The Huddle: A New Mother’s Experience of Discharge Planning

By Amy M. Collins, AJN managing editor

John Martinez Pavliga/Flickr Creative Commons By John Martinez Pavliga/Flickr Creative Commons

Three months ago, I gave birth to my first child under somewhat traumatic circumstances. After a fast and furious labor onset, I was all set to be given an epidural when I was informed the baby’s heart rate had dropped dramatically and I needed to have an emergency C-section. Thankfully, everything turned out okay, and my son was born healthy.

Nurses changed shifts every 12 hours during my four-day hospital stay, and each of them provided excellent care. They spent massive amounts of time with me, helping me to get up and walk around, showing me how to expertly swaddle my baby like a burrito, and even helping me get the hang of feeding my child.

On my last day, two nurses were assigned to get me ready for my discharge. They had tons of printed information for me on postnatal care, wound care, postpartum depression, etc. I was told by one of the nurses that we were going to now have a “mother–child huddle.” She then said to the other nurse, with what I took to be a little irony in her tone, “Are you ready for the mother–child huddle?” Curious, I asked why the emphasis on the word.

“I just think the word ‘huddle’ is silly,” she said, adopting a […]

The Challenge of Bearing Witness to Patient and Family Suffering

“How do I honor this pain so that it teaches and blesses and does not destroy?”

By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor

Illustration by Neil Brennan. All rights reserved. Illustration by Neil Brennan. All rights reserved.

This month’s Reflections essay (“Why?“) is by a pediatric chaplain. As the title indicates, it’s about the questions we all ask in the face of suffering and loss. The precipitating event for the author is the baffled, enraged cry of a father who has lost a child, and her own struggles with the impossibility of giving an acceptable answer—to the child’s parents, or to herself as a daily witness of loss and suffering.

How does a chaplain, or for that matter a nurse, witness the pain of patients and their families time and again and keep from either shutting down or being overwhelmed by the stress and emotion? As we’re often reminded, self-care matters or there’s nothing to give the next time: yoga, gardening, humor, family, cooking, whatever works for a person. Is it enough? Yes, and no, says the author. Here’s an excerpt:  […]

An Unending Series of Challenges: APIC Highlights the ‘New Normal’ in Infection Control

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

Panelists to the Opening Plenary, Mary Lou Manning, Michael Bell, CDC, Russell Olmsted, Trinity Health, Phillip W. Smith, Nebraska Biocontainment Unit discuss various topics pertaining to infection control. APIC panelists (APIC president Mary Lou Manning; Michael Bell, CDC; Russell Olmsted, Trinity Health; Phillip W. Smith, Nebraska Biocontainment Unit) discuss various topics pertaining to infection control.

At the 42nd annual conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), held in late June in Nashville, experts from around the world shared information and insights aimed at infection preventionists but of interest to nurses in many practice settings.

APIC president Mary Lou Manning, PhD, CRNP, CIC, FAAN, opened the first plenary with the observation that to be presented with an unending series of challenges is the “new normal” in infection control and prevention. Collaboration is more important than ever in health care, she said, and “there is strength in our combined efforts.”

Cathryn Murphy, PhD, […]

Have a Safe and Happy 4th of July Weekend

If you’re in the U.S., we hope you enjoy the long 4th of July weekend.

By Bob Jagendorf/via Flickr By Bob Jagendorf/via Flickr

Wherever you are, and this blog’s readers are sometimes surprisingly far-flung, we will be back with new posts on Monday, the 6th of July.

AJN July Issue: Hepatitis Update, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Nursing’s Blind Spots, More

World_Hepatitis_Day_AJN_July_CoverOn the cover of AJN‘s July issue is the 2015 logo for World Hepatitis Day, which takes place on July 28. About 400 million people around the globe live with viral hepatitis, a disease that kills 1.4 million people every year—approximately 4,000 a day. While incidences of hepatitis A and B have declined in the United States in recent years, hepatitis C infection, formerly stable or in decline, has risen at an alarming rate. To learn more about hepatitis in the U.S.—and the role nurses can play in prevention and treatment—read our July CE, “Viral Hepatitis: New U.S. Screening Recommendations, Assessment Tools, and Treatments.”

The article reviews the epidemiology and diagnosis of viral hepatitis, new screening recommendations and innovations in assessment and treatment, and an updated action plan from the Department of Health and Human Services, in which nurses can play an important role in the coordination of care.

Some other articles of note in the June issue:

• CE feature: “Nursing Management of Patients with Ehlers–Danlos Syndrome.” An often debilitating condition, Ehlers–Danlos Syndrome (EDS) refers to a group of hereditary connective tissue disorders that has historically been misunderstood and underdiagnosed due to a lack of familiarity with its signs and symptoms. As awareness and recognition of the syndrome improve, nurses are increasingly likely to care for patients with EDS. This article gives an overview of […]

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