Nursing Archives - Page 377 of 408

Can School Nurses Help Prevent Heat Stroke Fatalities in High School Football?

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editorial director & interim editor-in-chief

Earlier this month, Diana Mason, AJN’s editor-in-chief emeritus, wrote here about head injuries in soccer. A related news story about high school sports should make all school nurses, coaches, and parents take notice: student athletes suffer—and sometimes die—from heat stroke during intense workouts in hot weather.

According to an Associated Press report, Fred Mueller, director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, attributes 39 deaths since 1995 to heat-related causes. And that doesn’t count three deaths this past summer that he notes may also be associated with heat stroke.

Most of the deaths are associated with football preseason training in August. My middle son played high school football and every August he went to “preseason camp.” He and his teammates slept on air mattresses in the non-air-conditioned high school gym, and spent the last week of summer vacation in grueling drills and practices, wearing shorts, T-shirts, shoulder pads, and helmets. One year he arrived home looking thin and gaunt. He related stories of teammates vomiting on the sidelines during practices and of restricted water breaks. It took a player fainting during one session and an onslaught of parent complaints and pressure on school […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:22:21-05:00September 17th, 2009|nursing perspective|1 Comment

Medical Research–You Get What You Pay For

But someone is paying for the production of the content on the Internet—if it’s not a reputable organization or journal, who is it? Is it unbiased? Is it evidence-based, and who vetted the evidence and the authors? Let the readers—and their patients—be wary of what they read online and ask themselves just who paid for it, and why.

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:22:25-05:00September 15th, 2009|nursing research|2 Comments

Financial Strain and Childhood Cancer: What’s Your Definition of ‘Freedom’?

By Peggy McDaniel, BSN, RN

I recently read a stirring blog post in the NY Times from a fellow nurse, about a cancer patient she’d treated who was an insurance salesman but whose last months were dominated by a desperate attempt to manage his mounting medical bills, bills which left his wife with a second massive burden on top of her grief at his death.

Like Theresa Brown, I am an oncology nurse. In my work in pediatric oncology, I have also seen families ravaged by cancer treatment—physically, emotionally, and economically. Young families that fight to save their children often end up bankrupt, or with a ruined marriage from the emotional strain of dealing with a loss coupled with financial strain. Financial concerns are ever present.

Theresa’s article really hit home. I hope you take the time to read it. As I was listening to President Obama’s health care reform speech last week, I heard him mention Senator Kennedy’s experience as a parent of two children diagnosed with cancer. When it comes to the pain and suffering that children experience during treatment, the Kennedy childrens’ experience and that of children without reliable insurance were probably quite similar.

I would guess, though, that the experience was very different for the parents. […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:22:30-05:00September 14th, 2009|health care policy, nursing perspective|2 Comments

What Obama Told Us (Nurses) in the West Wing Yesterday About Health Care Reform

Nurses do know the importance of these elements of health care reform.

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:22:32-05:00September 11th, 2009|career, health care policy, nursing perspective|23 Comments

Obama Follows Up Reform Speech By Addressing Nurses (including AJN’s Diana Mason) at White House

Said President Obama this morning, to a White House audience of nurse leaders (including Diana Mason, AJN‘s editor-in-chief emeritus): “You’re the bedrock of our medical system. . . Few people understand . . . as you do why we need reform.” Click the image above to go to a page where you can watch the full speech, and be sure to check back here for Mason’s account of her visit to the White House.