In Times of Overwhelm as a Nurse and Citizen, Begin with One Intentional Act at a Time

Hui-Wen (Alina) Sato, MSN, MPH, RN, CCRN

With the recent devastation and loss around our local Los Angeles wildfires as well as our country’s political disarray, one of the most difficult things about trying to remain empathetic, engaged, and informed as an individual and a nurse has been a sense of utter overwhelmedness.

I think most nurses are both empathetic and action-oriented, traits which can be helpful—but also sometimes crippling when we see needs for help and advocacy everywhere and don’t know where to start. Any action feels like such a miniscule drop in the bucket.

I was carrying this emotional, mental, and spiritual heaviness into work with me a couple of days ago. I sat down to get report on my patient assignment. My patient was so sick, so complicated; she’d been teetering between life and death in recent days. Her parents had been on a roller coaster of the worst kind. ‘Two weeks into this hospitalization, are we still holding onto hope for recovery? Are we gathering relatives to say goodbye?’

I knew I was walking into a space that was very loaded for the parents. They had seen many nurses, respiratory therapists, and doctors come through their doors. For as long as they had been in our […]

2025-03-03T14:13:18-05:00March 3rd, 2025|family experience, Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing stories, pediatrics|0 Comments
Read More

Pertussis Rates Have Been Rising: What Nurses Need to Know

Pertussis, or whooping cough, remains one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable deaths worldwide, with most deaths occurring in young babies who are either unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the infection prevention and control measures such as masking, social distancing, and remote learning for children resulted in decreases in reported cases of pertussis. However, in 2023 and 2024 a return to routine activities has resulted in an increase in pertussis cases. Preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that more than five times as many cases of pertussis have been reported as of October 19, 2024, compared to the same time period in 2023. This is higher than was seen during the same time period in 2019, prior to the pandemic. Compounding this problem are the alarming trends showing lower rates of routine vaccination among adults and children, trends which indicate reduced vaccine confidence and increases in vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. population.

Key points of knowledge and action for nurses

Epidemiology of pertussis

Pertussis is caused by Bordetella pertussis, a gram-negative coccobacillus and is highly contagious and easily spread person-to-person via respiratory droplets or through direct contact […]

2024-11-11T11:32:08-05:00November 11th, 2024|infectious diseases, Nursing, pediatrics, Public health|0 Comments
Read More

The Epidemic of Gun Violence: A ‘Problem to Be Solved, Not a Battle to Be Won’

The alarming surge in child gun deaths

For decades, gun violence in America has been framed “as a battle to be won rather than a problem to be solved,” in the words of a poignant New York Times op-ed by Nicholas Kristof, who argues that we should acknowledge the blunt reality that guns aren’t going away. Therefore, he writes, it’s time to “bypass the culture wars and try a harm-reduction model familiar from public health efforts to reduce deaths from other dangerous products such as cars and cigarettes.”

The current combative public debate has been accompanied by devastating increases in gun violence, particularly for the youngest members of our society. According to an October 2023 study published in Pediatrics, between 2011 and 2021, gun deaths among Americans under the age of 18 surged by 87%, making gun violence the leading cause of death for American children. In stark contrast, there has been an overall steady decline of child deaths from motor vehicle fatalities, with a 51% reduction from 1999 through 2020, showcasing the potential for effective interventions when society’s most confounding issues are treated through a public health lens.

The stark reality of gun violence

The reality of gun violence in America is stark and sobering. […]

2024-08-08T09:48:27-04:00August 8th, 2024|gun violence, Nursing, pediatrics, Public health, school nurses|1 Comment
Read More

RSV Prophylaxis for Infants and Children: Now Available, But Is it Accessible?

July, a month typically characterized by the relative hibernation of communicable respiratory illnesses, brought with it the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) approval of nirsevimab-alip (brand name: Beyfortus) and thus a reminder of the gearing up necessary for the respiratory disease season ahead. Nirsevimab, approved for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), is poised to mitigate the staggering effects of this lower respiratory tract disease. Since significant barriers remain related to distribution, accessibility, and insurance reimbursement for this drug, it is especially important for primary care RNs and nurse practitioners in clinics and medical homes to be well informed on this topic.

RSV: a significant public health burden.

Transmission electron microscopic image revealing morphologic traits exhibited by a human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)/ CDC

RSV is primarily of concern in the youngest and most vulnerable of the pediatric population, such as those born prematurely, with chronic lung or congenital heart disease. As many of us know all too well, RSV carries significant public health burden, causing more hospitalizations than any other illness in U.S. infants and accounting for 100 to 300 deaths each year in children under five […]

2023-09-21T11:10:58-04:00September 21st, 2023|infectious diseases, Nursing, pediatrics, pediatrics|0 Comments
Read More

Primary Nursing of Medically Complex Children in the ICU Increases Parental Trust

Differing views about quality of life.

Photo by Pat Smith/Pexels

As medical care has become increasingly advanced in its ability to prolong life in the face of serious, chronic illness, it has also presented complicated challenges for both the caregivers and care-receivers alike. This holds especially true when we venture into the thorny, subjective realm of “quality of life.”

Sam was a patient with serious chronic illness and severe developmental disability who had been in and out of our pediatric ICU for many years. His most recent nine-month hospitalization had been the most frightening and uncertain thus far, and the gap between the perspectives of the medical team and Sam’s mom had became more apparent. The medical team speculated whether Sam was approaching the end of his life, while his mom asked us to continue doing all we could to maximize Sam’s physical longevity.

Unspoken questions also involved our struggle to measure what exactly comprises “enough” quality of life to justify the continued offering of health care resources. It’s an inevitable struggle with scarce resources and the monetization of quality of life, particularly with a chronically ill, severely disabled child who can feel so “other” to those of us living “normal” lives.

Parents come to our unit seeking care […]

2022-09-14T10:01:23-04:00September 14th, 2022|family experience, nursing roles, pediatrics|1 Comment
Read More

Comment ground rules

1. Please be respectful.
2. We moderate all comments.

Content disclaimer

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.
Go to Top