We Call You ‘Wheat Head’ – An Unexpected Crosscultural Encounter

I entered the wall-less, thatch-roofed waiting area of the clinic with my right hand in a ball of bandages, taped to my chest. The airy space was almost empty, without nurses or even a receptionist. The only other person in the little space, sitting very elegantly on one of the narrow wooden benches, was a woman in traditional West African dress who was quite pregnant.

NovemberReflectionsThe November Reflections essay in AJN is called “Surprise!” Its opening paragraph is above. This is one of our occasional Reflections essays by a writer who is not a nurse. In this case, the author Thomas Turman’s easy, self-deprecating tone, and the matter-of-fact manner in which his unexpected patient faces a situation that might induce a certain panic in many people from wealthier countries, feels just right. […]

2016-11-21T13:06:07-05:00November 8th, 2013|career, Nursing, Public health|0 Comments
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They’re Not Taking Away Our Puppies (And God Help Them If They Do)

By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor/blog editor

I am amazed at the amount of time being wasted on the relatively mundane matter of health care exchanges. It seems we are now facing a government shutdown; there are creepy and misleading advertisements funded by conservative billionaires like the Koch brothers in order to scare people from signing up for insurance; some red states have actually enacted laws forbidding the health care navigators from helping people understand the new system and sign up for it, and many of these states have refused to create their own exchanges to help their citizens comply with the new law.

The ACA is a law. You can’t just ignore it if it doesn’t meet your personal preferences or political ideas. Given the heated rhetoric the Republicans are trotting out about it, you’d think the government was trying to take away our puppies, instead of implementing ideas originally floated by Republicans themselves to make life a bit easier for millions of Americans whose life decisions are unduly ruled by crazy health care billing practices, byzantine insurance regulations, discrimination against those who have chronic conditions, insanely varying pricing for simple tests, and the like. […]

2016-11-21T13:06:26-05:00September 30th, 2013|health care policy, Patients|9 Comments
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One Is the Loneliest Number

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

The great Bartholdi statue, liberty enlightening the world: the gift of France to the American people. Speculative depiction published the year before the statue was erected. In this depiction the statue faces south; it actually faces east/Wikimedia Commons The Bartholdi statue, liberty enlightening the world: the gift of France to the American people. Speculative depiction published the year before the statue was erected. In this depiction the statue faces south; it actually faces east/Wikimedia Commons

I’ve been struck recently by how the United States sometimes seems to stand apart from other nations. This is sometimes called “American exceptionalism.”

The most obvious example of this is the recent push—temporarily put on hold due to the emergence of negotiations about the possible handover of Syrian chemical weapons to Russia—to garner support among other nations for a military strike against the Syrian government in response to its use of chemical weapons against its own people.

By now, most of us have seen the graphic videos on media outlets and they are indeed disturbing. There are signs of neurotoxicity in some […]

2016-11-21T13:06:34-05:00September 13th, 2013|health care policy, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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48 Years of Medicare (and Counting)

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief, and Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

Next week marks Medicare’s 48th anniversary. President Lyndon Johnson signed the legislation creating Medicare on July 30, 1965, guaranteeing health coverage for the elderly. With the gradual implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA; 2010), Medicare, along with other government and private forms of health insurance, is undergoing changes, with efforts being made to rein in rising costs, combat fraud, tie quality of care to reimbursement, and so on.

PPresident Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Medicare Bill at the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. Former President Harry S. Truman is seated at the table with President Johnson. Photo: National Archives and Records Administration. President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Medicare Bill. Former President Harry S. Truman is seated at the table with President Johnson. Photo: National Archives and Records Administration.

With the ACA’s date for mandated purchase of health insurance fast approaching, some states are setting up state-run health insurance exchanges to provide consumers with a standardized menu of health […]

2016-11-21T13:06:55-05:00July 26th, 2013|health care policy|0 Comments
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Obesity as Disease and the Health Care Culture’s Take on Personal Responsibility and Suffering

Doug OlsenBy Doug Olsen, PhD, RN, associate professor, Michigan State University College of Nursing, and AJN contributing editor. Olsen regularly addresses topics related to nursing ethics. His most recent article for AJN was “Helping Patients Who Don’t Help Themselves” (July issue; free until August 15).

Why does the American Medical Association’s recognition of obesity as a disease (AMA, 2013) stir strong feelings? People are just as heavy as before, their health is suffering as much, and the therapies for obesity remain the same. The main difference is that the label may give clinicians a better rationale to seek reimbursement for obesity-related services, which might help increase treatment rates. No one yet knows if the new label will really have an effect on treatment rates; in any case, this is not what people are concerned about.

The issue is what labeling a health problem with a behavioral component as a “disease” implies about personal responsibility—or what people think it means. How does personal responsibility relate to individual suffering?

The relationship between decision making, suffering, and personal responsibility is at the heart of bioethics as it is practiced in the United States. But bioethics didn’t invent our cultural tendency to connect personal responsibility and sympathetic regard for suffering, and our current approach to the issue was developed through […]

2017-04-03T12:12:36-04:00July 11th, 2013|Ethics, patient engagement, Public health|0 Comments
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