Researchers Ask: How Do Nurses Perceive Their Use of Clinical Practice Guidelines?

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

You’ve probably heard about the “knowledge translation” gap that exists between the care that patients often receive and the evidence for best practice. Clinical practice guidelines, which can help clinicians close that gap, are often underused, and most of the existing research on guideline use has focused on physicians. Nurse researcher Kathleen A. Abrahamson and colleagues wanted to learn more about how nurses perceived their use of guidelines. Their findings are reported in this month’s original research CE, “Facilitators and Barriers to Clinical Practice Guideline Use Among Nurses.”

Abrahamson and colleagues examined free-text responses to two open-ended survey questions provided by 575 RNs at 134 Veterans Affairs medical centers: “What are the facilitators to CPG use?” and “What are the barriers to CPG use?” Conventional content analysis of the data allowed several thematic categories and subcategories of responses to emerge.

Among the findings were the following. […]

2012-07-13T09:15:48-04:00July 13th, 2012|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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Critical Care 2012: An Educational Extravaganza

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

So, for the 12th or 13th time (I’ve lost count), I attended the National Teaching Institute of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (the “other” AACN organization, not to be confused with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing) in Orlando last week. And as usual it was impressive—approximately 6,000 attendees, and rows and rows of exhibitors. There were two helicopters, a bus, and an ambulance in the exhibit hall, as well as two-story booths and classrooms. While there were some recruiters looking for staff, they were overshadowed by monitoring companies, bed and equipment manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies.

Some highlights:

Left to right: Outgoing AACN president Mary Stahl and incoming president for 2013, Kathryn Roberts.

Kudos to the AACN for its creativity in making general sessions lively and interesting. This year, the organization held open auditions for a member to assist as “MC” for the general sessions (or “super sessions”). It was a tie, and attendees were treated to two of their own in action, hamming it up and enjoying the spotlight.

The “TED-talk” presentation style used by both AACN president  Mary Stahl and president-elect Kathryn Roberts was refreshing—and unique for nursing meetings.

I interviewed both presidents—click the link to listen to the podcast (it may take a minute to load). The 2013 president, Kathryn Roberts, MSN, RN, CNS, CCRN, […]

2018-03-28T10:38:10-04:00May 29th, 2012|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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Essential Nursing Resources: A Crucial Tool for Nurses Seeking Information on the Web

This nursing resource will help you find anything you need to know

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Back in the dark ages, before the Web, when I was in school and researching a topic, I would go to the university library (in Manhattan, this meant a subway ride to the main campus), fill out a form, and hand it to the librarian. After a couple of hours, I’d check back and the librarian would have pulled up to eight “on-reserve” books (no more were allowed until these were returned) from the stacks and have them waiting for me. This cycle would repeat itself several times, and sometimes I’d have to wait for an “ILL”—an interlibrary loan. Of course, if I procrastinated, the material I wanted might already have been taken out by other students and I’d be out of luck, facing a deadline with no source material.

Of course, it’s all different now with the Web. This week, even the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica announced it is ceasing print production after almost 250 years and will only be available in digital format.

Now, researchers and students have virtually every article published available to them via the Internet. For nurses, there’s something called Essential Nursing Resources (pdf), an annotated listing of resources for nursing published by the Interagency Council on Information Resources in Nursing (ICIRN). 

Founded in 1960 (here’s a brief history) by […]

2016-11-21T13:10:20-05:00April 10th, 2012|digital health, nursing research|0 Comments
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April Apps and Other Good Things

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

April is one of those months most people like, I think—the weather becomes consistently warmer and flowers appear. And this month, we at AJN are especially delighted because we launch our very own iPad app! As a temporary introductory offer, you can download the app for free (click here, or search under American Journal of Nursing in the iTunes app store) and get the full April issue. (Eventual pricing is still being determined.)

It’s another way AJN is providing you with accurate, evidence-based information in formats that allow you to access it when and where and how you want it. Don’t forget to subscribe to our always free audio podcasts, too—there are monthly highlights and interviews with authors.

And April is a stellar issue. This month we focus on examining how we treat people with disabilities. The cover, the editorial, and two features all deal with how we need to do better in this area. In the original research article, Suzanne Smeltzer and colleagues report on their survey of people with disabilities, querying them on interactions with nurses during hospitalizations. Their findings are sobering and should serve as a wake-up call when providing care to people with disabilities when they are hospitalized.

There’s also a poignant piece, “Hard Lessons from a Long Hospital Stay,” describing the experience of one of the authors of the research article, […]

2016-11-21T13:10:24-05:00April 4th, 2012|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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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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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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