Off the Charts

Women’s History Month 2023: Telling Our (Nursing) Stories

The National Women’s History Alliance organizes Women’s History Month each March. This year, the theme, “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories,” was picked to draw attention to “women in every community who have devoted their lives and talents to producing art, pursuing truth, and reflecting the human condition decade after decade.” To this end, the organization has been highlighting such literary notables as Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Gloria Steinem, and Willa Cather, among others.

For Women’s History Month in March 2015, I wrote an editorial in AJN discussing the importance of knowing nursing history and pointing out that as a female-majority profession, nursing’s history is closely entwined with women’s history. Nurses have made significant contributions to developing the health system of this country—indeed, community health services, school health, and public health were built through the efforts of nurses. […]

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2023-03-20T09:54:13-04:00March 20th, 2023|Nursing|0 Comments

Access to Abortion Medications: Why Should Nurses Care?

She sat in my office, tissue in hand, tears rolling down her cheeks as she tried to process the news I’d just confirmed: she was pregnant, and really, really needed to not be. She was living in her brother’s small house, her seven-year-old son with her, sleeping on a sofa while trying to put her life back together after a divorce. She had chronic kidney disease, and had been told that another pregnancy could cause kidney failure.

She didn’t really believe abortion was a good thing to do, but also couldn’t imagine that God would want her to go on dialysis. For the most part I listened, asking a question here and there to help her clarify her own thoughts. Ultimately, she decided on an abortion, so I referred her to the closest clinic, several hours away from the rural town we met in.

Medication Abortion in the United States

By Robin Marty/Flickr Creative Commons

Even before the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, abortion was difficult to access for people living in many regions of the country. TRAP (targeted regulation of abortion providers) laws forced many clinics to close, making abortion access challenging if not impossible even though every American was legally, constitutionally permitted to make her own decision.

Last year, […]

Guest Author2023-03-16T09:55:52-04:00March 16th, 2023|Ethics, Nursing, Patients, Public health, women's health|0 Comments

A Curricular Blind Spot: Skin Assessment for Patients with Dark Skin Tone

The Time to Build Assessment Skills for Dark Skin Tone is Now

As a faculty member teaching prelicensure nursing for nearly three decades and a former adult critical care nurse, I have had the opportunity to review countless nursing textbooks. Unfortunately, we have a serious curricular blind spot regarding caring for and assessing conditions in dark skin tone patients. It is time we provide equitable education and patient care to all human beings of all skin tones for safe and effective care.

Development of Descriptive Terms for Dark Skin Tone Conditions

Consensus is needed for new and revised standard definitions of the terms and protocols currently in nursing textbooks and teaching-learning materials to incorporate dark skin tone. Terms such as erythema, pink, pallor, and non-blanching are some of the terms that need new descriptions reflecting how they represent or manifest in dark skin tone.

In addition, skin assessment protocols, guidelines, images, and overall protocols—pressure injury stages, the skin color […]

Guest Author2023-03-13T09:11:11-04:00March 13th, 2023|equity, Nursing|3 Comments

Tuning in to Humor in Nursing

1. Nurses Don’t Have to Make This Stuff Up

Photo by Kah Lok Leong on Unsplash

During a fire drill the nurse, Kathryn, was closing doors to patients’ rooms. An 86-year-old patient was talking on the phone to her daughter when Kathryn reached her room. As Kathryn started to shut the patient’s door, the woman asked, “What’s that ringing noise?”

“Don’t worry,” Kathryn said. “We’re just having a little fire drill.”

As she was leaving, Kathryn heard the woman tell her daughter, “No, everything’s just fine, dear. The hospital’s on fire but a nice little nurse just came to lock me in my room.”

Having worked as a nurse, as well as having interviewed hundreds of nurses over the years, I can attest that you don’t have to make this stuff up. Yet nurses from coast to coast right now are telling me, “There’s nothing funny happening in my life.”

Having studied the brain and humor for decades, I can tell you that if that is your belief, that will also be your reality. Telling yourself there’s nothing funny around you will wire your reticular activating system to show you just that—nothing funny.

Even during times of chaos—overwhelming patient census, lack of resources, staffing shortages—humorous material […]

Guest Author2023-03-07T13:20:16-05:00March 7th, 2023|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing stories|2 Comments

March Issue: Preventing Functional Decline in Hospitalized Older Adults, Tumor Lysis Syndrome, More

“Nurses do the big things, but I am thankful for all the small things: for bringing peace in the eye of the storm…for providing us coordinates when we felt lost…for making us laugh—for doing the things that we remember, the things that last years later.”—Holly Bills in this month’s Reflections article, “The Little Things Nurses Do”

The March issue of AJN is now live. Here’s what’s new. Some articles may be free only to subscribers.

CE: Tumor Lysis Syndrome: An Oncologic Emergency

What nurses need to know about preventing and treating this serious condition, including recognizing its clinical presentation, identifying at-risk patients, and monitoring and managing symptoms and laboratory values.

Original Research: Impact of a Bedside Activity Device on the Functional Status of Hospitalized Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial

This pilot study evaluated the use of a device equipped with exergames—interactive video games that incorporate physical exercise—in preventing functional decline and increasing patients’ independence in basic activities of daily living.

Skin Assessment in Patients with Dark Skin Tone

The authors provide basic information about the assessment of dark skin tone and call for action in academia and professional practice to ensure the performance of effective skin assessments in all patients.

Diane Szulecki, editor2023-02-27T09:43:34-05:00February 27th, 2023|Nursing|0 Comments

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Medication Abortion in the United States

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The Time to Build Assessment Skills for Dark Skin Tone is Now

Development of Descriptive Terms for Dark Skin Tone Conditions

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1. Nurses Don’t Have to Make This Stuff Up

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