The Rise of Anti-Intellectualism, Snapshot of Nursing in Gaza, Video Monitoring to Reduce Falls: December Issue Recommended Reading

The December issue of AJN is now live.

Some articles in this issue will be open access or free to access for a set period; others will require log-in or subscription. Below are some articles of note we’d like to draw your attention to.

This issue has two original research articles. The first is of these is an observational cohort study looking at implementation of a continuous video monitoring program to decrease falls in a long-term acute care hospital setting. This article is open access.

The second original research article in our December issue is “Investigating the Relationships Among Nurses’ Stress, Sleep Quality, and Mental Health, and the Mediating Role of Coping Strategies and Social Support: A Cross-Sectional Study.” According to the authors, “This study highlights strong associations between stress, sleep quality, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, with coping strategies and social support as potential mediators.”

An integrative review (currently free to read) looks at what we currently know (and don’t know but need to study) about best practices for implementing hospital-based virtual nursing.

Our editorial by editor-in-chief Carl Kirton indulges a little word play in its title, “The Rise of AI.” But […]

2025-11-20T11:34:48-05:00November 20th, 2025|digital health, Nursing, nursing research, Public health, Technology|0 Comments
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Continuous Glucose Monitoring and Time in Range: Improving Data for Diabetes Management

Nursing roles in diabetes management.

A continuous glucose monitor reader (or a smartphone app) scans the sensor attached to the patient’s body for interstitial fluid glucose level and can provide data such as average blood glucose level or percentage of time spent in a target range over a given period of time.

Knowledge is power. When a person with diabetes knows their blood glucose levels, they can better self-manage lifestyle choices and medications and be an active participant in preventing complications. Glucose information can be obtained through a variety of methods. The majority of people with known diabetes receive reports on their glucose from the health care provider who is able to do lab work to obtain fasting or random blood glucose level, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c, or just A1c) level, and urine glucose.

Nurses play an integral role to partner with the patient about their diabetes and provide education on the meaning of glucose measurement. In the outpatient setting, nurses can help the patient adjust insulin dosages and work on glucose monitoring skills and interpretation. Inpatient, nurses oversee and utilize glucose results and help with self-management skills in anticipation of care at […]

2024-06-19T10:57:17-04:00June 19th, 2024|Diabetes, digital health, Nursing, patient engagement, Technology|1 Comment
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Telehealth in Rural Nursing: Embracing Change for Better Patient Outcomes

rural road Photo by Bradyn Shock on Unsplash

When I first heard of telehealth services coming to our rural hospital, no one was a bigger skeptic than I was.

Perhaps the main reason was the way I was educated as a nurse and how I learned to practice as an APRN. Honestly, I am “old school” in every way possible. My first thought was, “This is not good practice; how could it be? Won’t there be shortcuts? How about the lack of a physical exam? How can you properly physically evaluate someone over telehealth? How can you take safe care of patients and avoid missing something that’s potentially life-threatening if you can’t touch them? How could someone a thousand miles away help me way up in the mountains of the Eastern Panhandle? What could they know about the community here and their needs?”

These were just a few of the questions and concerns I had regarding telehealth coming to our rural community access hospital. When we assess our patients, we not only to listen to their heart and lungs, look into their eyes, hear their voice, feel the temperature of their skin, but we connect. We are building trust and ensuring support with looking, listening, and feeling.

The […]

2023-10-03T10:04:41-04:00August 25th, 2023|digital health, Nursing, nursing roles, patient experience, Patients|5 Comments
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40-years of Forensic Nursing and Current Opportunities in Remote Sexual Assault Care

Remembering an influential article.

Patricia Speck

Timing is everything. Forensic nursing service through telehealth is possible today, as reported in a recent Kaiser Health News story, but it wasn’t always that way. Fifty years ago, Ann W. Burgess, a psychiatric–mental health nurse working in the emergency room, wrote a paper with a sociologist colleague about what she was seeing in patients who complained of being raped. “The Rape Victim in the Emergency Ward” (pdf), published in AJN, was reported nationally and informed 1970s kitchen table conversations about what rape is, is not, and when “no means no.”

Naming the trauma and its effects.

The ideas in this article were new at the time. Burgess wrote that sexual assault causes acute emotional trauma, requiring time for recovery, and she named phases of what she eventually called “rape trauma syndrome.” Prior to the article, victims of sexual assault often did not report the assault, and when they did they waited hours for a newly minted physician intern who had been punished with “rape-duty.” These physicians had no knowledge about what to do.

In accordance with societal views at the time, victims were often blamed for their rape—the way you dress, how you act, […]

2023-02-17T10:40:20-05:00February 17th, 2023|digital health, nursing roles, patient experience, Public health|2 Comments
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Assessing the Post-Pandemic Future of Virtual Care

The following is a condensed version of an upcoming news article by Joan Zolot scheduled for AJN’s May edition.

Studies of safety and quality will determine the optimum use of this option.

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

The use of telemedicine surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Phone and videoconferencing limited patients’ exposure to the virus while maintaining their access to care. One estimate found that virtual care peaked at 42% of all ambulatory visits covered by commercial insurers in April 2020. The February 2 JAMA published several articles* addressing the safety, effectiveness, and quality of virtual consults and their future in health care.

Some obvious and potential benefits.

Because of its efficiency, virtual care has been shown to be particularly suitable for mental health consults, prescription refills, and straightforward evaluations. It can reduce patient inconveniences such as travel to appointments and lost work time. It can also enable patients to receive needed care sooner, especially those with limited mobility, caregiving responsibilities, or who live in remote areas. It may also have the potential to improve care coordination by enabling primary care clinicians and specialists to confer jointly with patients.

Risks, concerns, ongoing questions.

Because virtual medicine does not allow for physical examination, it’s inadequate for common clinical situations […]

2021-04-07T14:15:14-04:00April 7th, 2021|digital health, patient engagement, Patients, Public health, Technology|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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