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

Nurses Take Action on Moral Distress

Nurses gather at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing to address this growing problem.

A nurse struggles to reconcile repeated surgeries and transfusions for a premature infant with the child’s slight chance of survival. An oncology nurse knows a patient wants to refuse treatment but doesn’t do so because his physician and family want him to “fight on.” A nurse on a geriatric unit knows she is not giving needed care to patients because of inadequate staffing.

From left, Katherine Brown-Saltzman, Kathryn Trotochaud, Lisa Lehmann, Heidi Holtz From left, Katherine Brown-Saltzman,
Paula Goodman-Crews, Lisa Lehmann, Heidi Holtz

Situations like these are not rare for nurses and often give rise to moral distress—that is, when nurses recognize their responsibility to respond to care situations but are unable to translate their moral choices into action.

Moral distress in nursing has risen to unprecedented levels, contributing to burnout and staff shortages and imperiling safe, quality health care.

Seeking solutions.

Nursing researchers, clinicians, organization representatives, and other stakeholders convened in Baltimore on August 11-12 for an intense invitational workshop called State of the Science Symposium: Transforming Moral Distress to Moral Resiliency in Nursing. The meeting focused on how to best address moral distress.

The 46 participants heard […]

2017-02-03T14:50:26-05:00August 16th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Former Navy Nurse Raises Awareness About the Lingering Effects of Agent Orange

Susan Schnall and a group of children at Tu Du Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, in 2008. Susan Schnall and a group of children at Tu Du Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, in 2008.

On August 10, 1961, the United States military first sprayed Agent Orange, a defoliant containing a particularly toxic dioxin compound, in Vietnam. Fifty-five years later, the effects of this and other chemicals linger on. And 48 years after former naval nurse Susan Schnall was court-martialed for protesting the Vietnam War, she visited Vietnam for the first time and witnessed these effects firsthand.

“In all my years in health care, I have never seen children with such severe birth defects,” Schnall said during an interview with AJN. After her court-martial, Schnall went on to have a successful 30-year career in hospital administration. After retiring and visiting Vietnam, she decided she needed to do something about what she witnessed there.

Schnall joined a group called the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign, made up of American Vietnam Veterans, Vietnamese Americans, social activists, and community leaders. The group aims to educate the public on the repercussions of the chemical warfare used in Southeast […]

2016-11-21T13:01:01-05:00August 15th, 2016|nursing perspective, nursing stories, Public health|0 Comments
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AJN News: E-Cigarettes and Children, Transgender Health, Nursing Workforce Survey, More

AJN’s monthly news section covers timely and important research and policy stories that are relevant to the nursing world. Here are some of the stories you’ll find in our current issue (news articles in AJN are free access):

E-cigarette packaging uses colorful images to depict various flavors. Photo by David Becker / Reuters.

Toxic Exposures of Young Children to E-Cigarettes on the Rise

A new analysis of calls to U.S. poison control centers found that e-cigarette exposures in children younger than six increased dramatically from 2012 to 2015. Though child-resistant packaging for e-cigarette products was federally mandated in January, advocates are also calling for regulations on eye-catching […]

2016-11-21T13:01:02-05:00August 11th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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AJN in August: Burn Survivors and Social Media, HPV–Related Oropharyngeal Cancer, More

The August issue of AJN is now live. Here are some articles we’d like to bring to your attention.

CE Feature: “Original Research: The Lived Experience of Social Media by Young Adult Burn Survivors”

Young adult burn survivors whose burns occurred before they reached young adulthood face particular socialization challenges. Social media is widely used by adolescents and young adults, allowing socialization without face-to-face communication. This qualitative, phenomenological study explores and describes young adult burn survivors’ experience of using social media. The findings, which indicate that social media use may support healing processes in this population, could help nurses develop effective interventions to better prepare young adult burn survivors for reentry into society.

CE Feature: “Human Papillomavirus–Related Oropharyngeal Cancer: A Review of Nursing Considerations”

The overall incidence of head and neck cancer has declined in the United States over the past 30 years due to reduction in tobacco use. Over that same period, however, the worldwide incidence of oropharyngeal cancer has escalated significantly, most notably among men and women under age 60 who live in developed countries. This epidemic rise in oropharyngeal cancer is largely attributed to certain genotypes of the human papillomavirus (HPV). This article provides an overview of head and neck cancer—its incidence, risk factors, treatment, and posttreatment sequelae—with a focus on […]

2016-11-21T13:01:02-05:00August 1st, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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The Quandary of Scheduling Vacation Time for Nurses

Illustration by the author; all rights reserved Illustration by the author; all rights reserved

While shopping in a grocery store, I passed a display of craft brew beer that caught my eye. The sign read Hospice Beer! After a double take, I saw on closer inspection that the label actually read: Hop-Slice Beer.

I realized I was badly in need of a summer vacation. Fortunately, I already had one scheduled on the books.

Summer is a traditional time for vacations, but often not for nurses, for multiple reasons.

Paid time off benefits vary from organization to organization.

Some lump vacation hours and sick leave hours into the same bank, while others separate the two so that nurses accrue hours into each per pay period. Paid vacation time accrues slowly when it’s used for paid sick time.

Further, after accepting a new job, nurses may find that as the newbie they accrue vacation and sick leave hours at a rate lower than their colleagues hired earlier; this practice, called tiered employment, exists within many industries outside of health care, whether they’re union or not. The practice can foster division between the newly hired and existing staff within units. Newer hires accrue less benefits for the same amount of work as their peers. The practice is a […]

2016-11-21T13:01:03-05:00July 25th, 2016|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|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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