AJN in April: Deep Breathing for Dialysis Patients, Isolation Care, Sleep Loss in Nurses, More

AJN0415.Cover.OnlineOn our cover this month is Pablo Picasso’s Le Rêve (The Dream). We chose this portrait of a woman in a restful pose to highlight the importance of proper sleep to a person’s overall health and well-being. Unfortunately, not many Americans are able to get the proper amount of rest. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimates that 50 to 70 million U.S. adults have chronic sleep and wakefulness disorders—and nurses are not immune.

Between long shifts and the stressful nature of their jobs, nurses are especially vulnerable to not getting an adequate amount of quality sleep. Fatigue from lack of sleep may diminish the quality of nursing care. Sleep loss has been linked to impaired learning, memory, and judgment and is also associated with a slew of chronic diseases. This month’s CE feature, “The Potential Effects of Sleep Loss on a Nurse’s Health,” describes the acute and chronic effects of sleep loss on nurses, strategies nurses can use to improve the quality of their sleep, and institutional policies that can promote good rest and recuperation.

This feature offers 2 CE credits to those who take the test that follows the article. You can further explore this topic by listening to a podcast interview with the author (this and other free podcasts are accessible via the Behind the Article podcasts page on our Web site, in our […]

2016-11-21T13:02:46-05:00March 27th, 2015|career, nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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AJN in March: Post-ICU Syndrome, Workplace Conflict Resolution, Prostate Cancer Options, More

AJN0315.Cover.OnlineAJN’s March issue is now available on our Web site. Here’s a selection of what not to miss.

New program for postintensive care syndrome (PICS). With increased ICU survival rates, we are seeing more complex cognitive, physical, and psychological sequelae. The authors of “Critical Care Recovery Center: An Innovative Collaborative Care Model for ICU Survivors” share how they created and implemented an evidence-based collaborative care program for ICU survivors to reduce morbidities that can affect their quality of life. This CE feature offers 2.5 CE credits to those who take the test that follows the article.

Helping men with localized prostate cancer make informed decisions. The information men receive at diagnosis of prostate cancer can be overwhelming. “Early Localized Prostate Cancer” reviews the multiple treatment options available for men with newly diagnosed, low-risk, localized prostate cancer and explains how nurses can help these men make informed decisions. This CE feature offers 2.5 CE credits to those who take the test that follows the article.

Further explore this topic by listening to a podcast interview with the author (this and other free podcasts are accessible via the Behind the Article podcasts page on our Web site, in our iPad app, or on iTunes). […]

2016-11-21T13:02:56-05:00February 27th, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research, patient engagement|0 Comments
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A Nursing Conference Focused on Quality and Safety, and a Big ‘What If?’

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

“What would quality in hospitals look like if health care institutions were as single-minded about serving clients as the Disney organization?”

Last week I attended the 2015 American Nurses Association Quality Conference in Orlando. The conference, which had its origins in the annual National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) conference, drew close to 1,000 attendees. Here’s a quick overview of hot topics and the keynote speech by the new Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, plus a note on an issue crucial to health care quality that I wish I’d heard more about during the conference.

Most sessions presented quality improvement (QI) projects and many were well done. There were some topics I hadn’t seen covered all that much, such as reducing the discomfort of needlesticks, enhancing postop bowel recovery, and promoting sleep. But projects aimed at preventing central line infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), and pressure ulcers ruled the sessions. These of course are among the hospital-associated conditions that might cause a hospital to be financially penalized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The ANA also had a couple of sessions on preventing CAUTIs by means of a tool it developed in the Partnership for Patients initiative of the CMS to reduce health care–associated infections.

The keynote by Robert McDonald, the fairly new Secretary […]

2016-11-21T13:03:03-05:00February 9th, 2015|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research, safe staffing|2 Comments
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System Barriers to RN Activation of Rapid Response Teams: New Evidence

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Rapid response teams (RRTs) in acute care facilities are there to decrease mortality from preventable complications. But there is evidence that RRT systems “aren’t working as designed, particularly with regard to problems in the activation stage,” according to nurse researcher Jane Saucedo Braaten.

Figure 1. Five Domains of Cognitive Work Analysis and Corresponding Study Questions Figure 1. Five Domains of Cognitive Work Analysis and Corresponding Study Questions (click image to enlarge)

Interested in how hospital system factors influence RNs’ activation behavior, Braaten decided to investigate further. She reports on her findings in this month’s CE–Original Research feature, “Hospital System Barriers to Rapid Response Team Activation: A Cognitive Work Analysis.” Here’s a summary.

Purpose: To use cognitive work analysis to describe factors within the hospital system that shape medical–surgical nurses’ RRT activation behavior.
Methods: Cognitive work analysis offers a framework for the study of complex sociotechnical systems and was used as the organizing element of the study. Data were obtained from interviews with 12 medical–surgical nurses and document review.
Results: Many system factors affected participants’ activation decisions. Systemic constraints, especially in cases of subtle or gradual clinical changes, included a lack of adequate information, the availability of multiple strategies, the need to justify RRT activation, a scarcity of human resources, and informal hierarchical norms in […]

2017-07-27T14:42:21-04:00February 6th, 2015|nursing perspective, nursing research|1 Comment
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Are Nurses Ready for Retirement? Apparently Not

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Photo by Judy Schmidt/CDC Photo by Judy Schmidt/CDC

If you ask many nurses in their sixties if they’re ready to retire, they may heartily say, “Yes, can’t wait.” But if the question is whether they are financially ready to retire, the answer may be quite different.

In their article in this month’s issue of AJN, “Preparing for Retirement in Uncertain Times” (free until the end of January), authors Shanna Keele and Patricia Alpert note that surveys reveal nurses to be unsure of how to begin preparing for retirement. A 2011 survey reported that “71% felt they were not saving enough for retirement”; another survey revealed that “59% of nurses do not know how to begin the retirement planning process” and most do not feel knowledgeable about investing and other related financial processes.

Keele and Alpert, who’ve conducted research around nurses’ readiness to retire, “explore the obstacles that nurses, especially female nurses, confront in planning and preparing for retirement. We outline steps nurses can take to begin the process; discuss various types of retirement accounts; and refer readers to helpful, free online resources.” There’s also a box that lists crucial steps to take if you’re getting a late start on retirement planning. […]

2016-11-21T13:03:17-05:00January 5th, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research|5 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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