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Do Patients Have a Right to Choose Providers Based on Race?

By mmarcotte51/via Flickr

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editorial director

We have a wonderful librarian here at AJN who is always on the alert for news about nursing and nurses. Recently she sent me a clipping about a legal case, Chaney v. Plainfield Healthcare Center in Indiana’s Court of Appeals, which has important ramifications for nurses. The court ruled in favor of Brenda Chaney, a certified nursing assistant, and reversed the decision of the lower court that had ruled in favor of the Plainfield Healthcare Center nursing home.

Brenda Chaney brought suit against the nursing home for complying with a resident’s request not to have any black health care workers provide care or enter her room, and leaving her in the care of her automated medical alert system. (She also claimed her firing had been racially motivated. The court agreed that it seemed discriminatory.) The court agreed with Chaney that by acceding to the patient’s wishes, her employer created a hostile workplace and violated her rights. The nursing home claimed it was protecting the patient’s rights and that not doing so “risked violating state and federal laws that grant residents the rights to choose providers, to privacy, and to bodily autonomy.” The court did not agree. The crux of the decision is this:

“In any event, Indiana’s regulations do not require Plainfield to instruct its employees to accede to the racial preferences of its residents. The regulations merely require Plainfield to allow residents access to health-care providers of […]

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Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2017-02-15T15:02:40-05:00October 11th, 2010|Nursing|6 Comments

IOM Report: The Evidence Shows the Future of Health Care Rests on the Backs of Nurses

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief

This past Tuesday, I attended the release of the highly anticipated (at least by nursing) report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) on the future of nursing. Spearheaded and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the report provides a review of nursing’s role in health care and details what changes need to occur for the future—not just of nursing, but for the future health of the health care system.

While the findings support what nursing has been claiming all along—that nurses have a critical role in health care and the health care system needs nurses to practice to the full extent of their capability—what is especially important about this report is that it is backed by the IOM’s multidisciplinary panel and an “objective evaluation of evidence according to the robust evaluation processes of the National Academy of Sciences,” said John Rowe, a committee member and professor at Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

The panel at the public briefing for the release of the report included some health care heavyweights who voiced strong support for the findings:

Harvey V. Fineburg, president of the IOM: “One thing shouts out—nurses are critical to the nation’s health and central to the goals of high quality care.”

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:15:20-05:00October 8th, 2010|career, health care policy, nursing perspective, nursing research|4 Comments

Promoting Awareness of Patient-Centered Care

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief

October is, among other things, patient-centered care awareness month. At AJN, we’ve been focusing on patient-centered care for some time, most recently by virtue of our collaboration on a series of articles with Planetree, a nonprofit that “facilitates patient-centered care in healing environments.” The first article, Creating a Patient-Centered System, appeared in March 2009; the final article (from which we took the image above) was published in September 2010, and they’re all available in a collection on our Web site. Articles focus on such topics as creating quieter hospital environments and promoting patient access to medical records. We’re excited that this collaboration evolved into a four-part free webinar series supported by the Picker Institute. The final webinar, A Patient-Centered Approach to Visitation, presented by Planetree vice president Jeanette Michalak, MSN, RN, along with Wendy Tennis, BA, and Nancy Jane Schreiner, BSN, RN, will be on October 19 at 1 pm EST. We hope you will register and learn how to facilitate family visitation that meets patient needs. (The Planetree Web site also offers a downloadable toolkit and suggestions to focus attention on patient-centered care.)

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:15:25-05:00October 7th, 2010|nursing perspective, patient engagement|0 Comments

Taking Charge Seriously

By Christine Moffa, MS, RN clinical editor

Most hospitals have charge nurses, although how they’re selected and what they do varies not only between hospitals but often between units in the same hospital. For instance, the first time I was in the role of charge nurse it was because none of the usual suspects were working that day! And my manager’s parting words were, “Looks like you’re getting baptized with fire. Good luck.” Thanks to the work of a quality improvement team, the nurses at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City won’t have to go through what I did.

This month’s Cultivating Quality column, An Evidence-Based Approach to Taking Charge, “describes the planning, implementation, and evaluation of a charge nurse initiative in a large academic medical center.” After reviewing the literature and identifying issues through the use of focus groups, members signed up for different quality improvement teams to develop solutions and action plans.

The following are some of the changes implemented by the teams:

The development of charge nurse core competencies and a definition of the role to be used hospital wide.
A standardized hand-off report to be used between charge nurses going off and on shift.
An orientation workshop using interactive case scenarios.

See the full article for a list of the charge nurse core competencies as well as an example of a case study used during the interactive workshop. Here’s a breakdown of the charge nurse role and its responsibilities:

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:15:27-05:00October 6th, 2010|career, nursing perspective, nursing research|3 Comments

Startling Findings about Men’s Awareness of Male Breast Cancer . . .

… and a look at the benefits of dragon boat racing for breast cancer survivors of either sex.

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Although breast cancer is far less common in men than in women, being a man doesn’t make one immune to the disease. Yet misconceptions about male breast cancer abound. In this month’s CE feature, Men’s Awareness and Knowledge of Male Breast Cancer, nurse researcher Eileen Thomas reports on a qualitative study of 28 men at higher risk (all had at least one maternal relative who had been diagnosed with breast cancer). The goals were twofold: to learn more about men’s understanding and perceptions of this life-threatening illness, and to elicit information that might guide clinical practice and the development of sex-specific educational interventions.

The study findings are rather startling. Nearly 80% of the participants had no idea that men could develop breast cancer. Fully 100% of the participants reported that none of their primary care providers had discussed the disease with them. Asked how they thought male breast cancer was detected, most participants could name only one symptom (“a lump”); one said, “They find it on the autopsy table.” And 43% reported that being diagnosed with breast cancer might cause them to question their masculinity. One participant stated, “I would feel like my manhood was taken away.” […]

Guest Author2016-11-21T13:15:28-05:00October 5th, 2010|nursing perspective, nursing research, patient engagement|0 Comments