Pregnancy and COVID: What We Now Know

Meagan Garibay, RN, BSN, CIC, an infection preventionist at Comanche County Memorial Hospital in Lawton, Oklahoma, received the COVID vaccine in December 2020, when she was 35 weeks pregnant. Photo courtesy of WAVE 3 News.

Few aspects of pregnancy and birth have been unaffected by the COVID pandemic. In the past year, pregnant people and their health care providers have had to alter everything from the way they assess risk to the manner in which care is accessed.

Although little information about pregnancy and COVID was available early in the pandemic, emerging evidence is providing a clearer picture. As a result, in the past year recommendations have shifted—sometimes radically so—for both women and their health care providers. Based on the latest available research, this month in AJN Reports we cover what we now know about COVID and maternal health, including guidance about risk and vaccination.

Higher risks for pregnant people with COVID.

As the articles explains, research suggests pregnant people who have COVID are at higher risk […]

2021-06-03T08:43:24-04:00June 3rd, 2021|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Public health|0 Comments
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Isn’t It Ironic: A Nurse Reflects on Her J&J Vaccination

Irony: a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result. -dictionary.com

Vaccine, by Julianna Paradisi

On a recent Saturday afternoon I received the Johnson and Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine. The following Tuesday, its further administration was put on pause, “out of an abundance of caution,” after reports that six women between the ages of 18 and 48 developed a rare but serious form of blood clot six to 13 days after receiving the vaccine. One of the six women died.

There is nothing amusing about the irony that people seeking protection from COVID-19 may have developed a life-threatening adverse reaction from the vaccine. For health care providers, and perhaps especially for nurses, such events are heartbreaking.

Lifting the J&J pause.

On Friday, April 23, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the FDA lifted the 10-day pause on the J&J vaccine, without restrictions, instead issuing a fact sheet to medical providers warning them of the potential for the extremely rare but serious blood clots.

When the pause was lifted, over 7 million people had received the vaccine, with additional confirmed cases of blood clots that had been reported bringing the […]

2021-04-26T11:16:05-04:00April 26th, 2021|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective, Public health|0 Comments
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Nurse Volunteers on the Front Lines of the Vaccination Effort

Joanne Disch, PhD, RN, FAAN, is professor ad honorem at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, Minneapolis, and Ellen Elpern, MSN, RN, is a retired advanced practice nurse, formerly at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago.

Nurse volunteers as an essential resource.

As of April 15, 2021, there have been over 31 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States and over 561,000 deaths. Sobering numbers. But there are some heartening numbers as well: 198 million vaccination shots have been administered so far, with 3 million doses now being given per day. To reach and continue to meet the current pace has required an extraordinary ramp-up of sites—and of the number of individuals administering the vaccines. An essential resource that’s emerged is the use of nurses as volunteers to help staff these sites.

For more than a year, the public has witnessed the compassion, competence, and heroism of nurses who are on the front lines of the COVID pandemic. Those of us who are nurses and not in the clinical setting watched with pride and empathy, knowing better than most what these nurses were experiencing—and wishing there were something that we could do. Stepping forward to volunteer for service in a vaccine clinic is one way to make a difference. These volunteer opportunities are as varied as the vaccination sites themselves, but in all cases the effort is being enriched by the active engagement of nurses, retired and otherwise.

Defuniak Springs, Florida

2021-04-16T09:15:42-04:00April 16th, 2021|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing career|0 Comments
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Remembering the Polio Vaccine Rollout, Addressing Concerns Today

‘A Most Welcome Spring.’

That’s the title of the editorial in the recently published April issue of AJN. And if you receive the print issue or go to our Web site, www.ajnonline.com, I think you’ll see that our cover reflects an image that harkens to the end of a hard pandemic winter of isolation and—for many families—desolation. Spring has arrived, along with a feeling of hope that the vaccines will allow the world to open again, IF we can do so with caution and are successful in vaccine campaigns.

Remembering the relief at having a polio vaccine.

I was in kindergarten when Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was rolled out. I remember my mother telling me that everyone was going to be getting a new medicine and I vividly recall my entire class lining up to get the injection from the school nurse.

I remember my mother being very happy about it because a boy in the neighborhood—a friend of my brother—had had polio and now wore leg braces and used crutches. When she saw him, she would sometimes say, “too bad the vaccine came too late for John.”

Nurses’ role in addressing vaccine concerns.

2021-04-26T11:50:12-04:00April 5th, 2021|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Nursing, patient engagement, Public health|0 Comments
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‘Right Under Our Noses’: Nightmarish Nursing Home Conditions During the Pandemic

As vaccinations increase and COVID-19 infection rates in nursing homes plummet, it’s easy to forget just how bad things got in many of them and how ill-equipped many were in the the early months of the pandemic to provide humane and effective care.

The following excerpt is from our March Reflections essay, “Right Under Our Noses: Nursing Homes and COVID-19,” which was written by a California nursing professor who volunteered to join a California Medical Assistance Team. The mission of her team was to bring aid to a skilled nursing facility where the coronavirus was rapidly infecting both patients and staff, a facility with little PPE available and many staff members refusing to come to work out of fear of infection.

The conditions I saw were shocking, even to an experienced nurse. I saw soggy diapers on the floor at the heads of many beds on most mornings. One day a bedbound patient needed the bedpan. I searched every closet and drawer but there were no supplies. I filled a basin with warm water and cut up a PPE gown to make washcloths to clean the patient. On the second day of my deployment I realized that many of the […]

2021-03-18T12:10:25-04:00March 18th, 2021|COVID-19, Ethics, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective, safe staffing|1 Comment
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