Off the Charts

Why Do Journalists Ignore Nurses?

And what are we going to do about it?

We’ve all seen the stories in print or watched the video clips:

In a story about a hospital’s response to a disaster, the hospital administrator and/or a physician describe the actions of the staff, while behind them one can see nurses rushing about.
In a story about patient survival after a harrowing event, it’s the physician alone who is interviewed about the patient’s care and recovery.

Nurses—and nursing’s role—are made invisible; our contributions are devalued, relegated to little more than a backdrop for most stories about health care or news involving delivery of services. And yet we all know that nurses were intimately involved in the event and outcomes. In ignoring nurses’ experiences and perspectives, health care coverage perpetuates nursing’s invisibility and ignores nursing’s central role in health care.

A replication study reports little progress after 20 years.

In the October issue, Diana Mason and colleagues present their report of a study they conducted as an adjunct to their recent replication of the 1997 Woodhull Study on Nursing and the Media. In the replication study,

” . . . nurses were identified as sources in only 2% of health news stories in the same print publications investigated in the earlier study, showing no improvement in […]

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Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2018-10-08T10:41:16-04:00October 8th, 2018|Nursing, nursing perspective|2 Comments

Being a Nurse, or When Did You ‘Grok’ Nursing?

How does one “become” a nurse, as opposed to learning nursing skills? What is “being” a nurse as opposed to “doing” nursing?

On our Facebook page last week, we posted this query: “Professional identity is more than what you do—it’s a part of who you are. What does being a nurse mean to you?” One of the responses we received was, “Caring providers that own it, do right, work together and solve problems with innovative methods to improve care methods and optimize outcomes.

The respondent’s use of “own it” resonated with me: from the thesaurus, to own something means “to possess, preserve, maintain, hold, profess, declare, accept, have possession of…” To me, it hints at holding onto something valuable, being mindful of it and not losing sight of it.

This original post came about because I had recently attended a meeting at the University of Kansas School of Nursing, where a group of about 50 invitees were asked to brainstorm how nursing students develop a professional identity—How does one “become” a nurse, as opposed to learning nursing skills? What is “being” a nurse as opposed to “doing” nursing? Most of us say, when asked what we do, “I’m a nurse,” not “I do nursing.” And some of us identify as […]

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2018-10-05T10:42:29-04:00October 5th, 2018|Nursing, nursing career, nursing perspective|1 Comment

Medical-Surgical Nurses Modeling Resiliency

Resiliency is one way to address not only compassion fatigue, but also the change fatigue that can result from multiple new initiatives, our ever-increasing workload, and major reorganizations and mergers.

The 27th annual convention of the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN), which took place in Orlando September 13–16, offered a wealth of cutting-edge educational presentations along with opportunities for networking and fun. On the second full day of the conference, Marisa Streelman, an AMSN Board member as well as a unit director at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, led a town hall meeting on the subject of workplace resiliency.

Streelman started the session off by defining resiliency as “capable of withstanding shock without permanent rupture.” She reminded us that the benefits of resiliency include “bounce-ability”—the ability to come back from stress stronger than before—and a connection to workmates that helps us to be truly present at work. Resiliency is one way to address not only compassion fatigue, but also the change fatigue that can result from multiple new initiatives, our ever-increasing workload, and major reorganizations and mergers.

Ways to build workplace resiliency.

Streelman pointed out several ways in which we can build workplace resiliency:

make connections with others rather than “going it alone” at work
accept that change is a part of life
move toward goals in a realistic way
look […]
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Betsy Todd, MPH, RN2018-10-03T14:43:20-04:00October 3rd, 2018|Nursing|1 Comment

A Black Nursing Professor’s Personal Calculus in Choosing a Birth Center

“I knew getting pregnant meant that regardless of my socioeconomic status or education, as a black woman I was more than three times as likely to die during labor or in the weeks afterward compared to my white counterparts.”

Recent news stories have drawn attention the dismaying medical experiences of black women during and after childbirth, with even celebrities like Serena Williams and others finding their concerns about potentially life-threatening symptoms going dangerously unheeded by nurses and physicians. The statistics about maternal death from pregnancy or childbirth complications among black women tell us that such stories aren’t isolated examples but part of a larger pattern.

Illustration by Annelisa Ochoa.

A thoughtful professor weighs her options.

All of which makes the personal story told by Sheria Robinson-Lane, an assistant professor of nursing at the University of Michigan, in this month’s Reflections essay (“Birthing by the Numbers“) particularly timely. And yes, nuanced. She knows the numbers and she knows the stories about communication issues experienced by black women with their providers. However, she’s also affiliated with a respected major medical center.

So when she gets pregnant with her second child at age 39, what’s her best course of action in deciding where to have her child? It’s […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2018-10-01T08:20:40-04:00October 1st, 2018|Nursing, nursing perspective, patient experience|0 Comments

October Issue: Treating Hemorrhagic Shock, Pain Management and Opioid Use Disorder, Workplace Violence, More

“Violent behavior seems to be an . . . increasingly frequent occurrence in hospitals and nursing care facilities. More and more, such violence is the result of intentional harm.” —editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy in her October editorial

The October issue of AJN is now live. Here are some of the articles we’re pleased to have a chance to publish this month.

CE: The Use of Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta in Treating Hemorrhagic Shock from Severe Trauma

Efforts to prevent death from hemorrhagic shock have resulted in the emergence of a new tool—resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA), a less invasive option for controlling hemorrhage in noncompressible areas of the body. This article outlines REBOA, describes its evolution, and discusses various considerations, pitfalls, and nursing implications.

CE: Perspectives on Palliative Nursing: Acute Pain Management for People with Opioid Use Disorder

The authors of this article—one in a series on palliative care developed with the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association—discuss how to manage acute pain effectively in patients receiving medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder, which incorporates methadone, buprenorphine, or naltrexone.