Widespread Support for Nurse’s Refusal to Force-Feed: Grounded in Ethical Principles

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Nasal tubes, gravity feeding bags, and the liquid nutrient Ensure used in Guantanamo force-feeding/ image via Wikimedia Commons Nasal tubes, gravity feeding bags, liquid nutrient Ensure used in Guantanamo force-feeding/Wikimedia Commons

Last week, reports hit the news media of a nurse in the U.S. Navy facing possible discharge for refusing to participate in force-feeding a hunger-striking prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. An early discharge, two years shy of the 20-year mark, could cost him his pension and other benefits.

The nurse had initially volunteered for duty at the Guantanamo facility, but then, as we noted in a blog post examining the ethics of his decision back in July, decided he could not continue to participate in force-feeding detainees in violation of professional ethics.

In a letter to Chuck Hagel, U.S. secretary of defense, the American Nurses Association has supported the decision of the naval nurse. ANA president Pam Cipriano reaffirms that a nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient and “in addition, this commitment is present regardless of the setting in which nursing care is provided. The military setting does not change the nurse’s ethical commitments or standards.” […]

2016-11-21T13:03:29-05:00November 24th, 2014|career, Ethics, Nursing, nursing perspective, Patients|2 Comments
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E-Cigarettes: Incomplete Restrictions, Mixed Blessings, Still Many Unknowns

By Michael Fergenson, senior editorial coordinator

E-liquids and E-liquids and and e-cigarette, via Wikimedia Commons

As e-cigarette use continues to increase among youth, cigarette use gradually decreases. Meanwhile, many questions remain about the safety of e-cigarettes.

According to a recently released CDC report, “Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students—United States, 2013,” current cigarette use among middle and high school students (that is, having smoked a cigarette at least once in the past month) dropped from 2012 to 2013 (from 3.5% to 2.9% for middle school students; from 14% to 12.7% for high school students).

In contrast, current e-cigarette use, still far less common than use of cigarettes, is on the rise, at least among high school students. The percentage of high school students who reported using e-cigarettes jumped from 2.8% in 2012 to 4.5% in 2013.

Still, it would seem that some students are replacing traditional cigarettes with e-cigarettes, and it’s no surprise that they are doing so.

2016-11-21T13:03:30-05:00November 21st, 2014|Nursing|0 Comments
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Always a Nurse

By Janice M. Scully. The author worked in psychiatric nursing for four years before becoming a physician. After 20 years as a physician, she retired to pursue a career as a writer. For more information, click here.

The author's parents The author’s parents

Nurses have to be resilient and resourceful—Florence Nightingale,  of course, is the template. My mother, Betty, was a smart and practical woman, the oldest of three siblings. She attended nurses’ training in the 1940s while the Second World War raged overseas. I have a photo of her as a young woman just out of high school, dressed in her starched uniform, standing by Binghampton (NY) City Hospital, her alma mater.

According to her, the lives of young nurses back then were not unlike the lives of nuns. After lights out in the dorm, the dorm mother would walk through and shine a light on each bed, as a night nurse on a medical ward at 2 AM might do. But instead of observing for signs of life, dorm mothers were checking to be sure the young female nurses were in their beds. Sometimes they weren’t.

Although the students might not be allowed out at night, they had a great deal of responsibility during the day. Nurses did everything for the sick, even the hospital laundry. They gave bed baths and back rubs […]

2016-11-21T13:03:31-05:00November 19th, 2014|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|4 Comments
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How Do RNs View Palliative Care for Hospitalized Older Adults? What a Study Reveals

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

“I think [palliative care is] also for that portion of the population that falls in the crack, in terms of, they’re not quite ready for the hospice thing but they’re not really ready for new aggressive chemo or anything else. … They’re in that vague no man’s land of where they fit in terms of services.”—study participant

Timely referral to palliative care could potentially benefit many seriously ill, hospitalized older adults. Such care not only offers relief from disease symptoms, but also helps patients and families to reach personal goals, reconcile conflicts, and extract meaning from their varied experiences. Yet those who might benefit are less likely to receive such care if their providers are unclear about the concept and how it differs from hospice care.

Table 5. Five Main Thematic Categories with Associated Subcategories Table 5. Five Main Thematic Categories with Associated Subcategories

To learn more about how staff nurses understand and manage palliative care, nurse researcher Maureen O’Shea decided to conduct an exploratory study. She reports on the findings in this month’s CE–Original Research feature, “Staff Nurses’ Perceptions Regarding Palliative Care for Hospitalized Older Adults.”

Here’s a quick overview. […]

2017-07-27T14:44:09-04:00November 17th, 2014|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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As the VA Regroups and Recruits, The Words of Nurses Who Served

By Amanda Anderson, a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City who is currently doing a graduate placement at AJN two days a week. The AJN articles linked to in this post will be free until the end of December.

Vietnam Women's Memorial, courtesy of Kay Schwebke Vietnam Women’s Memorial, courtesy of Kay Schwebke

A scandal earlier this year about suppressed data related to long wait times for appointments tainted the credibility of the Department of Veterans Affairs. On this Veterans Day week, the new secretary of Veterans Affairs has been using incentives and promises of culture change to promote new hiring initiatives for physicians and nurses. The focus as always should be on the removal of the barriers many veterans face in obtaining timely, high quality care. Naturally, a number of these veterans are nurses themselves.

To commemorate those who have bravely cared for our country, and who deserve the best of care in return, we’ve compiled a few quotations from nurse veterans who’ve written for or been quoted in AJN about their experiences in successive conflicts through the decades. Thank you for all your service, and for what you carry daily—as nurses, veterans, and patients.

World War II
“I remember walking through cities leveled by bombs, looking at the hollow eyes and haunted faces of a devastated civilian […]

2016-11-21T13:03:32-05:00November 14th, 2014|career, Nursing, 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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