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 to Obama: “Don’t Love Us – Just Put Us at the Table”

Mason told the conference that she was disappointed in the remark because “that’s not what nurses need.” Nurses need to be respected for what they know and for what they do, and then they need to be given a seat at the policy table when strategies for changing the health care system are being discussed.

2016-11-21T13:21:56-05:00October 6th, 2009|career, health care policy, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Mandating Flu Vaccines for Nurses

By Diana J. Mason, RN, PhD, editor-in-chief emeritus

Yesterday, nurses and other health care workers from New York State went to the state capitol in Albany to protest a regulation issued by the New York State Department of Health mandating that all health care workers get vaccinated for both the seasonal flu and for the pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza by November 30th or lose their jobs. Deborah Gerhardt, RN, who was interviewed by USA Today, says she may have to lose her job because she doesn’t have confidence in the safety of the new H1N1 vaccine: “Just because the FDA approved the H1N1 vaccine ‘doesn’t mean it’s safe in my book.'”

mandatingflushotsNew York State Commissioner of Health Richard Daines, MD, disagrees, and followed up an open letter to health care workers released on September 24th with a press conference to defend the new policy. The New York State Nurses Association, which urges nurses to get vaccinated but is against mandatory vaccinations, wrote their own open letter in response.

Citing one study of health care workers during a mild flu season that showed that 23% of the workers showed evidence of having had the flu that season but that 59% of these said they didn’t have the flu that year, Daines said that his concern is that workers are carrying the virus and exposing at-risk patients without realizing it. When challenged on whether family members and other visitors represent an equally great threat to patient […]

2016-11-21T13:22:03-05:00September 30th, 2009|nursing perspective|7 Comments
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Don’t Panic, Prepare: Edgy Moment for H1N1

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editorial director & interim editor-in-chief

'Nuff Said by ElektraCute / Elektra Noelani Fisher, via Flickr.

While many people (including nurses) remain relatively unworried about the coming flu season, others, it seems, are on high alert. I do wonder about the millions of dollars being spent (and being made) in the name of H1N1 (swine flu). I’ve heard of several seminars touting “must-know” facts and bearing titles that might make hospital administrators feel negligent if they don’t send staff (at hefty registration fees). Many companies, including mine, are distributing bottles of hand sanitizer to employees. And I can’t even imagine how many N95 respirators have sold since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently recommended their use by health care workers caring for patients with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza.

Take it seriously. Still, as a former emergency nurse, I’m all for being prepared for disasters. This influenza should be taken seriously. As of September 20, the World Health Organization reports there have been 3,917 deaths and more than 300,000 confirmed cases worldwide, although the actual number of cases is probably much higher.  The latest surveillance report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates widespread flu activity throughout much of the […]

2016-11-21T13:22:05-05:00September 29th, 2009|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Have ‘Mercy’! One Nurse’s Take on the Latest Nurse Drama

MercyScreenshotBy Peggy McDaniel, BSN, RN

As a long-time fan of ER and Grey’s Anatomy, I looked forward to watching the first episode of Mercy, an NBC drama that focuses on three nurses instead of using doctors as the primary characters (click the image to visit the show’s Website, where you can check out the first episode). At the same time, while I’ve often laughed aloud at the tasks doctors are seen doing on Grey’s Anatomy, such as putting patients through a CT scan, it’s the characters that make the show compelling—and as a clinician, I choose to enjoy them and ignore that you rarely see a nurse at the bedside.

ER, unlike Grey’s Anatomy, featured what I would consider “real” nurses doing “real” nursing tasks backed by intelligence, education, and intuition. Maybe it made a difference that it was originally created by Michael Crichton, a doctor who obviously knew something about what happens in a clinical setting. ER skillfully blended clinical action and personal stories of strong, engaging characters. As a clinician, I loved the accuracy and drama.

I have mixed feelings about Mercy. The first episode introduced the characters, who appeared to be at least interesting, if not scintillating. Veronica, the primary character, suffers from PTSD after her return from service in Iraq. While she showed […]

2016-11-21T13:22:09-05:00September 25th, 2009|career, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Why Doesn’t the U.S. Have an Office of the National Nurse?

By Diana Mason, editor-in-chief emeritus

Ann Keen

First, the necessary throat-clearing about who and where: I recently attended a public session held by the Institute of Medicine Initiative on the Future of Nursing. Chaired by University of Miami president and former secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala and chief nurse for Cedar Sinai Medical Center Linda Burnes Bolton, the session began with presentations by two nurses involved in the Prime Minister’s Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery in England: Ann Keen, Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Undersecretary for Health Services, who chairs the British commission; and Jane Salvage, the lead secretariat for the commission and a former contributing editor for AJN.

Now the point: During the formal session, Keen noted that various countries in the UK each have a chief nurse officer (CNO) who is responsible for developing a national nursing strategy. Afterwards, I interviewed Keen and Salvage, who both said they didn’t understand why American nurses were not supporting the call for a CNO for the United States, one who would be charged with developing and overseeing a national nursing strategy for this nation. In their eyes, a CNO who is on par with the surgeon general could help the nation to develop approaches to ensure an adequate nursing workforce, identify barriers to their full utilization, identify new models of care to better promote the health of the public, and develop strategies […]

2016-11-21T13:22:18-05:00September 21st, 2009|career, health care policy, nursing perspective|17 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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