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

Sexual Assault Survivors, SANEs, and the Nonreport Option

Figure 1. Process in the nonreport optionBy Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Until recently, survivors of sexual assault had to make quick decisions about whether to report the assault to law enforcement. Those who chose not to report it weren’t entitled to a free medical forensic examination, and many felt further traumatized by this situation.

The Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 changed this. It added a “nonreport” option, which mandates that survivors be given medical forensic examinations even if they choose not to cooperate with law enforcement or the criminal justice system; states must pay for these medical examinations, regardless. In order to receive certain federal funds, states had to comply by 2009. States have responded in various ways. (Click the image above for an enlarged view of the steps followed in Texas.) But there has been little investigation into the impact of the new provision.

An important question. How has the nonreport option affected survivors, sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs), and victim advocates? To learn more, Laurie Cook Heffron and colleagues conducted a study in Texas. They report on their findings in this month’s original research CE, “Giving Sexual Assault Survivors Time to Decide: An Exploration of the Use and Effects of the Nonreport Option.” The following abstract offers a […]

2017-07-27T14:47:35-04:00March 14th, 2014|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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When the Preceptor’s Attitude Is a New Nurse’s Biggest Challenge

FirstPreceptorIllustrationHere’s the start of “My First Preceptor,” the Reflections essay in the March issue of AJN.

“Manage your day,” she told me, not for the first time, as if it had been my fault that one patient crashed yesterday just as my second one returned from surgery with a new set of orders. I could not be in two places at once, keeping track of two critical patients, making sure each one received the care she needed at the moment she needed it.

A new critical care nurse has a lot to worry about. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, even when you’re actually doing a pretty good job. A preceptor can play a crucial role in helping a new nurse find her or his footing. As one might expect, however, some good nurses are not good preceptors. In this essay, the author describes her struggles to deal with the time pressures of her new job, along with her preceptor’s constant admonitions and disapproval.

This fraught nurse–preceptor relationship reaches a crisis point against a backdrop of life and death struggles. I won’t try to summarize what happens in the essay, since different readers may interpret it differently, depending on experience and temperament. But it’s definitely worth a read.—Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

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2016-11-21T13:05:14-05:00March 12th, 2014|career, nursing perspective|6 Comments
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Need Help Writing Systematic Reviews?

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

CaptureAs I explain in this month’s editorial, we’ve seen an increase in submissions, especially literature reviews, many from students in doctoral programs and from clinicians in organizations pursuing Magnet status. Many purport to be systematic reviews but lack many of the defining features, such as detail about search strategies or real synthesis of the results. This lack of knowledge around writing scholarly works reflects poorly on us as a profession.

We are very pleased to be collaborating with the Joanna Briggs Institute, the Australia-based group (they are at the University of Adelaide) with an expertise in appraising and synthesizing research and facilitating its dissemination and use. We launch a new series, Systematic Reviews, Step By Step, in the March issue. As our Evidence-Based Practice, Step-By-Step series does for applying evidence-based practice, this series presents a clear, progressive plan for writing a systematic review in several monthly installments. […]

2017-05-27T10:36:27-04:00March 10th, 2014|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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Preventing Delirium, The Luxury of Time, Things We Get Right, More: Nursing Blog Roundup

By Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

Here are a few recent posts of interest at various nursing blogs:

karindalziel/ via Flickr Creative Commons karindalziel/ via Flickr Creative Commons

In the throes of nursing school: An intriguing little pastiche of a poem (does it qualify as a ‘found word’ poem?) can be found at a newish blog, adrienne, {student} nurse, in a short post called anatomy of a bath. In another post, she makes the following observations: “In nursing school, you are not driving the train…You absolutely must keep telling yourself that there is nothing wrong with you.”

Preventing delirium in the ICU: At the INQRI blog (the blog of the Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Institute), a post summarizes some recent research on implementing a “bundle” of practices to increase mobility and reduce sedation in the ICU, all in order to prevent patient delirium, which is known to have many short- and long-term negative effects.

The luxury of time. At Love and Ladybits, the author gets a tantalizing glimpse of the quality of care she’d be able to provide if she had more time to spend with each patient. Of course, this “alternative reality” can’t last, but perhaps it can serve as a touchstone of sorts during more […]

2016-11-21T13:05:16-05:00March 7th, 2014|career, healthcare social media, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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Nursing, HIV/AIDS, Continuity of Care, Treatment Advances, and the ACA: The Essentials

As the Affordable Care Act takes effect, a timely overview in AJN of recent developments in screening, treatment, care, and demographics of the HIV epidemic

CascadeofCare The ‘cascade of care’ (from the AJN article)

The newly released March issue of Health Affairs is devoted to looking at the ways the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will affect Americans with HIV/AIDS and those who have recently been in jail. One crucial feature of the ACA is that it prevents insurance companies from refusing coverage to those with a number of preexisting conditions. If you have a preexisting condition and don’t get insurance through work, you know how important this is.

Unfortunately, a large majority of those with HIV and AIDS do not have private health insurance. One article in the March issue of Health Affairs draws attention to the plight of the 60,000 or so uninsured or low-income people with HIV or AIDS who will not receive health insurance coverage because their states are among those that have chosen to opt out of the ACA provision that expands Medicaid eligibility. This means many patients in these states may lack consistent care and reliable access to life-saving drugs.

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) improves patient quality of life and severely reduces expensive and debilitating or fatal long-term health problems in those with HIV/AIDS. As noted in AJN‘s March CE article,

2016-11-21T13:05:17-05:00March 6th, 2014|health care policy, nursing perspective|3 Comments
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