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

New Nurses: Committed to Their Current Jobs—Or Biding Their Time?

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

It’s no surprise that the recent economic recession caused many older nurses to return to the workforce or to delay retirement and work longer hours, thus easing the projected nursing shortage—at least for the time being. But nurse researcher Carol S. Brewer and colleagues wanted to understand how the recession affected new nurses’ work attitudes and behaviors, in particular those related to turnover. What they found has many implications, both now—although the recession is reportedly over, we’re still in an economic slump—and as the economy recovers.

To learn more, Brewer and colleagues compared data for two cohorts of newly licensed RNs. The first cohort consisted of 983 new nurses licensed between August 2004 and July 2005 who were surveyed before the economic downturn; the second cohort consisted of 1,765 new nurses licensed between August 2007 and July 2008. The survey tool included questions on attitudinal variables in four areas: personal characteristics, work attributes, work attitudes, and job opportunities. The researchers report the results in this month’s CE–Original Research feature, “New Nurses: Has the Recession Increased Their Commitment to Their Jobs?”

Among the key findings:

2016-11-21T13:10:33-05:00March 5th, 2012|nursing perspective, nursing research|1 Comment
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A Role to Live Up To

By Kinsey Morgan, RN. Kinsey is a nurse who lives in Texas and currently works in the ICU in which she formerly spent three years as a CNA. Her previous posts on working as a new nurse can be found here.

Now in my sixth month as a new nurse, I find every day that there is something new to learn, figure out, or adjust to. The constant stimulation and challenge is part of what makes me love being an ICU nurse.

Recently I was exposed to the simple yet powerful fact that being a “unit nurse” carries more weight than I’d thought. During a code blue on the medical–surgical floor a few weeks ago, I was performing CPR when it became necessary to initiate a dopamine drip to support a failing blood pressure.

One of the medical–surgical nurses spiked the bag and connected the tubing and proceeded to tap me on the shoulder and ask me if he had correctly entered the dosage of dopamine into the IV pump. Time stood still for a split-second while I contemplated the weight of this question. Though my mind and body quickly returned to the task at hand, the implications of that question haven’t left me yet.

The nurse who asked has been an RN for several years and has a lot more experience than I have. In reflection, I am honored and humbled by his trust. Not having encountered vasoactive drugs very often in his practice, this nurse […]

2016-11-21T13:10:35-05:00February 28th, 2012|career, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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Military Medicine Has a Head Nurse – Notes from Our Interview

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

“Hi, this is General Patty Horoho,” and so began a phone interview with army nurse Lieutenant General Patricia Horoho, who was sworn in as the 43rd Army Surgeon General in December.

Horoho made history, becoming the first woman and the first nonphysician to assume command of the U.S. Army Medical Command, a $13 billion global health system. She had also been the first nurse to command Walter Reed Army Medical Center, taking over after a report  in the Washington Post revealed a host of deficiencies in care, housing, and processes at that facility, leading to the firing of the commanding officer, Maj. General George Weightman.

She was recommended for her new position by the prior Army Surgeon General, Eric Schoomaker, and it then went up the chain to the secretary of the army and the secretary of the defense, who then recommended her appointment to President Barack Obama.

We (there were representatives from four nursing publications on the call) spent over an hour peppering General Horoho with questions about her experience, objectives, strategic plans, and major challenges. Here’s a few of the highlights:

2016-11-21T13:10:36-05:00February 24th, 2012|nursing perspective|3 Comments
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Examining Our Biases About Mental Illness

“There’s nothing really wrong with him, it’s just anxiety.” How many times have you heard someone say this—or said it yourself? Mental health problems are among the most marginalized health conditions in the United States. They’re viewed as less “real” than physical illnesses; there’s no tumor to be palpated, no abnormality to be spotted on an X-ray. Emotional and psychological problems are often thought to be under a person’s control in a way that, say, multiple sclerosis or cancer is not. And because mental health problems can be construed as signs of weakness, sufferers may hide their symptoms. People who suffer from a mental illness need to feel comfortable seeking care and to trust that they’ll be treated with skill, compassion, and respect. This is vital: studies consistently find that mental illnesses, particularly depression, take a terrible toll on health. Such illnesses have been associated with an increased risk of stroke, coronary artery disease, and dementia, as well as increased mortality in people with cancer, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease and following a myocardial infarction or coronary artery bypass surgery.

That’s from “Examining our Biases About Mental Illness,” the Editorial in the February issue of AJN by clinical managing editor Karen Roush, MS, RN, FNP-C. What biases and assumptions about the mentally ill, the depressed, the anxious have you seen in your practice? Do you ever find yourself slipping into such biases yourself as a kind of default setting?

2016-11-21T13:10:37-05:00February 24th, 2012|nursing perspective|4 Comments
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On Cats Sucking the Breath Out of Babies, and Other Health Superstitions

By Marcy Phipps, RN, a regular contributor to this blog. Her essay, “The Soul on the Head of a Pin,” was published in the May 2010 issue of AJN.

I recently babysat a friend’s busy toddlers, and was happy to share the long (but lovely) day with a good friend who happens to also be a nurse. We’d just gotten the babies tucked into their cribs and were stepping out of the nursery with a sigh when I noticed the family’s cat lounging in a padded rocking chair, blinking lazily at us.

“Wait!” I said, scooping up the cat. “We can’t leave the cat here. Cats suck the breath out of babies!”

My friend looked at me like I’d lost my mind, and I instantly wished that I hadn’t said it.  The absurdity of the statement was clear to me. And yet it felt like a truth I’d known forever, even if I couldn’t remember why.

As it turns out, it was something I was told as a child—by my grandmother. Knowing this makes my statement make sense, at least to me, as I adored my grandma and would have accepted anything she told me as undisputed truth. Even so, I’m surprised (and a little embarrassed) that in spite of higher education […]

2016-11-21T13:10:43-05:00February 15th, 2012|nursing perspective|0 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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