nursing perspective Archives - Page 115 of 158

Alone, Isolated, At Risk

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

I saw the following headline this week: “LA woman dies in her cubicle at work; body is not discovered until the following day.” The article said it was unclear how she had died. I hope it was at the end of the day after everyone had left; I really hope they don’t find out that she died midday, amidst coworkers who were going about their business. Maybe they were so busy that they never noticed the silence from her cubicle.

This story reminded me of two articles I read recently. One was an article that will be published in the Emerging Infections department in our March issue, which goes live at the end of next week on ajnonline.com. “The Contact Precautions Controversy” examines the issues around placing patients on contact precautions and in isolation—an approach that many hospitals use almost routinely for some patients. (We covered this issue in a news piece last July as well.) Recent studies are raising questions about this practice and the risks to these patients, who often have fewer interactions, get less care, and may feel neglected because health care providers limit contact.

The other article is one that’s in the headlines now. The Boston Globe ran a story about […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:14:00-05:00February 17th, 2011|nursing perspective, nursing research, patient engagement|3 Comments

The Shape of a Woman: Two Poems in ‘Art of Nursing’

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

“I think about the woman / wilting // on the pillow of the steering wheel,” begins Stacy R. Nigliazzo’s poem “Sketch,” featured in this month’s Art of Nursing department. As the title suggests, the poem sketches out a scene, the immediate aftermath of a car accident. The driver appears dead; the paramedics “offer her up, prostrate / in white splints,” while the physician records the time. The narrator—who might be an ED nurse (perhaps Nigliazzo, an ED nurse herself)—describes what she sees. And as she does, we feel the terrible burden of her witnessing: the victim’s eyes brim “like black bowls that can’t be filled.” When the victim has been taken away, we’re left with almost nothing, only some coins and “buckled lines / in the shape of a woman.” It’s a short, spare piece that conjures up far more complicated matters, like where the dead reside, and how the living might go on.

The narrator of “Connection,” the poem by Camille Norvaisas that’s featured in January’s Art of Nursing, has undergone a double mastectomy. She is shockingly direct in her stated desire. “I want to feel the same / as my nipples, so cold, / in some jar in a sterile lab,” she tells us. She’s trying to comprehend a literal disconnection: once her breasts were part of her; now, “referred to as tissue,” they lie on a stainless […]

Guest Author2016-11-21T13:14:06-05:00February 4th, 2011|nursing perspective|2 Comments

Neither Dragons nor Angels — Just Imperfect, Like Everybody Else

By Gail Pfeifer, MA, RN, AJN news director

I’m not a history buff, but my husband is. So I nicely went along on a recent trip with him to Virginia, visiting historic sites like Montpelier, Jamestown, Yorktown, and Appomattox. It was more fun than I’d anticipated and it really did open a door for me, showing me how much, and how little, has changed, especially in political behavior: When Cornwallis had to surrender to Washington, for example, he feigned illness and sent his second in command, General O’Hara, to do so. Washington, in return, would not accept the sword from O’Hara, directing him to his own second in command. Tit for tat.

One of the things I least expected from the National Park Service was a specific acknowledgment of nurses or nursing (except for maybe Clara Barton, who established the American branch of the International Red Cross). Yet there it was at one of our Civil War site stops: a note that Dorothea Dix had visited to review care of the Union soldiers.

Although she is best known for her work improving care for the mentally ill, Dix became Superintendent of Female Nurses for the Union during the Civil War, serving for the entire duration without pay. At that time, biographers say (variably) that she was 59 or 60 years old, a strong, unmarried woman of her times. Dix was a social […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:14:16-05:00January 21st, 2011|nursing perspective|1 Comment

HCR: Been There, Done That

By Maureen ‘Shawn’ Kennedy, AJN editor in chief

I was doing some research in the AJN archives and came across an editorial written in November 1993 by Virginia Trotter Betts, then-president of the American Nurses Association. “The Best Buy in Health Care” (click through to the PDF option; article will be free until July 18) reads like it was written with the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing report in mind. Here’s an excerpt for those who don’t have access to the AJN archives (a shameless plug: subscribers have full access to ALL the issues of AJN, back to the very first issue in 1900—a treasure trove of nursing history):

“But we must also face the fact that such reform will require significant changes in nursing. Nurses will have to operate with greater autonomy and deliver care to a broader clientele. To foster enhanced roles for nurses as case managers and team leaders, nursing administrators must alert the work environment to offer a continuum of care on site and off site. Nurse educators will need to offer innovative programs, curricula, and clinical placements that prepare nurses for careers characterized by critical thinking and maximum flexibility. Nurse researchers will need to add more health care system, economic and policy studies to their repertoire.”

And another:

“Nurses want to do more in a reformed system to facilitate access at a reasonable cost. We want to do what we are educated to do – provide […]

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Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:14:18-05:00January 18th, 2011|career, health care policy, nursing perspective|0 Comments

The Real Criminals Here: Justice is Served in Winkler County, Texas, Whistleblower Case

By Maureen ‘Shawn’ Kennedy, AJN editor in chief

On January 13, news from Texas let nurses everywhere take heart that, sometimes, the system works. According to a report by the Odessa American, the Winkler County, Texas, officials, Sheriff Robert Roberts and attorney Scott Tidwell, who had filed charges against whistleblower nurses Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle, have been indicted on felony charges of misuse of official information. The hospital administrator who fired the two nurses, Stan Wiley, was also indicted. For more on the story, which we’ve kept a close eye on since October 2009 in our news reports and on this blog, see this ABC World News article; the Texas Nurses Association also has an archive of the case.

In a separate civil suit against the county, Mitchell and Galle were awarded $750,000. Very excellent.

Why is this so exciting and significant? The case outcome supports nurses who raise concerns about unsafe patient care and upholds the nurse’s right—duty, really—to advocate for patients. Hopefully, the nurses’ victory and the award from the civil suit will give pause to those who think they can intimidate nurses who are acting on good conscience and within legal and ethical boundaries.

Kudos to the courts for realizing who the real criminals are.