The July issue of AJN is now live. Here are some articles we’d like to bring to your attention.

CE Feature: Health and the Human Microbiome: A Primer for Nurses

The profound impact of the human microbiome on health makes it imperative that nurses understand the basic structures and functions of the various microbial communities. This article provides an overview of the current state of knowledge about the human microbiome—with a focus on the microbiota in the GI tract and the vagina, the two most commonly studied body sites—and discusses implications for nursing practice.

CE Feature: Early Intervention in Patients with Poststroke Depression

Nearly one-third of stroke survivors experience depression. Poststroke depression is associated with longer hospital stays, poor physical and cognitive recovery, poor quality of life, high caregiver distress, increased risk of recurrent stroke, and higher rates of morbidity and mortality. However, it often goes unrecognized and untreated. The authors of this article explain how poststroke depression often manifests, describe associated risk factors, and discuss the screening tools and therapeutic interventions nurses can use to identify and help manage depression in patients following stroke.

Clinical Feature: The Growing Need for Diverse Blood Donors

The chief nurse of the American Red Cross discusses how changing demographics in the United States necessitate an increase in more ethnically diverse blood donors, and shares strategies nurses can use to address and raise awareness about this need.

Ethical Issues: Ethical Nursing Care When the Terminally Ill Patient Seeks Death

This article reviews clinical perspectives on the assessment of the patient’s wish or request to die, ethical questions raised by assisted suicide, and the current legal landscape to consider how nursing care can be ethically provided to a patient requesting death.

Special Feature: Could Emotional Intelligence Make Patients Safer?

The authors address how emotional intelligence—which refers to our ability to recognize and manage both our emotions and the emotions of others—may be a skill that can help nurses to “error proof” communication in the health care setting.

There’s much more in our July issue, including an AJN Reports on the growing trend of medical tourism, and a Profile of a nurse who has worked for the first U.S. hospice since its inception. 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 is an illustration of gastrointestinal microbiota. The gastrointestinal tract is just one of many body sites—including the nasal passages, skin, and reproductive tracts—that are home to the microbial communities that make up the human microbiome.