Earth Day 2016: A Call for Less Toxic Homes, Safer Health Care Facilities

By Barbara Polivka, PhD, RN, professor and Shirley B. Powers Endowed Chair of Nursing Research, University of Louisville, Kentucky

EarthNASAAs we celebrate the 46th Earth Day, it’s good to look back.

  • Earth Day was founded by U.S. senator Gaylord Nelson and started as a national environmental teach-in on April 22, 1970. An estimated 20 million Americans gathered that day at sites across the nation.
  • An important result of the enormous public response to the first Earth Day celebration was the subsequent creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act.
  • Earth Day became an international celebration in 1971 when the UN Secretary General talked about it at a Peace Bell Ceremony in New York City.

Earth Day is a time to think about how we affect the environment and how we are affected by the environment.

Health Care Without Harm is an international organization promoting environmental health and justice. If you aren’t familiar with Health Care Without Harm I urge you to go to their web site to see how health care organizations are decreasing their environmental impact. Health care facilities are taking the following steps:

2016-11-21T13:01:17-05:00April 22nd, 2016|Ethics, Nursing|0 Comments
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Zika Virus Update: Epidemiology, Sexual Transmission, Pregnancy

By Betsy Todd, MPH, RN, CIC, clinical editor

A close view of a repellent product being sprayed on a person's hand in Brasilia, Brazil, 27 January 2016. The Brazilian government announced that repellent products will be given for free to pregnant women registered in the assistance programs to avoid Zika contagion. EPA/FERNANDO BIZERRA JR. Mosquito repellant being sprayed on a person’s hand in Brazil. EPA

Zika virus is now being actively transmitted in 42 countries, primarily in the Americas and on islands in the South Pacific. As of April 13th, there had been 358 travel-associated cases reported in the U.S., including 31 pregnant women.

While there are as yet no locally acquired U.S. cases, local transmission has been established in several U.S. territories (primarily, Puerto Rico). Travel-associated cases are expected to continue in the U.S., almost certainly leading to eventual limited local transmission.

Transmission. Most cases of Zika virus infection have been vector-borne—that is, they resulted from the bite of an infected mosquito. Other […]

2016-11-21T13:01:17-05:00April 20th, 2016|infectious diseases, Nursing, Public health|11 Comments
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Drawing Attention to Lax Oversight of Problem Nurses, Plus One Caution

ProPublica storyBy Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

New York does not require applicants for nursing licenses to undergo simple background checks or submit fingerprints, tools that can identify those with criminal histories and flag subsequent legal problems. And it often takes years for New York to discipline nurses who provide inept care, steal drugs or physically abuse patients.

That’s from a recent ProPublica story on lax oversight of New York State nurses. Back in 2008, the same independent investigative journalism organization, in partnership with the Los Angeles Times, investigated lax policies of the California Board of Nursing that allowed nurses (both RNs and LPNs) with serious criminal convictions to continue to be licensed. (See our report on this and the editorial by then-editor-in-chief Diana Mason in the March 2009 issue.)

In this month’s story, ProPublica reporters Daniela Porat and colleagues turn their sights on New York State’s nurses. They detail the policy issues and systemic gaps that lead to poor oversight by the state education department’s Office of Health Professions, such as lack of background checks, relying on self-report of infractions, and no requirement for fingerprinting. Many other states have adopted more rigorous approaches. The report offers several compelling cases to drive home the point that investigations are often inadequate and disciplinary action often not taken, allowing many nurses who should not be practicing to […]

2017-07-12T18:22:28-04:00April 18th, 2016|career, Nursing|3 Comments
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‘Do You Consider Yourself Healthy?’ Study Sheds Light on RNs’ Lifestyle Practices

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Over the past decade, the lifestyle practices of nurses and their connection to quality of care and patient outcomes have been gaining attention. Indeed, according to the patient-centered, relationship-based care model, one of the main conditions for optimal care is that providers engage in healthy self-care behaviors. Yet there is some evidence suggesting that RNs don’t consistently do so, especially when it comes to exercise and stress reduction—even when they believe they should.

Nurse researchers Karen Thacker and colleagues recently conducted a study to learn more. They report their findings in this month’s CE–Original Research feature, “An Investigation into the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Practices of RNs.” Here’s a brief summary:

Purpose: To gather baseline data on the health-promoting lifestyle practices of RNs working in six major health care and educational institutions in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Methods: The 52-item Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II instrument was used to explore participants’ self-reported health-promoting behaviors and measure six dimensions: health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, interpersonal relations, spiritual growth, and stress management.
Results: Findings revealed that physical activity and stress management scores were low for the entire group of RNs. There were statistically significant differences between nurses 50 years of age and older and those 30 to 39 years of age for the subscales of health responsibility, nutrition, and stress management, suggesting that older nurses are more concerned about their […]

2016-11-21T13:01:18-05:00April 15th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research, personal health practices|0 Comments
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A Room with A View: Physical Environments and Healing

By Betsy Todd, clinical editor, MPH, RN, CIC

Illustration by Janet Hamlin for AJN. All rights reserved. Illustration by Janet Hamlin for AJN. All rights reserved.

Computers, alarms, automated drug dispensing, complex medical protocols—the ways in which we provide care have changed a lot over the past 30 years. Has forced multitasking made us forget that, buried beneath the printouts and data, there is a human being in need of support?

In this month’s AJN, author Joy Washburn shares the story of David, a man with advanced Parkinson’s disease whose medical condition results in his transfer from a cheerful rehab setting to a long-term care bed in the same facility. While his old room in rehab overlooked gardens and a children’s play area, the new room faces a parking lot. To make matters worse, no one seems to have prepared David for the move, and many nurses erroneously assume that his advanced physical disability means that he is also cognitively impaired.   […]

2016-11-21T13:01:18-05:00April 13th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing stories, nursing students, patient engagement, Patients|1 Comment
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