Nurses spend more time with patients than most other types of providers and have unique insight into patient care and the the healthcare system.

Nursing Is Hazardous to Our Health

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief

We all know that our nursing jobs expose us to various hazards—back and joint problems, needlesticks and other means of exposure to infectious diseases, traumatic injuries from encounters with violent patients or their family members, just to name some common ones. And as if that’s not enough, the psychological toll taken can result in burnout and even PTSD, which wreak havoc on retention. Heart disease and depression should probably also be on the list.

You may have seen news reports about a study with Danish nurses, published in the May issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The researchers found that nurses younger than 51 years at baseline who perceived their workplaces as highly stressful were significantly more likely to have ischemic heart disease during the 15-year follow-up. Now, as the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry reports, a Finnish study has found that nurses and physicians who work in overcrowded acute care units have “twice the risk of sickness absence due to depressive disorders” compared with colleagues working in less crowded areas. And Health Policy reports on a study revealing that, among Canadian nurses, “Depression is a significant determinant of absenteeism for both RNs and LPNs.”

Is anyone surprised? Not nurses, for sure, and probably no one who’s worked at or been a patient in a hospital recently. With few exceptions, hospitals are generally terrible places to work. Yes, the

2016-11-21T13:17:24-05:00June 4th, 2010|nursing perspective, nursing research|6 Comments
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Rapid Response Teams Seen Through the Nurse’s Eyes: What A New Study Reveals

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

How do nurses who activate a call by their facility’s rapid response team feel about the experience? And why does it matter? These questions lie at the heart of a qualitative study by nurse researcher Susan E. Shapiro and colleagues, who report on their findings in this month’s CE feature (for optimum reading, open the PDF version). For the study, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Shapiro and colleagues interviewed 56 staff nurses from 18 hospitals in 13 states; all of the nurses had participated in at least one rapid response team activation. Based on the data, the researchers identified three categories, posed as questions, that best described the nurses’ experiences:

  • Why was the team activated?
  • What did the team bring to the bedside?
  • How did the activating nurses feel about the experience?

Nurses tended to activate the rapid response team when a patient had signs and symptoms “that were either unexplained or significantly different from baseline,” when the nurse had a “gut feeling” that something was amiss, or when the nurse felt a patient needed urgent attention and couldn’t get the treating physician to respond. Overall, the activating nurses appreciated the added expertise and resources that rapid response team members brought to the bedside. As one nurse said, “You don’t have to figure it out; there’s going to be other minds there to work through it.” […]

2010-06-03T10:13:37-04:00June 3rd, 2010|nursing perspective, nursing research|2 Comments
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Nurses Take On Big Tobacco: The Nightingales Fight the Good Fight

by Christine Contillo, BSN, BS, RN-C

Last month I joined three other nurses from across the country at the annual Philip Morris International (PMI) shareholders’ meeting in New York City. Wearing lab coats to represent the fact that we’re committed health professionals, we each used our two minutes of the question-and-answer period to confront PMI Chairman and CEO Louis Camilleri about the company’s questionable practices in targeting new (and often underage) smokers in developing nations. With patient advocacy, science, and education on our side, we challenged the heavily advertised and misrepresentative claims of Big Tobacco (PMI currently owns seven of the 15 top-selling cigarette brands worldwide). […]

2016-11-21T13:17:26-05:00June 2nd, 2010|nursing perspective|3 Comments
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Doing the Doctoring–A Nurse Who’s Filling the Primary Care Gap for Needy Children

By Peggy McDaniel, BSN, RN

A while back, a poll on the AJN Website asked if PhD-prepared nurses should be addressed as “doctor.” My answer was an emphatic “yes!” Janie, an old friend of mine, just graduated with her doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree this past spring. She recently opened up her own clinic, serving kids as a primary health care provider in Portland, Oregon. She is the inspiration for my vote, but her chosen path isn’t easy.

Janie is filling a void in Portland that few providers are willing to address. She’s called Dr. Janie, and she well deserves the title. I have been a foster parent here in Oregon for the past few years. The kids that enter foster care often come from neglectful and/or abusive situations. These children can be hungry, fearful, wary, dirty, sad, and often confused and angry. They also deeply crave a sense of safety.

The state requires that these children be seen within 30 days of entering foster care. Getting them seen is a huge challenge. The requirement is, in theory, a great idea—these children often have multiple medical and psychosocial needs that have been neglected. But I couldn’t find a clinic in Portland that would take a “new patient” with welfare insurance within that time frame. It was often days or longer before I would find out basic information such as allergies about the children I was asked to care for. As a nurse, I found this lack of information to be unsettling, […]

2016-11-21T13:17:28-05:00May 27th, 2010|career, nursing perspective|6 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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