Report Draws Attention to Nurse Burnout, Seeks to Restore Joy to Profession

AJN has been asked to share with our readers a new report on nurse burnout: “A Gold Bond to Restore Joy to Nursing: A Collaborative Exchange of Ideas to Address Burnout” (pdf). The report is the result of a November 2016 retreat of leading thinkers in health care and nursing at the Johnson Foundation’s Wingspread campus in Racine, Wisconsin.

Among conference participants well known to AJN were Cynda Rushton, professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and Berman Institute of Bioethics, and noted author and nurse Theresa Brown.

The post below detailing the report’s findings is by Cindy Richards of QPatient Insight, the consulting firm that organized the conference. An experienced journalist, she worked closely with conference attendees to prepare the report on the conference’s findings.

*************

We often hear that America faces a nursing shortage—the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics said in 2015 that we would need 1.2 million more registered nurses by 2024. In addition, surveys of nurses continue to find high levels of job dissatisfaction and high percentages of nurses who express an intention to change jobs or leave the profession in the coming years.

Why? In too many cases, because they are overwhelmed by demands that […]

2017-05-03T11:40:29-04:00May 3rd, 2017|Nursing|5 Comments
Read More

Parents as Mentors: Observations of a Peds/NICU Nurse

By Jody Holland, MN, RN, neonatal ICU and pediatrics, St. Charles Medical Center, Bend, Oregon

The strength of parents.

Hospital, by boliston / via Flickr

We have all had and need mentors at some time in our career. The most influential mentors to me have been the parents of the infants and children who have been placed in my care. Parents do not ask for their child to be born early or develop a devastating illness, but these parents summon great strength when it’s needed.

I have countless memories of episodes that have made me pause and reflect on the courage and resolve of parents. I remember a family who stood by their child during a resuscitation and were an integral part of the decision-making process to end the resuscitation. This was long before research documented the benefits of this type of parental involvement.

Or the time when the parents of a child with a devastating head injury fulfilled their promise to their child to get married. In addition, the child also wanted to be the flower girl. They were married at their child’s bedside. The ICU staff followed their wishes and dressed the girl in an outfit of their choosing, placed flowers in her hair, and made a bouquet. The ceremony went off without a hitch—and I believe […]

2017-05-01T09:29:17-04:00May 1st, 2017|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

AJN in May: Venous Thromboembolism Update, Deep Tissue Pressure Injury Review, Much More

The May issue of AJN is now live. Here are some articles we’d like to bring to your attention.

CE Feature: Original Research: Creating an Evidence-Based Progression for Clinical Advancement Programs

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project have identified six nursing competencies and supported their integration into undergraduate and graduate nursing curricula nationwide. But integration of those competencies into clinical practice has been limited, and evidence for the progression of competency proficiency within clinical advancement programs is scant. Building on the competencies identified by the IOM and QSEN, the authors of this study developed eight nursing competency domains and 186 related knowledge, skills, and attitudes for professional nursing practice, then sought to validate them and to determine their developmental progression within a clinical advancement program.

CE Feature: Venous Thromboembolism: Updated Management Guidelines

Each year, as many as 900,000 cases of venous thromboembolism occur in the United States; between 100,000 and 300,000 cases end in death. This article presents an overview of venous thromboembolism—including its pathophysiology, risk factors, symptoms, and key clinical assessments—plus a review of recommendations from an updated American College of Chest Physicians guideline related to treatment options, nursing practice, patient education, diagnostic testing, and more.

2017-04-28T09:09:57-04:00April 28th, 2017|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

Ongoing Article Series Helps Nurses Write for Publication

Do you have an idea, experience, or knowledge that you feel other nurses can benefit from? Most nurses outside of academia or the policy arena don’t think about writing for publication as something that they should or must do.

But in AJN’s ongoing four-part series, “Writing for Publication: Step By Step,” author Karen Roush, PhD, RN, FNP, highlights the need to make nurses’ voices heard:

Think about all you know and all you do as a nurse. Think about the clinical expertise you bring to your practice, the insights you’ve gained through experience. Think about the problems you solve, improving patient care or creating systems that run more effectively and efficiently. And think about the times you’ve been present at life-defining moments, at moments of suffering and renewal, at beginnings and endings. You carry all of this with you—knowledge and skills, wisdom and insight. It’s time to share it.

In the series, Roush, former clinical managing editor of AJN and an assistant professor at both Lehman College, Bronx, New York, and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, shares her experience and inside knowledge in writing and publishing in practical, easy-to-digest articles that take nurses through the writing process, from start […]

2017-04-24T09:53:25-04:00April 24th, 2017|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

Earth Day 2017: An Important Role for Nurses

By Barbara Polivka, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor and Shirley B. Powers Endowed Chair in Nursing Research, University of Louisville, Kentucky

“… the symptoms or the sufferings generally considered to be inevitable and incident to the disease are very often not symptoms of the disease at all, but of something quite different—of the want of fresh air, or of light, or of warmth, or of quiet, or of cleanliness…”  -Florence Nightingale, Notes on Nursing: What it is and What it is Not (1859).

 

crocus shoots, early spring / Wikimedia Commons

As we celebrate the 46th Earth Day, it’s good to look back.

  • Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in on April 22nd, 1970.
  • The first Earth Day celebration helped spur the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act.
  • Earth Day became an international celebration in 1971 when the UN Secretary General talked about it at a Peace Bell Ceremony in New York City.

A time to think about how we affect the environment and are affected by the environment.

Health Care Without Harm (https://noharm.org/) is an international organization promoting environmental health and justice. If you aren’t familiar with Health Care Without Harm I urge you to go to their website to see how health care organizations are decreasing their environmental impact. Health care facilities are:

2017-04-21T08:26:16-04:00April 21st, 2017|environmental health, Nursing, Public health|0 Comments
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