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

On Nursing Identity: What We Can Learn from African Nurses’ Oral Histories

 By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Port of Mauritius by Iqbal Osman, via Flickr Port of Mauritius by Iqbal Osman, via Flickr

“I have chosen this profession and nobody can take it away from me.”—Sophie Makwangwala, study participant

In the summer of 2009, at the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Quadren­nial Congress in Durban, South Africa, a small group met to discuss collaborating on joint history projects. At that meeting, several African leaders of pro­fessional nursing associations reported that their expertise had long gone unrecognized. Seeking to have the stories of African nursing history told, they pro­posed interviews with other retired nurse leaders. Barbara Mann Wall, an American nurse researcher who was in the room that day, found herself intrigued.

The study. In keeping with Braun’s tenet that “indigenous research should be led, de­signed, controlled, and reported by indigenous peo­ple,” Wall first trained three of the African nurse leaders in the oral history method, aided by a grant from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Then the team embarked on the study reported on in this month’s original research CE, “ ‘I Am A Nurse’: Oral Histories of African Nurses.” Here’s an overview: […]

2017-07-27T14:39:53-04:00August 17th, 2015|career, nursing perspective, nursing research|2 Comments
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Editing a Journal: Not Bedside Nursing, But Still an Urgency to Get Things Right

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

‘Nurses practice based on what’s in the literature; we need editors who will draw lines and stand firm against publishing biased and inaccurate papers.’

Niklas Bildhauer/ Wikimedia Commons Niklas Bildhauer/ Wikimedia Commons

I recently returned from a meeting in Las Vegas, the land of lights and bells and six-story marquees—and heat (it hit 109 when I was there, but “a dry heat”). The long flight home gave me time to reflect on the meeting I’d attended (of editors of nursing journals) and on what I do.

When I began my nursing career, I always thought I would stay in the acute care setting. I found the fast pace of the ER challenging and never boring. When I moved into a clinical specialist position and then an administrative one, I could still get involved in challenging situations, from dealing with problems that occurred on clinical units or with staff to navigating the politics of hospital committees and community liaisons.

But time passes and paths twist and turn, and here I am the editor of AJN—and it’s the most challenging and professionally fulfilling job I’ve had.

The International Academy of Nursing Editors (INANE for short) meets annually. It’s a loose networking group, mainly held together through a Web site, […]

2016-11-21T13:02:09-05:00August 14th, 2015|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research|3 Comments
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The Present: What This Visiting Nurse Has to Give

Illustration by Barbara Hranilovich for AJN. Illustration by Barbara Hranilovich for AJN.

It can be daunting for a visiting nurse to enter a patient’s home, especially if the patient seems less than receptive to the nurse’s efforts. In this month’s Reflections essay, “The Present,” Pia Wolcowitz describes one of her first assignments as a visiting nurse. She’s sent to assess a woman newly diagnosed with lung cancer. Here’s an excerpt:

I rang the bell and heard a voice, but couldn’t make out what she said. I rang again. This time I heard her loud and clear. “If you wanna come in, come in! Door’s open!” Entering, I found a woman in her mid-60s sitting hunched at her kitchen table, surrounded by bottles of medication and a bowl of cereal. It was way past noon.

She had cropped blue-black hair with accents of white. She studied me a moment, then her gray eyes examined my ID. “So, you’re the nurse?”

[…]

2016-11-21T13:02:10-05:00August 10th, 2015|narratives, Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|1 Comment
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Patient Satisfaction and Nursing: Listening Matters, Whatever the Situation

By Amanda Anderson, a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City currently doing a graduate placement at AJN. Her last post on nursing and patient satisfaction surveys is here.

by runran/Flickr Creative Commons by runran/Flickr Creative Commons

During this hospital stay, how often did nurses listen carefully to you?
1. Never
2. Sometimes
3. Usually
4. Always

Listening Carefully About Patients
“Her crit is dropping with each bowel movement, and she just won’t stop bleeding,” said my night shift colleague during the early moments of my shift.

As soon as she finished telling me the rest of my new patient’s care, I got on the phone for the ordered blood. Waiting for the first of many products to be delivered, I went to see her. As I poked around the hanging drips and fluids, checking dosages and orders, setting alarm limits, I heard my patient’s voice:

“Hello, hello? I’m so anxious. I just fell asleep for a moment and now I’ve woken up and I’m terrified. I think I need to be changed again, and I just don’t know what to do, and who are you?”

My colleague, busy with the details of resuscitation, hadn’t said much about my new patient’s anxiety. Anxiety, too often coded as neediness, is clinically important, especially in a patient with questionable stability, and doubly in a […]

2016-11-21T13:02:10-05:00August 7th, 2015|narratives, Nursing, nursing perspective, Patients|3 Comments
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A Tech-Savvy Nurse’s Initial Take on Uses for the Apple Watch

Megen Duffy, RN, BSN, CEN, is currently working in hospice case management and writes AJN‘s iNurse column, which focuses on technology and nursing.

AppleWatchMegenPhotoBPMI’ve had my Apple Watch for several months now. I ordered it at 12:01 the morning they went on sale, and it arrived the Saturday after its Friday release. I was fairly certain I’d return it or sell it for a profit, but I still have it and keep finding new uses for it. I also have ideas for how it could be handy for a variety of fitness and health care scenarios.

Health tracking. Even at this early stage, though, patients and their families are using Apple Watches to track and enhance their health. The Watch tracks your heartbeat—not every second, but often enough that a useful bank of data results. Rumors say that a mystery port on the back of the watch will allow SpO2 tracking soon. I have already busted out my phone to show my cardiologist my heart rate trends, and it saved me from wearing a Holter monitor. That kind of thing is exciting!

Fitness wearables (e.g., Fitbit) and smart watches (e.g., Pebble) have been around for a few years, with sharply increasing popularity. The (often) colored plastic bands people wear around their wrists are the kind of wearable I mean. Pedometers (included in the wearables […]

2016-11-21T13:02:11-05:00August 5th, 2015|digital health, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|2 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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