Assessing Sleep Health: And Other Recommended Reading from AJN’s July Issue

The July issue of AJN is now live.

This month’s CE article, “Assessing and Promoting Sleep Health: A Brief Guide for Nurses,” outlines foundational information on sleep; general sleep health assessment; symptoms, risk factors, and screening measures related to common sleep disorders; and practical strategies nurses can use to promote healthy sleep.

“It’s important that RNs have effective ways to access and use integrative health programs and resources that are available to them. But this can be especially difficult for nurses who work at night,” write Withall and colleagues in “An Integrative Health Educational Intervention for RNs Working at Night: A Pilot Study.” This study aimed to assess whether an asynchronous integrative health educational intervention, tailored for night-shift nurses, was useful to them. (Open access)

Our July AJN Reports, Maternal Health: ‘A Crisis Within a Crisis,’” explores how recent federal funding cuts are threatening efforts to improve care and disparities.

In “Utilization of Pressure Injury Prevention Interventions in Acute Care Hospitals,” the authors examine the relationship between nurses’ adherence to pressure injury prevention practices and hospital-acquired pressure injury development. (Open access)

As noted by Otis and colleagues in this month’s Program Evaluation, “The trauma that nurses experience when […]

2025-06-26T11:21:16-04:00June 26th, 2025|Nursing|0 Comments

The World Can Use Our Help: A Nurse’s Thoughts on Retirement

After a varied, fulfilling, and fascinating 43-year career as a nurse, I finally retired. To be honest, I was a little anxious about it. After all, what would I do with all that free time?

So many of my colleagues were continuing to work long past the age of 65. But my husband and I had planned to move across the country when we retired, from Connecticut to California where our daughter and her family were living. Now that time had arrived.

Once we settled in the San Francisco Bay area, I looked around to see what I could do. I have always said that “everyone needs to be needed.” But where was a retired nurse needed? It soon became evident that volunteer opportunities abounded. I volunteered one day a week in a clinic for the underserved and unhoused, providing patients with health education. That is, until the clinic closed due to financial constraints. Back to square one.

An eye-opening experience.

Then the perfect opportunity presented itself. When I […]

Kennedy’s Replacement of Entire Vaccine Advisory Committee Causes Widespread Alarm

Heather Hazzan, SELF Magazine

Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), the body of experts that reviews vaccine safety and efficacy data and makes recommendations on vaccine scheduling as well as precautions and contraindications to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In a June 9 news release, HHS announced the dismissals, claiming it as a “bold step to restore public trust in vaccines.” In a post the next day on the social media platform X, Kennedy accused the committee of financial corruption and of “malevolent malpractice” for allegedly not requiring placebo-controlled trials for childhood vaccines, a misleading and inaccurate claim he has made frequently in the past.

Refuted and misleading claims.

In a May ‘Fact-Checked’ news release, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) refuted his claims, stating that most childhood vaccines were tested originally in randomized clinical trials that included placebo or comparison groups. AAP also noted that when testing a replacement for an existing vaccine, the comparator is the existing vaccine, not an inert placebo, because “when a safe, effective vaccine already exists against a disease, […]

Navigating Shifts in Health Equity Research Funding Priorities: A Nursing PhD Candidate’s Perspective

“I don’t mention my background to suggest that I’m unique, but rather to show how my experiences reflect those of many patients who would benefit from research designed by people who understand their needs.”

AJN has recently discussed the impacts of research budget cuts in The Repercussions of Trump Administration Cuts to NIH and Research Funding and Maternal Health: Funding Cuts Amid an Ongoing Crisis. As a third year in Columbia University’s nursing PhD program, I have also been directly impacted from recent government funding changes.

An application withdrawn without review.

The F31 is a predoctoral fellowship through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that provides funding for dissertation research and training. I applied for the version designated for applicants from underrepresented backgrounds, following the application guidance at the time. But a few weeks ago, I was notified that my application had been retroactively withdrawn without review, as it no longer aligned with the current administration’s research priorities. My application was not transferred to the general F31 pool for funding consideration, which made the decision feel especially unfair.

I spent well over 100 hours on this F31 grant proposal. In collaboration with my research mentors, I focused on the following research question: How do nurses help patients manage their […]

2025-05-29T12:11:08-04:00May 29th, 2025|equity, Nursing, nursing research|0 Comments

On-Demand Nursing Jobs: And Other Recommended Reading from AJN’s June Issue

The June issue of AJN is now live.

What factors are predictive of hypoglycemia among inpatients with type 2 diabetes? Read Timple and colleagues’ Original Research article, “Predictors of Hypoglycemia in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in Acute Care Settings: A Retrospective Correlational Study,” to learn more.

This month’s CE article, “An Adolescent with Undiagnosed Inattentive-Type Attention Deficit–Hyperactivity Disorder and Comorbid Migraine: A Case Report,” describes an adolescent with inattention and migraine who was not diagnosed with ADHD until age 14, when the teen established care with an NP experienced in treating ADHD.

“Professional Licensure: Protecting Your Nursing Livelihood, Part 3,” the final article in a series on protecting one’s nursing license, discusses the public nature of disciplinary action, collateral implications, and suggestions for maintaining one’s license in good standing.

Read about the flexibility, autonomy, and risks of gig nursing in our June AJN Reports, “On-Demand Nursing Jobs.”

In “The Impact of a Low-Technology Medication Organization System on Hospital-at-Home Medication Errors,” the authors describe an interdisciplinary quality improvement project to mitigate errors resulting from misplaced or misused medications among hospital-at-home patients.

“Librarian Partnerships in DNP Education,” the sixth article in a series on how to teach and facilitate learning […]

2025-05-22T10:58:39-04:00May 27th, 2025|Nursing|0 Comments
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