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

Recent Nurse Blog Posts of Interest, Inhaled Insulin, a Note on Top Blogs Lists

By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor/blog editor

Here you will find some links to nursing blog posts, a look at this week’s Affordable Care Act health exchange enrollment numbers, and a couple of items of interest about new treatments or studies, plus a note on blogs that award other blogs badges. A grab bag, so bear with me…

crocus shoots, early spring, I think/ via Wikimedia Commons crocus shoots, early spring, I think/ via Wikimedia Commons

At the nursing blogs:

RehabRN has a post about a friend who was bullied by a nurse of much higher authority in the same hospital. Such stories, if true, are always upsetting. What can you do but take it when the power differential is so great?

At the INQRI blog (I’m not going to tell you what the initials stand for except that it has something to with quality, research, and nursing), there’s a post about why stroke survivors need a team approach to palliative care.

Megen Duffy (aka Not Nurse Ratched) has a really very good post at a site she sometimes blogs for. I already shared it via a tweet yesterday, but it deserves more. It’s called “Nursing Will Change You.”

At Infusion Nurse Blog, there’s a post addressing IV solution shortages (now happening on […]

2016-11-21T13:05:04-05:00April 4th, 2014|healthcare social media, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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AJN’s April Issue: Sickle Cell Anemia, Telehealth, Systematic Reviews, FOAMed, More

AJN0414.Cover.OnlineAJN‘s April issue is now available on our Web site. Here’s a selection of what not to miss, including two continuing education (CE) articles that you can access for free.

Coping with pain in sickle cell anemia. Our April cover features a painting of red flowers in a vase. But on closer inspection, you might notice that the flowers are actually red blood cells, painted by a young girl who suffers from sickle cell anemia. Afflicting about 90,000 to 100,000 people in the United States, sickle cell disease often causes acute and chronic pain syndromes described as being on par with cancer-related pain. Cognitive behavioral therapies, such as the use of guided imagery, have shown promise in changing pain perception and coping patterns in people with chronic illnesses. April’s original research CE article, “Using Guided Imagery to Manage Pain in Young Children with Sickle Cell Disease,” suggests that this technique can be effective for managing pain in school-age children with the disease.

Implementing advances in telehealth. New technologies such as remote monitoring and videoconferencing often emerge before a facility is ready to efficiently integrate them. Sometimes referred to as disruptive innovations, these technologies, while convenient and easy to use, may not be readily accepted. “Telehealth: A Case Study in Disruptive Innovation” discusses the many applications of telehealth, a means of delivering care […]

2016-11-21T13:05:06-05:00March 28th, 2014|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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Don’t Write Off Community College to Start a Nursing Career

By Karen Roush, MSN, RN, FNP-C, AJN clinical managing editor

KarenRoushMy daughter is about to start her nursing career. She’s got all her prereqs out of the way and she’s waiting to hear from the half-dozen colleges she applied to. Among them is the community college where I started my career 35 years ago. That’s right—a community college that confers an associate degree.

I hope she gets in.

Community colleges are seen by many as the bottom of the ladder of desired schools of nursing. Not only do they offer only a two-year degree, but they’re not seen as being as selective as four-year colleges and they don’t have the big name professors.

But community colleges can and do produce great nurses. Programs are rigorous, so a more liberal admission standard at the onset doesn’t necessarily change the caliber of student who graduates at the end. And once they graduate, they must meet the same standards as students from four-year schools to attain licensure as an RN—everyone takes the same NCLEX. At the time of my graduation, my school had a 98% pass rate, one of the highest in the country.

Community colleges even have some advantages over a lot of four-year programs. They may not have the big names—but really, how many of those […]

2016-11-21T13:05:07-05:00March 26th, 2014|career, nursing perspective, students|12 Comments
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Three Nurses and a Doctor Go Sailing – Some Notes on Communication Style

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN, writes a monthly post for this blog and works as an infusion nurse in outpatient oncology.

Untitled from the series, Pareidolia. Charcoal and graphite on paper, 12" x 9," by julianna paradisi Untitled from the series, Pareidolia. Charcoal and graphite on paper,
12″ x 9,” by julianna paradisi

There’s an old joke about the personality differences among nurses of different specialties. It goes like this:

A medical–surgical nurse, an ICU nurse, an ER nurse, and a doctor go sailing. The doctor stands at the bow of the boat and shouts to the nurses, “Trim the sail!”

The med–surg nurse asks, “How do you want it?”

The ICU nurse replies, “I’ll trim, okay. But I’m doing it my way.”

The ER nurse shouts back at the doctor, “Trim the sail yourself!”

ICU style. The joke is a generalization, of course. However, I was a pediatric intensive care nurse once upon a time, and I have to admit that the ICU nurse characterization resonates with my own experience. Like the nurse in the joke, I always have an opinion, and rarely mind sharing it. In the ICU, if another nurse, a physician, a pharmacist, or respiratory therapist didn’t agree, conversation ensued. My colleague, equally opinionated, would state her or his position. Data […]

2016-11-21T13:05:08-05:00March 24th, 2014|career, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Working Out the Bugs: Old and Alone in the City

Amanda Anderson, BSN, RN, CCRN, works in critical care in New York City and is 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 tweets at @12hourRN.

Old Woman Dozing/Nicolas Maes Old Woman Dozing/Nicolas Maes

At work the other day, after almost seven years as a nurse, I had an experience that completely floored me. While connecting a bag of cefepime to my tiny, elderly, blind patient’s IV, I spotted a cockroach making its way across her pillow. And then another on her lap. And then they were on the wall behind the bed, coming out of the closet where her belongings were stored. Another nurse had just handed her the pocketbook she’d requested, and the host of insects that apparently called it home were now scurrying quickly around the room, and around me.

I consider myself a fairly brave woman. I can kill a bug if I need to, I see rats quite frequently, and come on, I’m a nurse—there have been some pretty gory things to pass these eyeballs and touch these fingers. But this was different; it was not the hospital grossness that I am a seasoned veteran of. This was a glimpse into my patient’s dirty home. I ran like a little child.

When the situation […]

2016-11-21T13:05:09-05:00March 19th, 2014|nursing perspective|3 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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