No Longer Alone: Nurses Supporting Family Caregivers

By Susan C. Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior vice president and director, AARP Public Policy Institute, chief strategist, Center to Champion Nursing in America; Elaine Ryan, MPA, vice president of state advocacy and strategy integration, AARP government affairs; and Trish O’Keefe, PhD, RN, NE-BC, interim president, Morristown Medical Center, New Jersey

Teaching a daughter to help her mother with range-of-motion exercises. Teaching a daughter to help her mother with range-of-motion exercises

The public trusts nurses to care for them and to teach them how to care for themselves and for those they love. But a 2012 AARP/United Hospital Fund report funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation, Home Alone: Family Caregivers Providing Complex Chronic Care, shows there is a big disconnect. In this first nationally representative study of families providing complex care activities, almost half reported that they had provided medical/nursing treatments, including injections, wound care, administering multiple medications, managing colostomies, and giving tube feedings and nebulizer treatments—among many other tasks that nursing students find daunting when they are first learning how to do them.

Family caregivers are expected to step right in, with little to no instruction or support. Most (nearly 7 out of 10) of those they cared for did not get a home visit by a health care professional, despite multiple encounters with […]

2016-11-21T13:01:47-05:00November 13th, 2015|Nursing, patient engagement, Patients, Public health|3 Comments
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Ebola, One Year Later: What We Learned for the Next Big Epidemic

By Betsy Todd, MPH, RN, CIC, AJN clinical editor

Scanning electron micrograph of filamentous Ebola virus particles budding from an infected VERO E6 cell (35,000x magnification). Credit: NIAID Scanning electron micrograph of filamentous Ebola virus particles budding from an infected VERO E6 cell (35,000x magnification). Credit: NIAID

U.S. hospitals have not seen a case of Ebola virus disease since November 11, 2014, when Dr. Craig Spencer was discharged from Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City. While the number of new infections has declined dramatically in the West African countries where the 2014–2015 epidemic began, it is virtually certain that the disease will continue to resurface.

This epidemic was by far the largest and most geographically widespread Ebola epidemic to date, with approximately 28,000 cases (suspected, probable, or confirmed) and more than 11,000 deaths in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, the three hardest-hit countries. The seven other countries affected account for a combined total of 34 confirmed (and two probable) cases and 15 deaths.

According to a recent WHO report, these numbers include (through March of this year) 815 confirmed or probable cases among health care workers, more than half of whom were nurses or nurses’ aides. (Doctors and medical students made up about 12% of […]

2016-11-21T13:01:48-05:00November 6th, 2015|healthcare social media, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective|11 Comments
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Sexually Transmitted Infections in the U.S.: Updates and a Nurse’s Guide

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are the most common infectious diseases in the United States, with an estimated national prevalence of 110 million cases. More than 20 million people are infected annually. Last June, the Centers for Disease Control, std screening services, OC and Prevention (CDC) issued updated treatment guidelines.

The CDC's 2015 Treatment Guidelines boxIn their September CE article “Sexually Transmitted Infections in the United States: Overview and Update,” authors Hayley Mark and Amit Dhir provide nurses with a closer look at the symptoms, screening methods, and means of treatment for the six most common STIs: human papillomavirus, herpes simplex virus, trichomoniasis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. They also describe the most recent relevant findings and treatment recommendations. As they note,

STIs have enormous human consequences, including severe reproductive complications, neonatal injury, and death; and because STIs are associated with social stigma, they also have substantial psychological impact. The economic consequences are also enormous: it’s estimated that STIs cost the nation about $16 billion in annual health care costs. All communities are affected, although significant racial, ethnic, and other disparities persist. Nurses play a critical role in educating patients on STIs, screening for disease, and providing treatment. Nurses can also help minimize the impact of social stigma by providing informed, confidential, and sensitive care, and by promoting sexual health.

Recent developments. The article specifically addresses such matters as

2017-07-27T14:37:50-04:00September 18th, 2015|infectious diseases, Nursing|1 Comment
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Are the Benefits of Nutrition for Cardiovascular Health Being Undersold ?

By Betsy Todd, MPH, RN, CIC, AJN clinical editor

By Eric Hunt/via Wikimedia Commons By Eric Hunt/via Wikimedia Commons

A nutrition conference at which physicians and medical students outnumber either nurses or dietitians is a rare event. This was the case at last month’s International Conference on Nutrition in Medicine: Cardiovascular Disease in Washington, DC, cosponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and George Washington University.

The speakers, shared a wealth of data on the influence of different types of diets on weight, blood pressure, lipids, serum inflammatory markers, hemoglobin A1c levels, and diseased coronary arteries. More than one pointed out that we too often overestimate the benefits of drugs and medical procedures and discount the effectiveness of diet and lifestyle changes. Some highlights:

Does heart disease begin in utero? Children who are large for gestational age (> 95th percentile) and those born to overweight mothers are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Vascular physiologist Michael Skilton, PhD, associate professor at the University of Sydney in Australia, has also identified microscopic lesions in aortic endothelium of babies born small for gestational age (< 10th percentile). He suggests that their diets include the American Heart Association’s recommendations for omega-3 fatty acid intake beginning in childhood (breast milk, flax seeds, walnuts, or child-friendly omega 3 supplements can be used in lieu of fish-derived omega 3s when mercury is a concern).

Children and […]

2017-03-15T16:58:14-04:00September 14th, 2015|Nursing, personal health practices|1 Comment
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AJN in September: Pain Management in Opioid Use Disorder, STIs in the U.S., Teaching Vs. Unit Needs

AJN0915.Cover.OnlineOn this month’s cover, perianesthesia nurse Carolyn Benigno helps prepare a young patient for surgery at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. The photo, the first-place winner of AJN’s 2015 Faces of Caring: Nurses at Work photo contest, shows Benigno practicing “Caring through Play.” The art of working at a pediatric hospital, she says, is “learning how to play with children so that part of your nursing care is play.” Such play can both distract a child in the moment and help the child cope with the disorienting experience of hospitalization.

For another piece on how nurses try to make hospitalization less stressful for children, see this month’s Cultivating Quality article, “Improving Pediatric Temperature Measurement in the ED.”

Some other articles of note in the September issue:

CE Feature: “Acute Pain Management for Inpatients with Opioid Use Disorder.” Inpatients diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD) commonly experience acute pain during hospitalization and may require opioids for pain management. But misconceptions about opioids and negative attitudes toward patients with OUD may lead to undermedication, unrelieved pain, and unnecessary suffering. This article reviews the current relevant literature and dispels common myths about opioids and OUD. […]

2016-11-21T13:02:02-05:00September 2nd, 2015|career, Ethics, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective|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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