Earth Day 2018: Making the Connection Between Environmental and Human Health

Trafalgar Square during the Great London Smog of 1952. Photo © TopFoto / The Image Works.

This Sunday is Earth Day, an annual event started by a bipartisan group of citizens and congressional representatives in 1970 to highlight the need for a healthier environment and the importance of legislative protections.

Along the mighty Hudson—beautiful, but still contaminated

Growing up just north of New York City, along one of the most beautiful but contaminated sections of the Hudson River, I’ve seen up close the effects of industrial pollution before environmental protections were put in place. In addition to producing electrical wire, cables, munitions, and other products, the factories that lined my town’s waterfront for much of the 20th century were also responsible for extensively contaminating the surrounding area with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and petroleum hydrocarbons.

For many decades, the environmental damage caused by such industry was accepted as the price of progress. Raw sewage and oil slicks in the waters of the Hudson were not unusual sights, and relatives tell stories of a popular spot along the river, from which swimmers in the 1960s would emerge covered in the dye produced—and dumped—by a nearby riverfront factory. […]

2018-04-21T08:49:06-04:00April 21st, 2018|environmental health, Nursing, Public health|0 Comments
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Seeking Good Nurses With a Story to Tell

karindalziel/ via Flickr Creative Commons karindalziel/ Flickr Creative Commons

Whenever I meet someone new who happens to be a nurse—in both clinical and social settings—I wait for the right moment to mention my work on AJN‘s Reflections column.

It’s not only that I’m proud of the column. It’s also that I’m forever on the lookout for that next submission—for a fresh, compelling story I just know is destined to shine (accompanied by a fabulous professional illustration) on the inside back page of AJN.

‘But I’m not exactly a writer…’

“I imagine you have a story or two to tell,” I’ll say to a nurse I’ve just met—which is the same thing I say, whenever I have the chance, to nurses I’ve known for years. I mean it sincerely; given the vantage point on humanity that our profession affords, I actually do believe that every nurse is carrying around material for a terrific story.

The response I usually get (along with a wry smile, the raising of eyebrows, or a short laugh) is, “Oh yes. I have stories.”

But then—even as I’m mentioning the Reflections author guidelines, even as I say warmly that we’re eager to read—I can sense the backing away.

“Sure,” the nurse will say. “I’ll check it out . . . but the thing is, I’m not exactly […]

2021-11-29T17:32:55-05:00April 18th, 2018|Nursing, nursing stories|1 Comment
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Nursing Homes: A ‘Place No One Wants to Be’

I’m on my way home from Atlanta, site of the 2018 NICHE (Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders) conference. This organization, housed at New York University-Rory Meyers College of Nursing for the last 26 years, provides education and consultation to organizations to improve the delivery of health care to older adults. It now counts over 700 member organizations in five countries and has been successful in helping facilities implement best practices for providing care to older adults.

Redesigning long-term care.

One of the speakers, Migette Kaup, PhD, from Kansas State University and an expert in designing care facilities, spoke about current efforts to redesign long-term care. She noted that traditional nursing homes, which were designed to mimic hospitals, are “a product no one wants” and a place many people would rather die than go to.

Kaup spoke about the success of the newer “household” model of long-term care, which mimics a home setting rather than a hospital. Key aspects of this model are that it centers around an open kitchen space and is made up of a dedicated staff and small group of residents who live together and implement best practices. Kaup cited successes in decreasing depression and pressure ulcers in low-risk patients, among other parameters. Of course the real goal, as we know, […]

2018-04-13T11:43:57-04:00April 13th, 2018|family caregiving, Nursing, nursing perspective|3 Comments
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The Invisible Nature of Grief

Most nurses know the stages of grief by heart: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. We know the stages do not occur in an orderly, linear fashion. People flow in and out of each stage, circling back around to earlier stages as needed.

But I’m not aware of anyone discussing the invisible, insulating environment grief surrounds its survivors within. An acquaintance described it like this:

“We had just taken our son off of life-support, and sat with him as he passed. Our entire family had gathered to say goodbye. After leaving the hospital, we went to eat. I sat in the café, marveling at the world outside, that people were going about their daily lives, and I had just lost my son.”

When grieving periods were the norm.

collage by julianna paradisi/2018

A cultural understanding of this phenomena developed during the Victorian era, and still exists in period romance novels: People of means, after suffering the loss of a loved one or recovering from traumatic illness or injury, were sent to live with relatives in the country or at the seaside. There, they had no household responsibilities beyond taking long walks through the forest or along the shore, keeping journals, or sketching. In romance novels, the grieving heroine gets the added bonus of discovering a Fabio-like love to heal […]

2018-04-09T18:43:00-04:00April 9th, 2018|family, family experience, Nursing, Patients|0 Comments
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It’s Spring. Time to Think about Lyme Disease

Ticks Ixodes pacificus (shown here in CDC image) and Ixodes scapularis are known vectors of Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease)

National data confirm that diagnoses of Lyme disease begin to rise each year during the month of April, then rapidly reach their peak in June and July. Just in time for “Lyme season,” readers can learn more about the disease in “Lyme Disease: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention” in this month’s AJN.

Lyme disease was first recognized in 1975 in Lyme, Connecticut. From 492 confirmed cases in 1982 (the first year in which Lyme was a reportable disease) to more than 35,000 confirmed and probable cases in 2016, the causative organism, Borrelia burgdorferi, has continued to expand its geographic reach. The CE article notes that these numbers may be undercounts and cites analysis of laboratory and medical claims data from 2008 suggesting that the true number of annual diagnoses may actually be between 240,000 to 444,000.  […]

2018-04-04T09:11:38-04:00April 4th, 2018|climate change, infectious diseases, Nursing, Public health|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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