“[S]eeing this patient, his return, his presence, his enduring love, was a gift. Because some days in health care, you don’t really know what hope you are fighting for or for whom.”—Hui-Wen (Alina) Sato, author of the November Reflections column, “Beholding the Returning Light”

The November issue of AJN is now live. Here’s what’s new:

CE: Implementing Guidelines for Treating Chronic Pain with Prescription Opioids

An overview of five tools outlined in the CDC’s 2016 opioid safety guideline—prescription opioid treatment agreements, urine drug screening, prescription drug monitoring program databases, calculation of morphine milligram equivalents, and naloxone kits—and their relevance to primary care nurses.

CE: Gestational Hypertension, Preeclampsia, and Peripartum Cardiomyopathy: A Clinical Review

The authors discuss three of the most common pregnancy-specific cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors, prevention, assessment, and management.

Supporting Family Caregivers: Eating for Healthy Aging

This article presents general nutritional recommendations for older adults that nurses can reinforce with family caregivers—and features a tear sheet of key points and links to instructional videos.

Safety Monitor: Preventing Self-Harm in the Nonpsychiatric Health Care Setting

Using data from the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System, the author reviews self-harm safety events that have occurred in nonpsychiatric settings to demonstrate vulnerabilities and encourage implementation of risk reduction strategies.

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

  • A Viewpoint on how nurses can influence choices about electronic health record systems and their design.
  • An AJN Reports on trends in home care.
  • An Environments and Health article on the global problem of household air pollution from cooking fires.

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

A note on the cover:

In recognition of National Family Caregivers Month (celebrated each November), our cover features an elderly couple, one of whom requires caregiving assistance. This year, Caregiver Action Network has designated the month’s theme as #BeCareCurious to encourage caregivers to “ask questions, explore options, and share in the care decisions that affect the health and well-being of their loved ones.”