Shingles: The Disease, the Vaccine, and the Role of Nurses in Vaccination Conversations

Shingles: The Disease

Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is a painful viral condition caused by the reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), the same virus responsible for chickenpox. While anyone with a history of chickenpox is at risk of developing shingles, the likelihood increases with age and in those with weakened immune systems. The disease can lead to significant morbidity, including postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), a debilitating complication characterized by persistent nerve pain. Fortunately, effective vaccination exists, and nurses play a critical role in raising awareness, educating patients, and promoting vaccine acceptance.

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Shingles occurs when the varicella-zoster virus, which remains dormant in the dorsal root ganglia after a person recovers from chickenpox, reactivates. This reactivation typically happens decades later, often due to age-related decline in cell-mediated immunity or immunosuppressive conditions. Upon reactivation, the virus travels along sensory nerves to the skin, causing a painful, blistering rash.

Clinical Manifestations

2025-05-21T09:33:47-04:00May 21st, 2025|Nursing|1 Comment
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Maternal Health: Funding Cuts Amid an Ongoing Crisis

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The United States continues to grapple with a maternal health crisis characterized by significant racial and ethnic disparities in morbidity and mortality. Maternal mortality rates here are at least double (and sometimes triple) those of most other high-income countries, according to a 2024 Commonwealth Fund report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 80% of U.S. maternal deaths are preventable.

Recent data show some improvement in mortality and morbidity but persistent disparities in who is at greatest risk. Pregnancy-related deaths in 2023 decreased to 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births from a rate of 22.3 the year before, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Yet the maternal mortality rate for Black women and American Indian and Alaska Native women continues to be more than three times that of White women.

Federal changes threaten efforts to improve care and disparities 

As nurses and other maternal health providers work to address the complex underlying causes of these disparities, their efforts have been challenged in recent months by rapid and unprecedented federal funding and infrastructure cuts. The Trump administration has suspended Title X family planning and preventive health services funding, initiated widespread layoffs of federal health agency […]

2025-05-14T09:36:15-04:00May 14th, 2025|health care policy, Nursing, Public health, women's health|0 Comments
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The Repercussions of Trump Administration Cuts to NIH and Research Funding

From the first week of his administration, President Trump has targeted medical and academic research, cutting research funding to universities and slashing the workforce and budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Concerns about the future of medical research in the United States began on January 22, just three days into the new administration, when all meetings to review grant submissions at NIH were cancelled with no plan for rescheduling.

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Within days, NIH abruptly cut off funding for research projects that incorporated principles or language associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in any form, such as clinical trials focused on populations underrepresented in past research. In early February, NIH announced drastic reductions in the indirect costs rate, the percentage paid to universities for administrative and overhead costs of funded research studies. NIH funding of new grants fell precipitously; an analysis in STAT found a 28% reduction in new grant funding in the first three months of the administration. Then in March universities got hit, most notably Columbia and Harvard, with the Trump administration threatening to terminate all federal funding if universities did not comply with the administration’s policy demands. The loss […]

2025-05-09T10:09:38-04:00May 9th, 2025|equity, health care policy, Nursing, nursing research, Public health|0 Comments
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Workplace Safety as an Ethical Imperative in Nursing

“How do we honor the role of the nurse by building systems that reflect the same level of commitment they bring to patient care?”

Workplace violence (WPV) remains a persistent and serious challenge in health care. Nurses, bound by the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics to provide compassionate care and prevent harm, experience assaults at significantly higher rates than other health care professionals—a trend that intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. These experiences are not only harmful; they create a profound ethical conflict by directly undermining professional role obligations and disrupting the alignment between ethical expectations and workplace realities. This misalignment diminishes professional role clarity, fosters cognitive dissonance in nurses’ professional role identity, and ultimately strains their commitment to the nursing profession.

Nurses’ ability to uphold compassion and provide nursing care is compromised when their safety is not protected. The 2025 revision of the Code of Ethics, particularly Provision 5, directly addresses this concern. It affirms what we’ve long known to be true:

“The nurse has moral duties to self as a person of inherent dignity and worth including an expectation of a safe place to work that fosters flourishing, authenticity of self at work, and self-respect through integrity and professional competence.”

This guidance reframes workplace safety—not as a matter of personal resilience or policy—but as an ethical obligation rooted in nursing values and woven into the nursing professional role. It highlights the responsibility of organizations, leaders, and the profession to ensure nurses can […]

2025-04-29T11:25:40-04:00April 29th, 2025|Ethics, Nursing, nursing career, violence against nurses|0 Comments
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Using AI to Transform Nursing Workflow: And Other Recommended Reading from AJN’s May Issue

On the cover, Michelle Nai, MSN, RN, GERO-BC, at left, and Christine Waszynski, DNP, APRN, GNP-BC, at right, do doll therapy with a patient at the Therapeutic Hub—a nurse-led space at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut, that offers multisensory activities to hospitalized older adults tailored to their interests and needs. Read Nai and colleagues’ Special Feature for an overview of how the Hub operates.

The May issue of AJN is now live.

This month’s CE article, “Ascaris lumbricoides: A Clinical Case Report,” follows a woman who developed ascariasis, an infection caused by the parasitic roundworm Ascaris lumbricoides, and discusses clinical manifestations, diagnostic testing, and treatment, as well as nursing management for those with suspected infection.

In “Using an AI-Powered Solution to Transform Nursing Workflow and Improve Inpatient Care: A Retrospective Observational Study,” the authors evaluate an AI–driven technology that automates patient requests and directs them to the appropriate teams in other departments instead of to the nurses’ station, thereby eliminating the need for nursing intervention in noncare tasks. (Open access)

What factors influence nurses’ attitudes toward medical errors and the barriers to reporting these errors? Read  “Understanding ICU Nurses’ Attitudes Toward Medical Errors and Error Reporting: A Cross-Sectional Study” to learn more.

2025-04-24T11:42:32-04:00April 24th, 2025|Nursing|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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