Turkey, Sweet Potatoes, and Living Wills

By Christine Moffa, MS, RN, AJN clinical editor

When I was growing up, my family spent Thanksgiving dinner at my grandmother’s house. She was a star in the kitchen, with cooking and baking skills beyond compare. However, while she made a chocolate cream pie to kill for, her knack for turning every conversation into a newsfeed of various neighbors’ illnesses, symptoms, and near-death experiences, if not actual deaths, stood out more. She did this so much that my brother began referring to her as Grandma Kevorkian.

It turns out that death-and-dying discussions on Thanksgiving might not be such a bad thing, according to Engage with Grace, a nonprofit organization that promotes end-of-life discussions. In 2008 they launched a blog rally timed with Thanksgiving weekend, for bloggers to get the word out about end-of-life discussions. The idea is to have the conversation when most of the family members are together, and the Thanksgiving holiday is a perfect fit. There’s a five-question tool available on the site that can be used as a conversation starter, as well as other resources.

While talking about these topics could potentially clear a room, it’s a lot worse to be sitting at a family member’s bedside in the ICU and not knowing what to choose for them because they didn’t let you know in advance.

For additional information on end-of-life discussions and options, see the AJN articles “Life-Support Interventions at the End of Life: Unintended Consequences,” by […]

2016-11-21T13:14:50-05:00November 24th, 2010|nursing perspective, patient engagement, Public health|2 Comments
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Time to Pause and Commit to Act

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief

Of all the holidays, Thanksgiving seems to me to be the most pure—it began way before the greeting card folks thought of it and commercialized it. And it was born out of something that often gets lost during the course of our busy days—connecting with others and saying thank you for what they do or what they mean to us.

Christine Moffa, AJN’s clinical editor, and I were discussing the holiday at a staff meeting, saying how we had never minded working on Thanksgiving. Patients, visitors, and colleagues—everyone was in a friendly, appreciative mode. Most hospital cafeterias served turkey dinners to the staff, so everyone was happy about that—and everyone got to have a real dinner break for a change!

It also seems that at Thanksgiving we’re still in the “giving” mode, maybe because it’s early in the holiday season. My first request-for-your-support e-mail this season came from photographer Ed Kashi; it’s one I’m glad he sent. Ed is an incredibly talented megastar of documentary photography (in my humble opinion); we’ve been fortunate to have some of his work grace our covers (July 2007 and our 2008 Family Caregiver supplement, as examples) and articles. His e-mail was about an online auction of photographs called Commit to Action, a collaborative project by VII Photo (a photo agency) and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to generate funds for MSF work around the world.

The […]

2016-11-21T13:14:51-05:00November 24th, 2010|Nursing|1 Comment
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What Does Rappelling Down a Canyon Wall Have to Do With Nursing?

Alice Facente, a clinical educator in Connecticut, has published two Reflections essays in AJN in the past year: “The Dirtiest House in Town” and “At Her Mercy.”  Her last post on this blog can be found here.

We just returned home from Moab, Utah, where our 20-something son lives and works. His 50-something parents decided to visit him—we hadn’t seen him in many months. He earns his living as a mountain guide, leading people on extreme mountain-climbing adventures.

We just wanted to see him, not fulfill any fantasies of becoming daredevils. But we were game to see what he did for a living. He took us on a three-mile hike through incredibly gorgeous canyons and rock formations. It was strenuous, but we were able to keep up. When we came to the edge of a cliff, with the bottom of the canyon “only 100 feet down” or so, our son took off his bulging backpack—which we’d mistakenly assumed was full of snacks—and pulled out harnesses, ropes, helmets, and gloves. He then told us there was no way down except to rappel.

Did I mention I am afraid of heights? Since my son was well aware of my (very reasonable) fears, he had neglected to tell us his plans. […]

2016-11-21T13:15:00-05:00November 15th, 2010|career, nursing perspective|3 Comments
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Today is Veteran’s Day . . .

By Shawn Kennedy, Interim EIC of AJN

 . . . and unfortunately, because of conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, there will be many more veterans of war and its brutality. And there will also be many more families who struggle with the stress of having a family member deployed, often to dangerous places.

In this month’s issue of AJN, Erin Gabany and Teresa Shellenbarger, authors of the feature article “Caring for Families with Deployment Stress,” note that “deployment was found to have a markedly negative effect on health and well-being, with spouses reporting loneliness, anxiety, and depression in 78.2%, 51.6%, and 42.6% of all cases, respectively.” And just this week, a study published in the journal Pediatrics reports that, among children ages three to eight, “[m]ental and behavioral health visits increased by 11% in these children when a military parent deployed; behavioral disorders increased 19% and stress disorders increased 18%.”

While nurses in the military may be aware of the demands and stresses on active duty military families, civilian nurses may not be—and they are the ones who are likely to see the families of the many reserve and National Guard troops now deployed. We’re pleased to be publishing Gabany and Shellenbarger’s article, and hope it will increase  awareness of the issues many families face and help nurses provide support to these families.  

Nurses, too, are being deployed in large numbers; many, like army nurse Major Christopher Vanfossen, author of our new […]

2016-11-21T13:15:01-05:00November 11th, 2010|Nursing|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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