“Yes, we need to be fiscally responsible, but nurses’ main priority shouldn’t be patient throughput or implementing changes that save money while compromising care and patient outcomes. Nurses must be enabled to nurse.”—editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy in her editorial, “Who Will Be Left to Care?”

The February issue of AJN is now live! Here are the highlights:

CE: An Evidence-Based Update on Contraception

A comprehensive review of the major characteristics of nonpermanent contraceptive methods, including combined hormonal contraceptives, progestin-only methods, nonhormonal methods, and recent innovations in contraception.

CE: Mitigating the Dangers of Polypharmacy in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

The author explores the factors that contribute to polypharmacy in
older adults, examines its negative physiological and economic effects, and outlines strategies to promote safe and appropriate medication prescribing.

Supporting Family Caregivers: No Longer Home Alone: Managing Urinary Incontinence

One in a series published in collaboration with the AARP Public Policy Institute, this article provides practical tips to help caregivers manage the daily challenges of urinary incontinence in older adults.

Disaster Care: Transporting Children to Safety After Volcanic Eruption

How the U.S. Army’s Burn Flight Team—comprising burn care specialists from the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio, Texas—executed a successful medical evacuation mission in response to the 2018 Fuego volcano eruption in Guatemala.

There’s much more in our February issue, including:

  • A Viewpoint on workplace violence outside the hospital setting.
  • A Policy and Politics column on the various health care–reform proposals put forth by the 2020 presidential candidates.
  • An AJN Reports on burnout in nursing.

Click here to browse the table of contents and explore the issue on our website.

A note on the cover:

On this month’s cover, Robin McPeek, RN, visits her 86-year-old patient Sydney at his home in Pikeville, Kentucky. At the time this photo was taken, McPeek was the clinical director of a home health care agency serving Pike County, a rural coal mining community. McPeek is one of 75 nurses whose portraits and stories are featured in The American Nurse (Welcome Books, 2012), by photographer Carolyn Jones.