“What we . . . may consider a passing moment in the course of our day—a short exchange with a family member, a few words of encouragement to a patient—might very well be a pivotal life event. . . . we must choose our words and actions carefully.”—editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy, in her editorial, “It’s the Moments That Matter“

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

CE: Infection in Acute Care: Evidence for Practice

The author reviews the evidence on preventing and treating common infections in acute care settings, focusing on community- and hospital-acquired pneumonia, surgical site infections, and Clostridioides difficile infection.

CE: Knowledge of Precision Medicine and Health Care: An Essential Nursing Competency

This article provides a background in precision health care and the “omics” sciences—those that use genomic technologies to investigate the molecules in an organism’s cells—and discusses the implications for nursing practice, research, and education.

Special Feature: Countering Vaccine Misinformation

In light of recent outbreaks of infectious diseases in the United States, the authors explore the evidence behind vaccine safety and efficacy and discuss nurses’ role in correcting misinformation and advocating for immunization.

Cultivating Quality: Implementing a Fast-Track Team Triage Approach in Response to Hurricane Maria

This article describes how a modified triage process improved clinical outcomes and patient flow in a mobile military hospital deployed to Puerto Rico following the 2017 storm.

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

  • An AJN Reports on cannabis and alcohol use during pregnancy.
  • An EBP 2.0: Implementing and Sustaining Change article on an intervention to prevent hospital-acquired pressure injuries.
  • A Profile of Dawn Wilcox, a nurse who created the United States Femicide Database to track data on violence against women.

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

A note on the cover:

This month’s cover features agar art, titled 50 Shades of Antimicrobial Resistance, by Luis Mota-Bravo, Amara Thind, Nicholas Ramirez, Betsy Juarez, and Michelle Kalu of the University of California, Irvine. Agar art is created by applying microbes to an agar plate and adding chemicals to produce the coloring.