folks at New Voice Strategies, we solicited stories from nurses from around the country. Of the many who visited the site, 463 nurses joined and shared their experiences.

Forum moderator Cindy Richards, a professional journalist, worked with four “thought leaders” from the nurses to organize the themes and recommendations from the rich content posted by the nurses.

And while we recognize that the pandemic is far from over (United States cases as of September 20 were over 6.7 million, approaching 200,000 deaths and still on the rise), we felt we had reached a critical mass of content. The stories echoed repetitive themes of heartbreak, heroics, exhaustion, sadness, and anger.

“Nurses often put their patients’ needs before their own. That didn’t change during the pandemic. What did change is that […]

2020-09-22T09:47:24-04:00September 22nd, 2020|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective, Public health|0 Comments
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Documentary Filmmaker: The ED Reflects Everything Going on in Our Country

A new documentary profiles emergency nurses.

If you think the photo on the cover of the September issue is dramatic, it’s because it was taken during the emergency treatment of a young man with a gunshot wound. (See On the Cover for details.)

The photo is from the new film by filmmaking team Carolyn Jones and Lisa Frank, In Case of Emergency, which was made in concert with the Emergency Nurses Association to mark its 50th anniversary.

Michelle Lyon, RN, an ED nurse at the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital, Lexington.

The film’s release is scheduled for October 14th, the beginning of Emergency Nurses Week, and we highlight the film in a photo-essay in the September issue. (The article is free until the end of the month, and best viewed as a pdf.)

The film follows the work of ED nurses in several parts of the country. As a former ED nurse, I was struck by the ability of these filmmakers to […]

2020-09-10T14:18:29-04:00September 10th, 2020|narratives, Nursing|0 Comments
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In a Formidable Nursing Career, Bernardine Lacey Faced and Overcame Racism

Her story is important to know, because it offers an opportunity to learn from the not-too-distant past and explore some of the difficult truths about racism in nursing, the role of the profession in this history, and the effect of these accounts on current diversity and inclusivity efforts.

Lacey meeting with first lady Barbara Bush in the White House in the 1980s.

So write Sandra Lewenson and Ashley Graham-Perel in their article in the August issue of AJN, ‘You Don’t Have Any Business Being This Good’: An Oral History Interview with Bernardine Lacey. In the article, they recount Lacey’s upbringing in the South and the many racial barriers that made it difficult for her in getting an education and pursuing her career—which became a formidable one. As a result of her many accomplishments in education, practice, and leadership, she was named a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing in 2014.

Racial barriers remain.

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2020-08-17T09:38:48-04:00August 17th, 2020|career, Nursing, nursing history|0 Comments
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How to Know When to Go: One Nurse’s Approach to the Retirement Question

Many possible takes on ‘retirement.’

When I meet many of my nursing school mates from (too many) years ago, conversation inevitably turns toward talk of retirement. There are many angles to this, from “Are you going to retire?” to “Are you thinking of slowing down?” to “What are you going to do next?”

I have friends who couldn’t wait to retire and wanted nothing more than an empty schedule to be able to make spur-of-the-moment decisions about what they wanted to do or not do. Others I know also retired fully from nursing but now are docents in museums, driving meals-on-wheels, supervising exercise in an elderly day care facility. And of course there are many who just “cut back”—they work part-time or per diem, but “keep their hand in.”

Photo by Aaron Cynic.

But the decision on when to leave a full-time career can be a difficult one, as the author of the July Transitions column, “What Would Ellen Do?” (free until August 20), points out.

Ellen Elpern was an advanced practice critical care nurse at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, a large urban academic medical center, loved the work and enjoyed working with her colleagues.

In making her decision to retire, […]

2020-07-31T09:55:24-04:00July 31st, 2020|career, Nursing, nursing career|1 Comment
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Magnet Status Is Generally Better for Nurses and Patients

Discussed in this post: “Original Research: How Magnet Hospital Status Affects Nurses, Patients, and Organizations: A Systematic Review” (July, AJN)

Is the work it takes to become a Magnet hospital worth it?

The Magnet award recognizing excellence in nursing has been around for decades. It’s not an easy process, nor an inexpensive one—hospitals that apply invest a lot of time, effort, and money. There’s a considerable fee plus the expenses for the site visit appraisers, and many institutions designate or hire a Magnet coordinator whose job it is to ensure policies throughout the organization comply with Magnet requirements. It’s a huge undertaking. And while administrators may groan over the prospect of going through it, many hospitals do pursue it—there are over 500 Magnet-designated hospitals worldwide.

No institution is perfect, but Magnet does mean improved visibility for nursing.

I’ve had experiences, with friends or family, in both Magnet and non-Magnet hospitals. While I felt that overall patient care and responsiveness to patients and families was better at the Magnet facilities, there were also instances where things didn’t go quite the way they should. But in the harried hospital setting, I don’t expect 100% smooth sailing with every encounter with every nurse. What I have heard from several nurses who participated in their hospitals’ […]

2020-07-13T12:40:55-04:00July 13th, 2020|Nursing|1 Comment
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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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