Bedpans and Learning: Nursing Basics Still Matter

By Amanda Anderson, a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City currently doing a graduate placement at AJN.

Photo by Morrissey, via Flickr. Photo by Morrissey, via Flickr.

There I was, orienting to a busy medical ICU, perplexed over a bedpan. You’d think, since I was just graduating from nursing school, that bedpans would be my area of expertise. Critical thinking and vent strategies came easy; how could I possible admit I had no idea how to give a bedpan to a patient?

Frightening, to graduate from nursing school and a competitive externship program without this competency. Somehow, though, every unit I’d experienced offered patient care assistants, or patients who didn’t need this age-old tool. I’d certainly helped patients to the bathroom and cleaned incontinent ones. Despite the barrage of clinical learning, the basics of offering the pink plastic tool hadn’t sunk in.

Paralyzed, I stood with it in my hand, looking at my intubated, awake patient. I’d had the wherewithal to ask the family to step out, but couldn’t figure out which end went first. The horror of my preceptor finding it backwards would end me. Did the pointed end go towards the patient’s back? The larger end toward the feet for better coverage? Why couldn’t I remember?

Somehow, I managed to decide, […]

2016-11-21T13:02:43-05:00April 8th, 2015|career, narratives, Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement|7 Comments
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Morgellons: Whatever the Cause, the Suffering Is Real

Image, magnified 60 times, depicts fiber-embedded skin removed from a facial lesion of a 3-year-old boy who the Morgellons Research Foundation says has Morgellons. Image, provided by Morgellons Research Foundation to AJN in 2008, described as depicting fiber-embedded skin removed from facial lesion of 3-year-old boy with Morgellons (magnified 60x).

By Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

As you may have read, Joni Mitchell was recently found unconscious in her home and is now in the hospital. She has attributed her health issues to a syndrome called Morgellons—a condition in which sufferers experience what they describe as fibers emerging from their skin, along with intense itching, sores that won’t heal, and a host of nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue and concentration problems.

Whether it’s a clinically verifiable illness or, as some have argued, a manifestation of a psychological condition known as “delusional parasitosis,” Morgellons is plenty real to those who experience it.

We covered this controversial illness several years back in an article called “AKA ‘Morgellons.’” I interviewed two nurses and several others about their experiences. One of the nurses (see this sidebar) was convinced she had caught the condition from a patient. I also spoke with Michele Pearson, MD, the lead investigator of a […]

2016-11-21T13:02:44-05:00April 2nd, 2015|Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|1 Comment
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Early Localized Prostate Cancer: Nurses Can Help Men Weigh Diagnostic, Treatment Options

By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor

A new diagnosis of prostate cancer can be daunting. Nurses play an increasingly important role in helping men and their partners find their way through the maze of available information and choices. One of the two March CE feature articles in AJN, “Early Localized Prostate Cancer,” gives a thorough overview of tests and treatments.

The author, Anne Katz, is a certified sexuality counselor at CancerCare Manitoba, a clinical nurse specialist at the Manitoba Prostate Centre, and a faculty member in the College of Nursing at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, and Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada. She is also the editor of Oncology Nursing Forum. Writes Katz:

. . . as many as 233,000 men in the United States are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, 60% of whom are ages 65 or older. Most diagnoses are low grade and localized . . . . Since low-grade, localized prostate cancer is slow growing and rarely lethal, even in the absence of intervention, it can be difficult for men to make treatment decisions after diagnosis—particularly if they do not understand the nuanced pathology results they receive and the potential for treatment to result in long-term adverse effects that can profoundly affect quality of life.

Pros_Cons_PSA_ScreeningThe article discusses options for intervention, potential adverse effects associated with each option, and, crucially, the nurse’s “role in helping men and […]

2016-11-21T13:02:51-05:00March 18th, 2015|Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|0 Comments
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Telling the Truth, Keeping a Patient’s Trust

“Am I going to be okay?” Ami gasps. Her breath hitches, her chest rising and falling in spasms. One of my hands holds a mask to her face; the other hand holds hers. Pain has made her strong—my fingers are almost as white as her pale face, radiant with fear.

Illustration by McClain Moore for AJN. Illustration by McClain Moore for AJN.

That’s the start of the Reflections essay in AJN‘s February issue, “Am I Going to Be Okay?” Nurses tell patients ‘it’s going to be okay’ because the words can keep them calm, because no one can tell the future, because it’s comforting to hear ritualized phrases from a caregiver—even when they’re not, strictly speaking, true.

But are there times when more honesty is desirable? The author of this short Reflections essay delves into one such situation where the patient needs, above all, to feel trust for her nurse. […]

2016-11-21T13:02:53-05:00March 9th, 2015|narratives, Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|1 Comment
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AJN in March: Post-ICU Syndrome, Workplace Conflict Resolution, Prostate Cancer Options, More

AJN0315.Cover.OnlineAJN’s March issue is now available on our Web site. Here’s a selection of what not to miss.

New program for postintensive care syndrome (PICS). With increased ICU survival rates, we are seeing more complex cognitive, physical, and psychological sequelae. The authors of “Critical Care Recovery Center: An Innovative Collaborative Care Model for ICU Survivors” share how they created and implemented an evidence-based collaborative care program for ICU survivors to reduce morbidities that can affect their quality of life. This CE feature offers 2.5 CE credits to those who take the test that follows the article.

Helping men with localized prostate cancer make informed decisions. The information men receive at diagnosis of prostate cancer can be overwhelming. “Early Localized Prostate Cancer” reviews the multiple treatment options available for men with newly diagnosed, low-risk, localized prostate cancer and explains how nurses can help these men make informed decisions. This CE feature offers 2.5 CE credits to those who take the test that follows the article.

Further explore this topic by listening to a podcast interview with the author (this and other free podcasts are accessible via the Behind the Article podcasts page on our Web site, in our iPad app, or on iTunes). […]

2016-11-21T13:02:56-05:00February 27th, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research, patient engagement|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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