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

The Underlying Connection Is Nursing

Angel sculpture on grave marker photo by author

Marcy Phipps, BSN, RN, CCRN, ATCN, TNCC, an ICU nurse who recently took up flight nursing, is an occasional contributor to this blog.

I recently experienced a series of events that seemed interconnected and orchestrated.

It started with my usual morning run. I was jogging out of my neighborhood, already sweating in the summer heat and absorbed—coincidentally—in an audio podcast about trauma care, when I came upon a man sprawled in the middle of a usually very busy thoroughfare. His motorcycle, badly damaged, was lying on its side next to a car with a crumpled door panel. The accident had clearly just occurred—traffic hadn’t yet backed up and no sirens could be heard heralding imminent assistance.

I had the weird sensation that I’d been running to the accident all along. I held his C-spine and monitored his neuro status while an off-duty paramedic managed the scene. Unexpectedly, a cardiologist I sometimes work with emerged from a nearby café and held his fingers to the man’s radial pulse, and then several more off-duty paramedics arrived.

It seemed fortuitous to me at the time—not the accident, of course, but the proximity of medical personnel who were so quickly available. And I had the impression that, despite not having worn a helmet, the motorcycle rider would […]

2016-11-21T13:03:52-05:00September 22nd, 2014|career, narratives, Nursing, nursing perspective, Patients|12 Comments
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Ebola: Infection Control Resources Make All the Difference

This post is follow-up to our widely shared post (“Ebola: A Nurse Epidemiologist Puts the Outbreak in Perspective”) by AJN clinical editor Betsy Todd. The author, Amanda Anderson, is a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City who is currently doing a graduate placement at AJN two days a week. Her last post for this blog is here.

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2016-11-21T13:03:53-05:00September 16th, 2014|infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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Enterovirus D68: Precautions, Surveillance, Yes; Alarm, No

By Betsy Todd, MPH, RN, CIC, AJN clinical editor

EV68-infographicAs news coverage focuses on the latest clusters of suspected—and, in some instances, confirmed—cases of human enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) as they occur in successive regions of the U.S., here’s a quick primer on what is known about EV-D68.

Is this a new, dangerous virus?
EV-D68, a non-polio enterovirus, is not a “novel” virus—the term used to describe emerging infections such as SARS and MERS. It’s more accurate to describe it as the CDC does: it is an “increasingly recognized” cause of respiratory infections, especially in children.

EV-D68 was first isolated in 1962. While reports of EV-D68 since then have been sporadic, the CDC in 2011 reported on clusters of this viral infection in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona as well as in Asia and Europe. It’s likely that there are hundreds or even thousands of EV-D68 infections every year in the U.S. But as with many other viral infections, they will range in severity, and an infection that looks like “a cold” isn’t usually brought to the attention of a health care provider.

According to the CDC, most enterovirus infections are actually asymptomatic; this may be the case with EV-D68 as well.

Diagnostic testing for EV-D68 involves RT-PCR and gene sequencing. Most hospital labs therefore are unable to test for it. Some […]

2016-11-21T13:03:56-05:00September 15th, 2014|infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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End-of-Life Discussions and the Uneasy Role of Nurses

Amanda Anderson, BSN, RN, CCRN, is a critical care nurse in New York City and enrolled in the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing/Baruch College of Public Affairs dual master’s degree program in nursing administration and public administration. She is currently doing a graduate placement at AJN two days a week, working on a variety of projects. Her personal blog is called This Nurse Wonders.

Evelyn Simak/ via Wikimedia Commons Evelyn Simak/ via Wikimedia Commons

Nurse and writer Theresa Brown wrote a piece for this past Sunday’s New York Times on the dilemmas physicians face when their patients want to stop aggressive treatment (the latest installment of Brown’s quarterly column, What I’m Reading, is in the September issue of AJN [paywall]).

Brown’s Times column talks about physicians who have trouble letting patients go and instead push for more unnecessary and often unwanted treatment. She describes a case in which—after palliative care has been decided upon by the patient’s family members, the palliative care team, and even the heartbroken oncologist—the patient’s primary care physician intervenes and pushes for still more futile treatment. (Much of the article delves into the broader issue of palliative care and the benefits it has for patients in many stages of chronic illness.)

Have you […]

2016-11-21T13:03:57-05:00September 11th, 2014|career, Ethics, Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|1 Comment
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A Patient’s Inner Soundtrack from Better Times

Illustration by Gingermoth. All rights reserved. Illustration by Gingermoth. All rights reserved.

She was at high risk for developing bedsores and it was important that she be turned every two hours, but when approached by staff, she would scratch, punch, and spit. Her speech consisted of expletives, which she screamed in a shrill, piercing voice.

Music can soothe, comfort, engage, bring a recognizable world into an alien one. And, crucially, it can allow a nurse or other caregiver a chance to provide badly needed care to someone with dementia or mental illness who is agitated, confused, hostile, or terrified.

In this case, the place is Detroit and the music is Motown. The short passage above is from the Reflections essay in the September issue of AJN. “Playing Her Song: The Power of Music” is not the first submission we’ve had about the ways music can reach patients when words and other measures fail.

Putting on some music would seem a simple kind of strategy, but it may be worth a try in some situations that seem otherwise hopeless. Please give the short essay a read. Reflections are free.—Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor

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2016-11-21T13:03:58-05:00September 8th, 2014|nursing perspective|1 Comment
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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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