AJN in June: Gastrostomy Complications, Nursing and Mindfulness, Cultural Competence, More

01AJN0615 CoverAccording to one of the authors of “Cultivating Mindfulness to Enhance Nursing Practice,” the Cultivating Quality article now available in our June issue, mindfulness can be understood as a practice centered around “remembering to pay attention with care and discernment to what is occurring in your immediate experience.” On the cover of our June issue (left), nurses at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston practice mindfulness in a spacious garden, as part of a multifaceted program to help nurses manage stress and make the best of opportunities to more fully connect with patients and families. The article discusses the outcome of the program and how nurses in all settings can use mindfulness-based techniques to enhance their well-being and the care of patients.

Also in the June issue, a continuing education (CE) feature article, “Early Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Tube Dislodgment,” describes the details of a case study of early percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube dislodgment, attempted replacement, and subsequent sepsis that resulted in the patient’s death. This case is used to better inform nurses about gastrostomy techniques, complications, preventive strategies, and proper tube management. […]

2016-11-21T13:02:28-05:00June 1st, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|0 Comments
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AJN EIC Talks Priorities With Leaders of Critical Care Nurses Organization

Karen McQuillan and Teri Lynn Kiss AACN president-elect Karen McQuillan (left) and president Teri Lynn Kiss

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Last week at the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) annual meeting (see this post), I interviewed the association’s president, Teri Lynn Kiss, or “TK,” and the current president-elect, Karen McQuillan, who will officially take office after this month. After days of rushing from session to session (and there must be 300+ sessions to choose from) and wandering through exhibits, I always enjoy sitting down with leaders of this organization and hearing what they think is important in critical care nursing.

Teri Lynn Kiss, MS, MSSW, RN, CNML, CMSRN, director of Medical Unit-2South and case management services at Alaska-based Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, has led this growing organization of over 104,000 members for the last year. I asked her what she felt she’d accomplished. She said that one of the most valuable things the association had done in the past year was to provide clear and credible information about Ebola to its members, the health care community, and to policy makers in Washington. She also believes the association’s work on creating healthy work environments is important not just for nurses but will translate to better care for patients. Her presidency, she said, enabled her to fulfill her own personal mission of service to others—one she will continue with the association in different capacities.

Karen McQuillan, MS, RN, CNS-BC, CCRN, CNRN, FAAN, a […]

2016-11-21T13:02:29-05:00May 26th, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Critical Care Nursing in San Diego (or was it Las Vegas?)

FullSizeRenderBy Maureen Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

I’ve written before about the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) annual meeting, the National Teaching Institute (NTI). As a former critical care and emergency nurse, I’ve attended it almost annually. And I’m always amazed at how each year they step it up with new twists. One year, it was the helicopter and full MASH unit in the exhibit hall. Then AACN went to the TED talk style of keynote presentations. Last year, they had a contest for members to apply to be the guest co-master of ceremonies. So, what might possibly be a new twist in this year’s opening session?

I was sitting with leaders of the Canadian Critical Care Nurses Association, one of whom had never been to NTI before and had been told by her colleague that it would be unlike anything she had seen before. She couldn’t have been more on target—even by NTI standards. The session opened with a DJ and loud techno-rock music, followed by a very fit and energetic dance troupe and pop singers. Then, down from the ceiling came four acrobats and a bare-chested man spinning above the stage, along with a dozen or so men and women running up and down the aisles with large, lighted balls that the audience began batting around, all to the techno music. Was I really […]

2016-11-21T13:02:30-05:00May 20th, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Florence Nightingale: The Crucial Skill We Forget to Mention

“Suppose Florence hadn’t been a writer? Think about it…”

Karen Roush, PhD, RN, is an assistant professor of nursing at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York, and founder of the Scholar’s Voice, which works to strengthen the voice of nursing through writing mentorship for nurses.

karindalziel/ via Flickr Creative Commons karindalziel/ via Flickr Creative Commons

When we talk about the diversity of what nurses do, there is no better example than Florence Nightingale herself.

She was an expert clinician working in hospitals in Europe and London and caring for soldiers in military hospitals during the Crimean War. She was a quality improvement expert, implementing improvements in military hospitals that had a major impact on patient outcomes. Her work as an educator created the very foundation of nursing as a profession. She was a researcher and epidemiologist, using statistical arguments to support the changes she demanded. She was a public health advocate, campaigning for improvements that benefited the health of populations globally. She was our first nursing theorist, defining an environmental model of health care still used today.

But you are probably aware of all of this. Florence’s contributions to nursing and health are well known. What often gets left out though, and is of great importance to the history of nursing and how we practice today, is […]

2016-11-21T13:02:32-05:00May 13th, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|11 Comments
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A Found Poem For Nurses Week

Badruddeen, via Flickr Badruddeen, via Flickr

The poem below, originally published in our May 2005 issue, is by Veneta Masson, MA, RN. It’s a “found poem,” a form of poetry in which the poet assembles phrases selected from a source or sources. The lines here come “from actual posts to an Internet bulletin board,” but they could as easily be comments on AJN‘s Facebook page! The author is a nurse and writer living in Washington, DC (more about her work can be found here).—Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

Nurses Week—What Did You Get?
Hi, everyone! Just curious to see what you received for Nurses Week.

Denim shirts with the company logo

Swiss Army–type knives with fourteen blades

Carnations in dollar-shop vases

One wilted rose

Soap on a rope

I think I’m worth more than this

A live band at the Holiday Inn

A potato bar luncheon

If you weren’t there, you got nada

Nothing

Not a thing

A PA announcement thanking the nurses

We dug out our caps & wore them all day
our VP of Nursing came to the unit and stayed for an hour
we sat with her & shared our stories of why we went into nursing

We got pizza one day (if you were there) and ice cream one day (if you were there)

Rolos, Skittles and M&Ms—give me the tools to do my […]

2016-11-21T13:02:32-05:00May 11th, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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