On Cats Sucking the Breath Out of Babies, and Other Health Superstitions

By Marcy Phipps, RN, a regular contributor to this blog. Her essay, “The Soul on the Head of a Pin,” was published in the May 2010 issue of AJN.

I recently babysat a friend’s busy toddlers, and was happy to share the long (but lovely) day with a good friend who happens to also be a nurse. We’d just gotten the babies tucked into their cribs and were stepping out of the nursery with a sigh when I noticed the family’s cat lounging in a padded rocking chair, blinking lazily at us.

“Wait!” I said, scooping up the cat. “We can’t leave the cat here. Cats suck the breath out of babies!”

My friend looked at me like I’d lost my mind, and I instantly wished that I hadn’t said it.  The absurdity of the statement was clear to me. And yet it felt like a truth I’d known forever, even if I couldn’t remember why.

As it turns out, it was something I was told as a child—by my grandmother. Knowing this makes my statement make sense, at least to me, as I adored my grandma and would have accepted anything she told me as undisputed truth. Even so, I’m surprised (and a little embarrassed) that in spite of higher […]

2016-11-21T13:10:43-05:00February 15th, 2012|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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When Lawmakers and Physicians Hold Nurses Back

Editor’s Note: Toni Inglis, MSN, RN, CNS, FAAN, writes opinion for the Austin (TX) American-Statesman. She works at the Seton Healthcare Family in Austin as a neonatal ICU staff nurse and also writes a nursing blog for Seton and edits its monthly NursingNews. This article is a reprint of an April 22nd commentary in the Statesman. Toni was inspired to write the column after a particularly disappointing legislative session, in which Texas advanced practice nurses made fewer gains than in past sessions—despite Texas ranking last in access to health care and having the most restrictive laws in the country regarding APRN scope of practice and prescriptive authority. She believes the poor access and barriers to practice are related.

AJN finds the article particularly relevant as legislatures across the country deliberate on APRN barriers to practice. You can read her commentaries at ingliscommentary.com.

Here’s an idea that wouldn’t cost Texas a dime but would save millions of dollars every year: Remove all barriers restraining nurses from practicing to the full extent of their education and training.

No state needs primary care providers more than Texas, which has a severe shortage. Texas ranks last in access to health care and in the percentage of residents without health insurance. Of Texas’ 254 counties, 188 […]

2016-11-21T13:10:43-05:00February 13th, 2012|health care policy, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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A Face in a Village: Remembering a First Encounter with AIDS in Africa

We’d already guessed there was a problem at the health post—we hadn’t received the last several monthly statistical reports. As a Peace Corps volunteer in the Central African Republic in the early 1990s, I reviewed these reports as part of my job at the regional health office. Another part of my job was to join a supervisory team as it traveled over dirt roads to check on health facilities from hospitals down to the village health posts staffed by a single nurse. A few months into my assignment, on our way to the provincial hospital, the team decided to stop by this particular health post to find out why we weren’t receiving reports.

That’s from “A Face in a Village,” the February Reflections essay in AJN by Susi Wyss, the author of a well-received recent novel, The Civilized World (Henry Holt, 2011). Set in Africa, the novel, like this essay, was inspired by the author’s international health career. In this essay, Wyss recalls a vivid first encounter with the ravages of AIDS and the hopelessness it inspired. (Click through to the PDF version for a cleaner read.)—JM, senior editor

2016-11-21T13:10:46-05:00February 8th, 2012|Nursing|7 Comments
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Kudos to Indy for Tightening Human Trafficking Laws Before the Super Bowl

According to Stateline.org (a news site of the nonprofit Pew Center on the States), with the Super Bowl taking place this Sunday in Indianapolis, the state of Indiana has decided to toughen up its human trafficking laws.

“Though it is an honor for Indiana to host the Super Bowl, many sincere voices have brought to light the fact that human trafficking is a shameful practice we can’t ignore,” Indiana attorney general Greg Zoeller said in a statement.

The article notes that sex trafficking during highly publicized events has become an issue for many states with hosting duties. While the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, an international advocacy group, claims that the estimates of trafficking cases at previous Super Bowls may have been too high, whether there are 60,000 or six in a given year, any number over zero is too many.

For more info, see our award-winning article on the nurse’s role in combating human trafficking, by Donna Sabella. She also talks about her work in a podcast.—by Demaris Bailey
 
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2016-11-21T13:10:48-05:00February 3rd, 2012|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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The Case of Amanda Trujillo

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Post updated on January 10, 2013; see final paragraph. Amanda Trujillo, MSN, RN, is a nurse who until recently worked at Banner Del Webb Hospital in Sun City, Arizona, until she was fired for, as she claims, just doing what she’s obligated to do as a nurse—specifically, providing a patient information about a surgical procedure in an attempt to support fully informed decision making. (You can read her e-mail detailing her story here. She did not, as she has pointed out in comments, ever attempt to directly obtain informed consent herself.)

Amanda Trujillo

Ms. Trujillo says that, when the patient had a change of heart about the surgery, she requested a hospice consult. After a physician complained that Trujillo had overstepped her scope of practice, the hospital filed a complaint with the Arizona Board of Nursing, which has launched an investigation.

Ms. Trujillo has gone public with her story, sending e-mails and tweets to editors, public officials, bloggers, and the news media. The nursing blogosphere is full of posts with her story—Emergiblog, vdutton’s posterous (which has her attorney’s response to the complaint), and thenerdynurse, as well as a number of others. On January 31, she was interviewed on local television. She makes a compelling […]

2016-11-21T13:10:49-05:00February 2nd, 2012|nursing perspective|42 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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