A Long History of Abortion

Looking to the past for context and perspective as the U.S. abortion care landscape changes dramatically.

The Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade ended women’s nationwide legal right to abortion after nearly 50 years.

Photo by Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash

Several states with so-called trigger laws banning abortion moved to implement these immediately. Although some of these laws have since been challenged in court, within a few months it’s expected that women living in about half the states will have very limited or no access to abortion care. Most of these laws—predominantly in the Midwest, South, and Plains states—make no exception for rape or to safeguard a woman’s health, until she is at risk of death.

Limiting health care access amid rising maternal mortality rates.

These restrictions on women’s health care occur while the U.S. continues to have a maternal mortality rate much higher than in other developed nations. According to the latest statistics from the CDC, this rate is rising, and health disparities persist: Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes compared with White women.

Women who have historically been most marginalized will be disproportionately affected by the Supreme Court’s decision, which is expected […]

2022-07-11T06:31:54-04:00July 11th, 2022|Public health, women's health|0 Comments
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Monkeypox: The Basics for Nurses

In the past, cases of monkeypox only occasionally occurred outside of central and western Africa, where the disease is endemic, and it was virtually always related to travel or to the inappropriate relocation of wild animals. (In the US in 2003, 71 cases of monkeypox in six states were traced to pet prairie dogs that had been imported in the “exotic animals” trade.) What should we make of the outbreaks this year in 23 countries where the disease is rarely seen?

Current cases of monkeypox are occurring in people without a history of travel to endemic areas, and in some cases without obvious contact to known cases. Most of these people have had mild disease, though monkeypox can cause severe disease in young children, pregnant women, and immunosuppressed individuals. While monkeypox usually is not highly transmissible nor deadly, it has never spread to so many countries seemingly simultaneously.

A close relative of smallpox.

Monkeypox is a close relative of smallpox, and the smallpox vaccine also prevents monkeypox infection.  Many experts point to the end of mass smallpox vaccination campaigns as a factor in the emergence of cases at this time. Forty years ago, about 80% of the population was vaccinated against smallpox; today that figure is only about 30%. Monkeypox cases have been on the rise since smallpox was declared to be eradicated in 1980. In one monkeypox-endemic region, cases had increased twentyfold in recent decades. At the same […]

2022-06-02T10:14:45-04:00June 2nd, 2022|infectious diseases, Public health|1 Comment
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What Will It Take? When Will We Act?

Once again, we are sickened by another school shooting and the loss of children and teachers who tried to protect them from being mowed down by an assault weapon in the hands of an 18-year-old boy. This time Uvalde, Texas, is grieving for 19 children and two teachers, and it’s less than two weeks since a shooting in a Buffalo grocery store left 10 dead. Of course, we immediately see the messages from legislators offering their condolences and thoughts and prayers, but no promises to change anything. If not them, then who can?

I remember the awfulness of treating the occasional pediatric gunshot victim when I worked in the ER—usually an unintended target who was caught in crossfire. It was gut-wrenching, the kind of thing that should be a “never-event.” Today, ER nurses, paramedics, and physicians see young gunshot victims far too often. I don’t know how they can do it day after day, trying to comfort parents while dealing with their own trauma.

The leading cause of mortality in children and adolescents.

Firearm deaths are now the leading cause of mortality in children and adolescents (ages 1 to 19 years) in this country, according to a recent analysis by researchers at the University of Michigan reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. […]

2022-05-27T14:01:41-04:00May 27th, 2022|gun violence, pediatrics, Public health|3 Comments
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Psych Nursing: When the Goal Becomes ‘Simply Caring, Not Curing’

“As nurses we all care. It’s what we do. We care until our hearts hurt like an overused muscle. To find myself presiding over a void of trapped souls was not what I thought I was getting into…”

Ben Blennerhassett/ Unsplash

The above passage is from the Reflections essay, “The Suffering of Simone,” in the April issue of AJN. The author, Eileen Glover, is a psychiatric RN in New England, and her one-page essay reflects on the arc of her relationship with a patient who much of the time seems unreachable.

The essay brings to life the question of how a nurse, trained to heal or at least to soothe, can find an attitude of acceptance with patients whose psychiatric disorders defy all treatments and—most of the time—prevent meaningful contact between nurse and patient. […]

2022-04-04T10:46:45-04:00April 4th, 2022|mental illness, Nursing, nursing roles, nursing stories|0 Comments
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The Particular Pain and Challenge of Educating Patients During a Worldwide Pandemic

Working in a rural community access hospital during the pandemic has been a struggle. Here as in many areas of the U.S., many in the surrounding community have not accepted the the existence of a virus like Covid-19. Against the backdrop of this widespread disbelief in the reality of the virus, the “government-mandated” vaccine was a final straw for many.

Many of these patients wholeheartedly believe that the vaccine is the “mark of the beast” mentioned in the Book of Revelation and that this is the beginning of the end of the world, with getting the vaccine understood as an expression of loyalty to Satan.

This belief is shared by various religious groups in other areas of our country. Many patients in our community also believe the vaccine is made with stem cells and fetal tissue and includes microchips. There are widely circulated rumors of tracking devices in the vaccine itself.

How do we as nurses and advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) educate patients on the science of vaccinations in the face of the anger and passion we experience daily from a suspicious community?

The many other strains on nurses.

It hasn’t helped that nurses and APRNs alike have had to deal with more than they bargained for on many levels in […]

2022-02-24T14:38:16-05:00February 24th, 2022|Nursing, patient engagement, Public health|0 Comments
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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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