Patients Change Us: A Formative Nursing Experience

From boliston, via Flickr From boliston, via Flickr

Many years ago, I was given the greatest gift by a patient who had no idea he would change my life and define my professional outlook as a nurse. While not every nurse will be fortunate enough to have such an explicit experience of the effect of the care they provide so early in their career, I believe that each patient you come in contact with is changing your life as much as you are changing theirs.

Quantity of Care vs. Quality of Care

Nursing has evolved into a highly technical profession grounded in scientific evidence, a profession that works to improve patient outcomes and shorten hospital stays. Research and technology support this work in innumerable ways.

But while nurses must be technical experts, drug experts, and efficiency experts, they must also do their best to alleviate the suffering of those in their charge. These many concurrent demands can result in high burnout rates among nurses as well as fragmented care for patients.

The quantity of care today’s nurse provides must go hand in hand with the quality of care. My own definition of quality care is focusing on patients as more than just a set of signs, symptoms, numbers, and processes in need of monitoring and adjustment. Recognizing patients […]

2016-11-21T13:01:07-05:00June 22nd, 2016|career, Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing stories, patient experience|1 Comment
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Food is Medicine: An Oncology Nurse’s Lunch Break Walk

IMG_3900 (002)On a beautiful spring day I took a walk during my lunch break through the urban neighborhood surrounding the hospital, wishing for a convenient place to buy a piece of fruit.

I discovered, as if conjured, a vintage trolley tucked in a driveway between medical office buildings. A table laden with apples, carrots, potatoes, and leafy greens leaned against it, creating the ambience of an open-air market. Charmed, and curious about its purpose, I climbed the two steps into the trolley.

Inside, a refrigerated case contained meats and dairy products. The walls were lined with shelves containing packaged goods such as bulgur, brown rice, beans, and more fresh fruits and vegetables. I plucked an orange, noticing it was priced by the piece, not by the pound.

I had multiple questions for the clerk as I handed her a quarter to pay for the orange.

A food prescription program.

The trolley, it turned out, is a mobile grocery store in partnership with the hospital, piloting a “food prescription” program. It arrives weekly, traveling to other sites the rest of the week. Cash, cards, and food stamps are accepted. Outside, a caseworker seated on a camp chair gave food vouchers to qualified customers below a specific income level. A dietician also provided budgeting assistance, with tips on healthy food choices and simple […]

2017-07-17T14:20:55-04:00June 17th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Public health|2 Comments
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When Patients Ask About Palliative Chemotherapy

Photo © Associated Press. Photo © Associated Press.

Nurses repeatedly witness the suffering of people with advanced, metastasized cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy. These drugs often seem to diminish rather than enhance the quality of the remaining weeks of their lives.

In the first article in a new AJN series on palliative care, author Marianne Matzo points to research indicating that chemotherapy in end-stage cancer does more harm than good. So what should we do when patients ask (as in this article), “Is the chemotherapy going to help me? And if it’s not, why are they offering it?”  […]

2016-11-21T13:01:08-05:00June 14th, 2016|Nursing, patient engagement, patient experience|1 Comment
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Not a Nurse but Her Mother Was, and Now It Really Matters

June_Refl_Illustration Illustration by Lisa Dietrich for AJN

The loss of Emily Cappo’s mother, a competent and supportive parent and an accomplished nurse, leaves an enormous gap in her daughter’s life. Then her own son gets sick.

Cappo writes about these events in “I’m Not a Nurse, But My Mother Was,” the Reflections essay in the June issue of AJN.

Without her mother to turn to for help and guidance, Cappo has no idea how she’ll handle the situation. “There I was,” she writes,

the nonmedical person in my family, the person who hated blood and needles, being thrown into a situation demanding courage, stamina, and role modeling.

But we rise to the situation that presents itself, if the stakes are high enough. Cappo discovers what many nurses already know: the nurses who care for her son make all the difference in his care, and provide her with essential support as well. […]

2016-11-21T13:01:11-05:00June 3rd, 2016|narratives, Nursing, patient engagement, Patients|0 Comments
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Recent Decline in U.S. Opioid Prescriptions: Good News But Some Concerns

by frankieleon/ via flickr by frankieleon/ via flickr

It was widely reported in the past week that there have been steady declines in the number of opioid prescriptions in the U.S. for the past three years, with the declines the steepest in some of the states considered to have the worst opioid misuse crises.

This is good news, suggesting that efforts to address some problem areas like renegade pain clinics prescribing for profit, patients who go from doctor to doctor seeking opioid prescriptions, and the diversion of legitimate opioid prescriptions may be starting to bear fruit.

A balanced overview of the situation can be found in this New York Times article. The authors also acknowledge that patients in pain are now facing new hurdles to pain relief, quoting the director of one prominent medical school’s program on pain research education and policy: “The climate has definitely shifted. . . . It is now one of reluctance, fear of consequences and encumbrance with administrative hurdles. A lot of patients who are appropriate candidates for opioids have been caught up in that response.”

Much of the reporting on the opioid epidemic lumps all people who take opioids into one big statistical brew. While startling and alarming numbers about overdoses from legal and illegal opioids steal the headlines, little media and scholarly analysis focuses on the lower likelihood of […]

2016-11-21T13:01:12-05:00May 26th, 2016|health care policy, Nursing, nursing perspective, pain management, patient experience, patient safety, Patients|1 Comment
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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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