In the May issue of AJN Bunny Wong writes about the recently reported rise in infant bed deaths over a 20-year period. From 1984 to 2004, the rate of deaths resulting from accidental strangulation and suffocation of infants quadrupled.
The most important question, of course, is: why? Wong writes: […]
Today is my last day as editor-in-chief of AJN. When I arrived in 1999 I had a vision for repositioning the journal and along with a superb editorial team have worked hard to realize that vision. In April AJN was selected by the BioMedical and Life Sciences Division of the Special Libraries Association as one of the 100 most influential journals of the century in biology and medicine (the only nursing journal to make the list). That single accomplishment speaks volumes about the commitment to excellence that we’ve embraced, as had my predecessors at the journal. Look for my Editorial in the July issue, where I’ll say more about this.
The challenges facing publishing demand new visions and renewed energies. I’ll continue as editor-in-chief emeritus during a transitional […]
I’m a public health nurse and I have a weekly public radio program, Healthstyles, in New York City. Fifteen years ago, when my kids were preschoolers, there was a local outbreak of head lice, and parents kept asking me to do a show about it. I thought it was a boring topic. They persisted and I did the show.
During that radio show I invited listeners to call in; in radio-speak, “the board lit up.” A mom called and said she’d applied an OTC shampoo for head lice, in three separate applications, to her six-year-old son’s head, but he still had nits and live lice—what should she do? A father reported that he’d applied another OTC shampoo for head lice to his nine-year-old daughter’s head, wrapped her head in plastic wrap, and let her sleep through the night that way; he asked, “Was that dangerous to do?” Producing this segment opened my eyes to how little we knew about the health effects of such treatments on children. It was a nursing “Aha!” moment: head lice weren’t just a big nuisance, they were a serious public health issue. […]
Asked what the major issues in health care reporting are right now, Schwitzer said that, after analyzing 780 stories from the major newspapers and networks that feed Americans their news on health care, he and his colleagues have found that "72% of stories fail to adequately address costs." "71% fail to adequately quantify benefits."
I went to a presentation about how to improve health care news coverage in the U.S., which was mostly about how many health news reports don’t cover basic issues like costs, availability or provide even a hint of context about whether something is truly broadly beneficial.
That’s noted health journalist Christine Gorman at Global Health Report about how coverage of health care in the U.S. (and internationally as well, especially when it comes to public health issues) lacks objectivity and is often driven by those with a vested interest in radically simplifying the facts.
AJN, it happens, will be meeting later this morning with one of the speakers at the Association of Health Care Journalists presentation that Gorman had just attended when she wrote her post: Gary Schwitzer, “fomer CNN reporter and current journalism professor who founded HealthNewsReview.org.”
Schwitzer is on a mission to improve health care reporting. His Web site takes major health care stories about medications, treatments, and other issues and subjects them to rigorous criteria regarding whether they provide readers crucial context, accuracy, and balance.
Nurses and patients need to know that the news about new drugs and treatments isn’t always as accurate as it could be. Critical thinking is needed, and Schwitzer is helping provide us with the tools.
Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor
