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

AJN’s December Issue: Working During a Pandemic, HIV Foot Care, Healing Pet Visits, a Focus on Narrative

AJN1213.Cover.OnlineAJN’s December issue is now available on our Web site, just in time for some holiday reading. Here’s a selection of what not to miss.

Working during a pandemic. Flu season is in swing, but how do nurses feel about working during a flu pandemic? Researchers investigating terrorism and catastrophic events found that up to 96% of health care workers reported being unable or unwilling to work during some emergencies, with some infectious diseases associated with the highest rates of unwillingness. “Predictors of Nurses’ Intentions to Work During the 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) Pandemic,” December’s original research CE, suggests that providing adequate resources during an emergency (such as personal protective equipment) will not only ensure the safety of patients, nurses, and nurses’ families, but may also increase nurses’ willingness to work in times of crisis. Earn 2.5 CE credits by reading this article and taking the test that follows. If you’re reading AJN on your iPad, you can listen to a podcast interview with the author by clicking on the podcast icon on the first page of the article. The podcast is also available on our Web site.

HIV foot care. Peripheral neuropathy, which causes debilitating symptoms such as burning pain and sensation loss in the foot, continues to be prevalent in people with HIV, but is often overlooked. “HIV Peripheral Neuropathy and Foot Care […]

2016-11-21T13:05:57-05:00November 27th, 2013|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
Read More

Giving Thanks for Meaning in a Nonclinical Setting

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN, writes a monthly post for this blog and works as an infusion nurse in outpatient oncology. The illustration of this post is by the author.

NiceNurseSome Thanksgiving seasons, it feels like the only specific nursing thing to be thankful for is the overstocked larder of the staff lounge, marking the advent of The Season of Eating.

I’m being facetious. Actually, there’s lots to be thankful for in nursing, including a regular paycheck, which is not taken for granted. However, most nursing units remain understaffed, despite hoards of nursing school graduates desperately seeking jobs—creating a no-net gain on the gratitude side of the ledger.

Ethical issues and long hours also make finding gratitude a challenge. It’s not the gifts from patients of flavored popcorn and boxes of chocolates in the staff lounge that warm a nurse’s heart so much as the handwritten cards accompanying them, thanking us for their care. For nurses, finding meaning in what we do goes hand in hand with gratitude.

This season, however, I was surprised by an opportunity to find meaning as a nurse outside of a clinical setting, and I want to share the experience.

One afternoon, a neighbor came to my door asking for help. She is the mother of two small children, and her toddler had accidentally burnt his hand in the kitchen. She’d taken him to the emergency department and a […]

2018-03-28T10:27:41-04:00November 25th, 2013|career, nursing perspective|6 Comments
Read More

NP Develops Innovative Runaway Intervention Program in Minnesota

Ten years ago, NP Laurel Edinburgh began to see a number of sexually exploited girls in her practice at the Midwest Children’s Resource Center, a child abuse clinic within Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota in St. Paul. The girls, who were runaways, were quickly slipping through the cracks. Half were no longer in school, many hadn’t been reported missing by their parents, and many were staying with gang members. Some had been gang-raped; others had had sex with men in exchange for money or drugs.

Via U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Web site Via U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Web site

That’s the start of a profile (“Nurse Develops Runaway Intervention Program”) by editor Amy Collins in the November issue of AJN. It’s about a nurse practitioner in Minnesota who, in the course of her daily practice, noticed a population in need and did something about it, finding ways to establish contact with runaway girls and help them rebuild their lives. The article will be free until December 6. The nurse who started the program, Laurel Edinburgh, RN, CNP, hopes her approach will catch on in other states—so please give it a read.—Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

Bookmark and Share

2016-11-21T13:05:59-05:00November 22nd, 2013|nursing perspective|0 Comments
Read More

Scrubs on the Street: Big Concern?

This colorized 2005 scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicted numerous clumps of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, commonly referred to by the acronym, MRSA; Magnified 2390x. CDC/via Wikimedia Commons This colorized 2005 scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicted numerous clumps of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, commonly referred to by the acronym, MRSA; Magnified 2390x. CDC/via Wikimedia Commons

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Last week I came across this article on the Reporting on Health blog from the Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism at the University of Southern California. It discusses one woman’s campaign to get hospital health care providers to stop wearing scrubs outside of the hospital. She wants people to photograph the ‘offenders’ and send the photos to hospital administrators. She’s concerned that the clothing will pick up infection-causing bacteria in the community and spread infection to weak, immunocompromised patients.

Wearing uniforms outside of the clinical setting has been debated on and off for years. Here’s an excerpt from an editorial comment that appeared in the March 1906 issue of AJN (you can read the full article for free as a subscriber):

AJNArchiveExcerptNursesonStreet

So […]

2016-11-21T13:05:59-05:00November 20th, 2013|nursing perspective, nursing research|6 Comments
Read More

Are Hospitals Doing Enough to Help Newly Licensed RNs?

CalloutNewNursesVoices

Staff retention is a big issue in hospitals. There can be advantages in hiring newly licensed RNs, but some hospitals and workplaces may pay insufficient attention to helping new nurses with the challenging transition from classroom to clinical practice. In our November issue, some of these issues are brought more clearly to light by an original research article called “Hearing the Voices of Newly Licensed RNs: The Transition to Practice.”

“The first few months of employment is a crucial time in a nurse’s career,” write the authors of this small study. According to interviews with newly licensed RNs conducted by the authors, the following factors can make a big difference:

  • The quality of the preceptor—is the preceptor knowledgeable, adequately experienced, and nonjudgmental?
  • Professional growth and the development of confidence over time in terms of time-management, communication skills, and learning from experience.
  • A sense of being nurtured by the program, the preceptor, and peers.
  • The thoroughness and effectiveness of orientation.

Read the article, or listen to an author podcast on our Web site. What worked in your own transition to practice? What didn’t work? Or how do you help others with this transition? We’d love to know. —Jacob Molyneux, senior editor


Bookmark and Share

2016-11-21T13:06:00-05:00November 18th, 2013|career, nursing perspective|1 Comment
Read More

Comment ground rules

1. Please be respectful.
2. We moderate all comments.

Content disclaimer

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.
Go to Top