Viewpoint: Some Arguments for More Autopsies

Detail from Rembrandt's 'The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp' Detail from Rembrandt’s ‘The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp’

When families ask whether they should get an autopsy, what will you tell them?

When I was a nursing student at the University of Michigan, we learned anatomy by working on human cadavers. The experience left me with a deep appreciation for the beauty of the human body (even when ravaged by disease) and fundamentally shaped my view of a nurse’s role in health and healing.

The Viewpoint essay in the August issue of AJN, “When Families Ask About an Autopsy,” reemphasizes the role of the human body as a teaching tool. Author Billie Holladay Skelley points out that autopsies can also

  • provide definitive answers about the cause of death (offering reassurance to family members).
  • reveal undiagnosed genetic conditions.
  • improve our understanding of diseases and disease trends.
  • and foster advances in treatment.

Virtual or minimally invasive autopsies may be more acceptable to some families while still offering some of the benefits of a full autopsy. […]

2016-11-21T13:01:01-05:00August 19th, 2016|Nursing|0 Comments
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AJN Blog Subscribers: Four Old Blog Posts Were Sent Out in Error Today

A mea culpa to AJN blog subscribers. System glitch!

If you received four new posts today in your inboxes, they were sent out in error. These are in fact old posts that we were just updating in small technical ways, and notifications should not have gone out to subscribers about these posts.

Very sorry to flood your inboxes! Of course, having said that, some of these posts are still very much worth a read….800px-Woman-typing-on-laptop

2016-11-21T13:01:01-05:00August 18th, 2016|Nursing|0 Comments
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Nurses Take Action on Moral Distress

Nurses gather at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing to address this growing problem.

A nurse struggles to reconcile repeated surgeries and transfusions for a premature infant with the child’s slight chance of survival. An oncology nurse knows a patient wants to refuse treatment but doesn’t do so because his physician and family want him to “fight on.” A nurse on a geriatric unit knows she is not giving needed care to patients because of inadequate staffing.

From left, Katherine Brown-Saltzman, Kathryn Trotochaud, Lisa Lehmann, Heidi Holtz From left, Katherine Brown-Saltzman,
Paula Goodman-Crews, Lisa Lehmann, Heidi Holtz

Situations like these are not rare for nurses and often give rise to moral distress—that is, when nurses recognize their responsibility to respond to care situations but are unable to translate their moral choices into action.

Moral distress in nursing has risen to unprecedented levels, contributing to burnout and staff shortages and imperiling safe, quality health care.

Seeking solutions.

Nursing researchers, clinicians, organization representatives, and other stakeholders convened in Baltimore on August 11-12 for an intense invitational workshop called State of the Science Symposium: Transforming Moral Distress to Moral Resiliency in Nursing. The meeting focused on how to best address moral distress.

The 46 participants heard from experts […]

2017-02-03T14:50:26-05:00August 16th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Former Navy Nurse Raises Awareness About the Lingering Effects of Agent Orange

Susan Schnall and a group of children at Tu Du Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, in 2008. Susan Schnall and a group of children at Tu Du Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, in 2008.

On August 10, 1961, the United States military first sprayed Agent Orange, a defoliant containing a particularly toxic dioxin compound, in Vietnam. Fifty-five years later, the effects of this and other chemicals linger on. And 48 years after former naval nurse Susan Schnall was court-martialed for protesting the Vietnam War, she visited Vietnam for the first time and witnessed these effects firsthand.

“In all my years in health care, I have never seen children with such severe birth defects,” Schnall said during an interview with AJN. After her court-martial, Schnall went on to have a successful 30-year career in hospital administration. After retiring and visiting Vietnam, she decided she needed to do something about what she witnessed there.

Schnall joined a group called the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign, made up of American Vietnam Veterans, Vietnamese Americans, social activists, and community leaders. The group aims to educate the public on the repercussions of the chemical warfare used in Southeast Asia […]

2016-11-21T13:01:01-05:00August 15th, 2016|nursing perspective, nursing stories, Public health|0 Comments
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AJN News: E-Cigarettes and Children, Transgender Health, Nursing Workforce Survey, More

AJN’s monthly news section covers timely and important research and policy stories that are relevant to the nursing world. Here are some of the stories you’ll find in our current issue (news articles in AJN are free access):

E-cigarette packaging uses colorful images to depict various flavors. Photo by David Becker / Reuters.

Toxic Exposures of Young Children to E-Cigarettes on the Rise

A new analysis of calls to U.S. poison control centers found that e-cigarette exposures in children younger than six increased dramatically from 2012 to 2015. Though child-resistant packaging for e-cigarette products was federally mandated in January, advocates are also calling for regulations on eye-catching packaging, […]

2016-11-21T13:01:02-05:00August 11th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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