MERS: A Lucid Overview of What Nurses Need to Know

By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor

Coronaviruses derive their name from the fact that under electron microscopic examination, each virion is surrounded by a "corona," or halo. This is due to the presence of viral spike peplomers emanating from each proteinaceous envelope. CDC image by: Cynthia Goldsmith/Maureen Metcalfe/Azaibi Tamin Coronaviruses derive their name from the fact that under electron microscopic examination, each virion is surrounded by a ‘corona,’ or halo. CDC image by Cynthia Goldsmith/Maureen Metcalfe/Azaibi Tamin

In recent weeks, there have been a number of news stories following the first U.S. cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) and the first transmission of the virus that occurred on U.S. soil. This novel coronavirus (the common cold is a coronavirus; so is SARS) can cause respiratory failure and death. So far, the number of identified cases are relatively few, though the numbers are growing. Disease surveillance has been aggressive since the first case was identified in Saudi Arabia.

Back in January, before the U.S. had seen its first cases, infection prevention specialist Betsy Todd provided a clear, engaging overview of MERS […]

2016-11-21T13:04:43-05:00May 22nd, 2014|Nursing|0 Comments
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Pioneering Spirits, Kept Promises: Critical Care Nurses in Denver

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

In Denver for the annual National Teaching Institute of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), I’m once again overwhelmed by the size and breadth of the meeting. It’s not just the attendance, though it drew over 7,000 nurses. Perhaps it’s the Colorado Convention Center, which seems to go on forever. (Fittingly, there’s a mammoth blue bear two stories high peering in one of the glass walls.)

Big Blue Bear, Colorado Convention Center, Denver Big Blue Bear, Colorado Convention Center, Denver

While trying to find my way to a session, I met a nurse who was there with her mother. Mom’s a Boston ER nurse and her daughter is a critical care nurse in New Hampshire. Every year they do a mother-daughter trip to either this meeting or the Emergency Nurses Association meeting. Kudos to them!

Sociologist, inspirational speaker, and comedian Bertice Berry mc’d the opening session, quickly warming up the audience. A highlight was the presentation of AACN’s Pioneering Spirit awards to Loretta Ford (founder, along with physician Henry Silver, of the first NP program in 1965), Carrie Lenburg (pioneer in nontraditional and distance learning), and Lucian Leape (a physician who spearheaded the movement to reduce medical errors).

Some quotes from these feisty folks who had major impacts on […]

2016-11-21T13:04:44-05:00May 20th, 2014|career, nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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Noise in the ICU: Terminology, Health Effects, Reduction Strategies, and What We Don’t Know

By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor

Noise isolation headphones to use in loud environments via Wikimedia Commons

I woke up this morning, as I do every morning now, to the sound of pile driving at a large construction site a block and half away on the Gowanus Canal. It shakes the earth and reminds me of the forges of evil Sauron in one of the Lord of the Rings movies. I once had a dog lose a good bit of hair when there was a pile driver for several months in the lot behind another apartment in Brooklyn.

The negative physical and emotional effects of excessive noise get an occasional mention lately in health reporting, but in New York City or along the remotest forest lane, the forces of quiet can seem to be in rapid retreat before an army of leaf blowers, all-terrain vehicles, diabolically amped-up motorcycles, huge TV sets, garbage trucks, helicopters, and the like.

Lest I sound like a total crank (I do have useful noise-cancelling headphones plus an Android app that offers such choices as white noise, brown noise, burbling creek, steady rain, crickets, and soothing wave sounds), there’s a reason for the preamble. Florence Nightingale herself called unnecessary noise “the most cruel absence of care which can be inflicted either on sick or well,” as is pointed out by the University of Washington researchers who wrote the latest installment of our column Critical Analysis, Critical Care.

2016-11-21T13:04:45-05:00May 16th, 2014|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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Remembering Nurses Who Go Above and Beyond as Volunteers

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

A severely dehydrated patient receives iv fluids from Kari Jones, MD, as she is carried by a family member from triage to a tent at the Bercy CTC. Photo courtesy of Samaritan’s Purse. A severely dehydrated patient receives IV fluids from Kari Jones, MD, as she is carried by a family member from triage to a tent at the Bercy CTC. Photo courtesy of Samaritan’s Purse.

So another Nurses Week winds down and many nurses have been acknowledged for the fine work they do. But I think more recognition should be given to nurses who go above and beyond their usual nursing work and volunteer to help those in dire circumstances. This month in AJN, one of the two CE articles is called “Responding to the Cholera Epidemic in Haiti.” It details the work of one organization and its nurses. Here’s the overview:

While Haiti was still recovering from the January 12, 2010, magnitude-7 earthquake, an outbreak of cholera spread throughout the nation, soon reaching epidemic proportions. Working through the faith-based nongovernmental organization Samaritan’s Purse, an NP, an epidemiologist, and a physician joined the effort to prevent the spread of disease and treat those affected. Here they describe the prevention and intervention campaigns their organization initiated, how they prepared for each, and the essential elements of their operations.

The article provides essential information about such topics as setting up cholera treatment centers, assessment, rehydration priorities, prevention, enlisting […]

2018-03-28T10:25:15-04:00May 14th, 2014|nursing perspective|1 Comment
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To Be a Nurse Is a Powerful Thing: Thoughts on Graduation

By Karen Roush, PhD, RN, FNP, AJN clinical managing editor

Photo by Karen Roush. Photo by Karen Roush.

After years of work and sacrifice, last month I successfully defended my dissertation. In the weeks leading up to my defense I found myself overcome with emotion each time I imagined that moment when I would hear myself called “doctor” for the first time. And my breath did catch in my throat when the questioning was over and the chair of my dissertation committee turned to me and said those magic words, “Congratulations Dr. Roush.”

But then something funny happened. There was no incredible high. I wasn’t walking on air. For so many years I’ve been focused on the goal of achieving a doctor of philosophy in nursing. But now that I’ve accomplished that, I am faced with a new and no less difficult challenge—what I do from here and how I make those words, Dr. Roush, mean something.

Many of you graduating this month may have similar feelings. It is a powerful thing to be a nurse. What we’ve learned in the classrooms, in hospital halls, in the connections that pass between us and our patients in moments great and small, has given us tremendous knowledge. But it is what we choose to do with that knowledge and how we do it that gives meaning […]

2016-11-21T13:04:47-05:00May 12th, 2014|career, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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