Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases: A Comprehensive Nursing-Focused Overview

Virtually all of us who have spent time in the outdoors have either heard about or experienced an encounter with a tick. Diseases transmitted through the bite of a tick represent a growing health concern in the United States and around the world. Tick bites can affect individuals who live in, work in, or travel to wooded, grassy, or brush-filled environments. Ticks are generally more active during warmer months of the year (usually April through September), but they can be active any time the temperature is above freezing. Therefore, taking precautions can be close to a year-round activity, including an increased emphasis during vacation travel when the climate may differ from that of your usual environment. Nurses play an essential role in patient education, prevention, early recognition, clinical management, and public health surveillance of these diseases—and their credibility and trusted relationships enable impactful opportunities.

Adult deer tick, Ixodes scapularis/via Wikimedia Commons

The following summary outlines key facts about tick biology and transmission, clinical manifestations of major tickborne diseases [TBDs], prevention strategies, post-bite care, public health reporting, and updates on vaccines—particularly for domestic and international travelers.

Understanding ticks and disease transmission

Ticks are blood-feeding arachnids capable of transmitting pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, and […]

2025-08-25T11:04:09-04:00August 25th, 2025|infection control, infectious diseases, Nursing, Public health|0 Comments
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The World Can Use Our Help: A Nurse’s Thoughts on Retirement

After a varied, fulfilling, and fascinating 43-year career as a nurse, I finally retired. To be honest, I was a little anxious about it. After all, what would I do with all that free time?

So many of my colleagues were continuing to work long past the age of 65. But my husband and I had planned to move across the country when we retired, from Connecticut to California where our daughter and her family were living. Now that time had arrived.

Once we settled in the San Francisco Bay area, I looked around to see what I could do. I have always said that “everyone needs to be needed.” But where was a retired nurse needed? It soon became evident that volunteer opportunities abounded. I volunteered one day a week in a clinic for the underserved and unhoused, providing patients with health education. That is, until the clinic closed due to financial constraints. Back to square one.

An eye-opening experience.

Then the perfect opportunity presented itself. […]

2025-06-25T09:36:20-04:00June 24th, 2025|nurse retirement, Nursing, Public health, volunteering|6 Comments
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Kennedy’s Replacement of Entire Vaccine Advisory Committee Causes Widespread Alarm

Heather Hazzan, SELF Magazine

Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), the body of experts that reviews vaccine safety and efficacy data and makes recommendations on vaccine scheduling as well as precautions and contraindications to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In a June 9 news release, HHS announced the dismissals, claiming it as a “bold step to restore public trust in vaccines.” In a post the next day on the social media platform X, Kennedy accused the committee of financial corruption and of “malevolent malpractice” for allegedly not requiring placebo-controlled trials for childhood vaccines, a misleading and inaccurate claim he has made frequently in the past.

Refuted and misleading claims.

In a May ‘Fact-Checked’ news release, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) refuted his claims, stating that most childhood vaccines were tested originally in randomized clinical trials that included placebo or comparison groups. AAP also noted that when testing a replacement for an existing vaccine, the comparator is the existing vaccine, not an inert placebo, because “when a safe, effective vaccine already exists against a […]

2025-06-13T08:31:49-04:00June 13th, 2025|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Nursing, pediatrics, Public health|0 Comments
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Maternal Health: Funding Cuts Amid an Ongoing Crisis

Photo © Shutterstock

The United States continues to grapple with a maternal health crisis characterized by significant racial and ethnic disparities in morbidity and mortality. Maternal mortality rates here are at least double (and sometimes triple) those of most other high-income countries, according to a 2024 Commonwealth Fund report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 80% of U.S. maternal deaths are preventable.

Recent data show some improvement in mortality and morbidity but persistent disparities in who is at greatest risk. Pregnancy-related deaths in 2023 decreased to 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births from a rate of 22.3 the year before, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Yet the maternal mortality rate for Black women and American Indian and Alaska Native women continues to be more than three times that of White women.

Federal changes threaten efforts to improve care and disparities 

As nurses and other maternal health providers work to address the complex underlying causes of these disparities, their efforts have been challenged in recent months by rapid and unprecedented federal funding and infrastructure cuts. The Trump administration has suspended Title X family planning and preventive health services funding, initiated widespread layoffs of federal health agency […]

2025-05-14T09:36:15-04:00May 14th, 2025|health care policy, Nursing, Public health, women's health|0 Comments
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The Repercussions of Trump Administration Cuts to NIH and Research Funding

From the first week of his administration, President Trump has targeted medical and academic research, cutting research funding to universities and slashing the workforce and budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Concerns about the future of medical research in the United States began on January 22, just three days into the new administration, when all meetings to review grant submissions at NIH were cancelled with no plan for rescheduling.

Photo © Shutterstock

Within days, NIH abruptly cut off funding for research projects that incorporated principles or language associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in any form, such as clinical trials focused on populations underrepresented in past research. In early February, NIH announced drastic reductions in the indirect costs rate, the percentage paid to universities for administrative and overhead costs of funded research studies. NIH funding of new grants fell precipitously; an analysis in STAT found a 28% reduction in new grant funding in the first three months of the administration. Then in March universities got hit, most notably Columbia and Harvard, with the Trump administration threatening to terminate all federal funding if universities did not comply with the administration’s policy demands. The loss […]

2025-05-09T10:09:38-04:00May 9th, 2025|equity, health care policy, Nursing, nursing research, Public health|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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