Frontline Nurses Speak Out – A Health Care Crisis That ‘Didn’t Have to Be This Way’

Themes of heartbreak, heroics, exhaustion, sadness, and anger.

Previously on this blog, I posted about the Frontline Nurses WikiWisdom Forum, an initiative AJN joined back in March to bring forth the experiences and thoughts of nurses working at the point of care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with Cynda Rushton (Johns Hopkins School of Nursing & Berman Institute of Bioethics and AJN editorial board member) and Theresa Brown (nurse, author, and AJN contributing editor) and the folks at New Voice Strategies, we solicited stories from nurses from around the country. Of the many who visited the site, 463 nurses joined and shared their experiences.

Forum moderator Cindy Richards, a professional journalist, worked with four “thought leaders” from the nurses to organize the themes and recommendations from the rich content posted by the nurses.

And while we recognize that the pandemic is far from over (United States cases as of September 20 were over 6.7 million, approaching 200,000 deaths and still on the rise), we felt we had reached a critical mass of content. The stories echoed repetitive themes of heartbreak, heroics, exhaustion, sadness, and anger.

“Nurses often put their patients’ needs before their own. That didn’t change during the pandemic. What did change is that nurses saw the […]

2020-09-22T09:47:24-04:00September 22nd, 2020|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective, Public health|0 Comments
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How Do You Feel When Your Patients Can’t Afford Care?

“Every day in the United States, nurses watch patients forgo beneficial treatment they cannot afford despite nursing’s moral standard to treat patients without regard to financial condition.”

How often have you been left, pretty much on your own, to figure out a way that your uninsured and/or homeless patients have access to something (anything!) that will maintain their health when you aren’t with them? Are there meds they can’t pay for? Do they need prenatal care that they can’t afford? Can they possibly function without home care of some kind?

Moral distress as a call to seek systemic change.

In “Ethical Issues: The Moral Distress of Nurses When Patients Forgo Treatment Because of Cost” in this month’s AJN (free to access until October 7), Douglas Olsen and Linda Keilman discuss the moral distress of nurses when we are unable to meet the needs of patients who don’t have the money to pay for care in our for-profit health care system. […]

2020-09-17T07:03:34-04:00September 17th, 2020|health care policy, Nursing, nursing perspective, patient experience, Patients, Public health|0 Comments
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‘Didn’t You Used to Be a Nurse?’: Finding the Nurse Within

The author of the Reflections essay in AJN‘s September issue, Kathleen Resnick, confronts a question many nurses must confront at some point: what is it to be a nurse?

And a related question: what is the essence of nursing work? If you can no longer work as a nurse because of physical constraints or for another reason, are you still a nurse?

Writes Resnick in “A Different Kind of Nurse“:

My nursing career was spent in hospitals, working mostly in critical care as a bedside nurse, then in management. I worked hard and my work was a large part of my sense of self-worth. I loved patient care and the satisfaction of making a difference. As a manager, I felt my  primary mission was to enable those I served to do their best work. . . . I was somebody. Now what am I? An acquaintance asked me, “Didn’t you used to be a nurse?”

[…]

2020-09-15T16:23:15-04:00September 15th, 2020|career, narratives, Nursing, nursing stories|2 Comments
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Documentary Filmmaker: The ED Reflects Everything Going on in Our Country

A new documentary profiles emergency nurses.

If you think the photo on the cover of the September issue is dramatic, it’s because it was taken during the emergency treatment of a young man with a gunshot wound. (See On the Cover for details.)

The photo is from the new film by filmmaking team Carolyn Jones and Lisa Frank, In Case of Emergency, which was made in concert with the Emergency Nurses Association to mark its 50th anniversary.

Michelle Lyon, RN, an ED nurse at the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital, Lexington.

The film’s release is scheduled for October 14th, the beginning of Emergency Nurses Week, and we highlight the film in a photo-essay in the September issue. (The article is free until the end of the month, and best viewed as a pdf.)

The film follows the work of ED nurses in several parts of the country. As a former ED nurse, I was struck by the ability of these filmmakers to accurately capture the work.

Scenes showing what […]

2020-09-10T14:18:29-04:00September 10th, 2020|narratives, Nursing|0 Comments
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A Message from the Tri-Council for Nursing: Nurses Need to Vote in 2020

The Tri-Council for Nursing, an alliance between the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the American Nurses Association, the American Organization for Nursing Leadership, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, and the National League for Nursing representing nurses in practice, nurse leaders, and nursing educators, urges you to exercise your right to vote in the 2020 election.

The Tri-Council for Nursing calls upon all nurses to carefully weigh the positions, proposals, and legislative voting records of candidates who aspire to elected office on November 3, 2020. In these unprecedented times, voting may look different, especially with early voting options and vote-by-mail opportunities becoming increasingly relevant.

As we get closer to Election Day, the Tri-Council strongly recommends that you consider the safest way for you to cast your vote. To ensure you have the best information available and are ready to cast your ballot, follow these three simple steps:

  1. Register. Double check if you are registered to vote by going to vote.gov. Some states allow same day registration, but it is important to check now to ensure that you are prepared for Election Day.
  2. Do Your Research. While 2020 is a presidential election year, there are many open seats at the state and local levels as well. It is important to research not only who will be on the ballot, but any proposals that may also be up for consideration this election season.
  3. Vote. With COVID-19, states are […]
2020-09-04T08:57:21-04:00September 4th, 2020|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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