nursing perspective Archives - Page 18 of 158

Psychiatric Nursing: The Seemingly Unreachable Patient

Illustration by Jennifer Rodgers for AJN

In many fields, we must keep doing the same thing over and over without any apparent results. Nurses, for example, may find that their efforts to make a patient safe, to reach a patient, to ease a patient’s suffering have little visible effect. This is just part of the work, but some patients will inevitably pose a greater personal challenge than others.

“Five Words,” the Reflections essay in the May issue of AJN, written by former psychiatric nurse Tania Renee Zayid, is about one of those patients and the feelings of hope and disappointment his nurse experiences in his presence. In it, she writes: […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:01:12-05:00May 23rd, 2016|narratives, Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|0 Comments

What a Nurse Really Wants

Lois Corcoran, BSN, PCCN, is pursuing a master of science in nursing degree and works on a cardiac step-down unit. Although Nurses Week recently ended, we felt that this short, honest post sums up the way a lot of nurses seem to feel.

via flickr creative commons/by you me

I have been a nurse for 18 years. I went to nursing school when I was 33 years old, a year after I’d completed treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma. I was a single mom, newly divorced, trying to make my way.

Becoming a nurse felt like my calling. I was passionate about it. I had been through so much, and I knew I had a lot to give back—I wanted to be with patients, holding their hands, giving them the reassurance we so desperately want to hear when we are going through ill health. I knew that I could be that nurse. I felt that my cancer had been the portal to this realization, opening my eyes and heart to what patients need.

Eighteen years later the truth of my life as a nurse is a little more complicated. It’s not that my original soul’s calling isn’t still there, deep inside me. I still feel a close connection with my patients. I […]

Guest Author2017-08-04T09:53:14-04:00May 19th, 2016|career, Nursing, nursing perspective, Patients|9 Comments

Napping on the Night Shift: What a Pilot Study Revealed

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Nurses who work the night shift often struggle with high levels of sleepiness. But while onsite napping is effectively used to counter worker fatigue in other safety-sensitive industries, the practice has yet to win wide acceptance in nursing.

Curious about why this is so, nurse researchers Jeanne Geiger-Brown and colleagues recently conducted a pilot study. They report their findings in this month’s CE–Original Research feature, “Napping on the Night Shift: A Two-Hospital Implementation Project” (for some night shift napping ground rules, see, at right, Table 1: Guidelines for Hospital Nurses on Implementing Naps on the Night Shift—click table to enlarge).

Here’s an overview:

Purpose: To assess the barriers to successful implementation of night-shift naps and to describe the nap experiences of night-shift nurses who took naps.

Methods: In this two-hospital pilot implementation project, napping on the night shift was offered to six nursing units. Unit nurse managers’ approval was sought, and further explanation was given to a unit’s staff nurses. A nap experience form, which included the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, was used to assess pre-nap sleepiness level, nap duration and perceived sleep experience, post-nap sleep inertia, and the perceived helpfulness of the nap. Nurse managers and staff nurses were also interviewed at the end of the three-month study period.

Results: Successful implementation occurred on only one of the six units, with partial success seen on […]

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Guest Author2016-11-21T13:01:12-05:00May 16th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research, patient safety|3 Comments

Superlatives: An Alternate List for Nurses Week

During Nurses Week (May 6–12), the hospital where I work gives out endearing little trophies as awards for “nursing superlatives.” Ballots are distributed with predetermined categories, and the categories are usually fun and relatively straightforward. They include:

Best at Starting an IV
Most Likely to Crack a Raunchy Joke before Noon
Most Likely to Cry at Some Point during a Shift
Funniest Nurse
Most “Germ-a-Phobic” Nurse

Some less straightforward categories.

by Geralt/via Pixabay

The contests and catered meals, fun gifts, and light-hearted spirit of Nurses Week make it one of the nicest work weeks of the year, and we all come out of it feeling appreciated. But, in consideration of nursing superlatives, I’d like to propose some new categories. Although these titles won’t fit on the trophy plates, I think they’re worthy of recognition.

Most Likely to Notice, By the Tone of Another Nurse’s Voice, That Said Nurse Is Approaching a ‘Tilt’ Level of Stress, and Intervene Accordingly
Most Likely to Volunteer to Assist with Postmortem Care (a job that nobody looks forward to, but that’s nonetheless important)
Most Likely to Accompanying Another Nurse on the Transport of an Unstable Patient to a Necessary Scan
Most Flexible; or Most Likely to Switch Shifts on Short Notice to Accommodate Another Nurse’s Unexpected Family […]
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Marcy Phipps, BSN, RN, CCRN, CFRN2022-05-05T12:30:39-04:00May 13th, 2016|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|6 Comments

Why I Like Nurses Week

Safety Plan/Plougmann/via Flickr

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Here’s why I like Nurses Week. I’m sure some folks groan over the idea that for only one week out of the year, health care administrators actually think about all that nurses do and show their appreciation. My perspective is that at least we have one solid week with the spotlight on nursing, when we can toot our horns and make sure that people know the critical role of nursing in health care.

Sure, there are some people who will never “get” what nurses do beyond the old stereotype that nurses are doctors’ helpers. I’m always flabbergasted, though, when physicians—after so much time working alongside nurses as medical students, interns, and residents—still don’t have a more nuanced view of nursing.

In this month’s editorial, I address the American Nurses Association Nurses Week theme, “Culture of Safety: It Starts with You.” How many times, in the dead of night, have nurses called physicians to alert them to a critical change—or questioned an inappropriately ordered medication that, if given as ordered, could have had dire consequences? I also addressed this issue in a 2014 blog post about Arnold Relman, now deceased […]

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2016-11-21T13:01:13-05:00May 11th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective, patient safety|1 Comment