Off the Charts

Calciphylaxis: The Intriguing Case of Ms. W.

Ms. W. post-recovery, with her husband

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

“I survived, although I had been told that I’d eventually die from infection in the wounds.”

In one of this month’s two CE features, “Calciphylaxis: An Unusual Case with an Unusual Outcome,” Tina Wangen and colleagues report on the intriguing story of L.W., a 40-year-old patient who, aside from being female, had no other known risk factors for the disease. Here’s an overview of the article:

Calciphylaxis is most common in patients with end-stage renal disease, and hyperparathyroidism is often present as well. But several cases in patients with normal renal and parathyroid function have been reported; this article describes one such case. The etiology and pathophysiology of calciphylaxis aren’t well understood. There are many risk factors, and the reported median survival time is 2.6 months after diagnosis. The condition is characterized by isolated or multiple lesions that progress to firm, nonulcerated plaques and then to ischemic skin necrosis and ulceration.
In August 2010, a female patient arrived at the hospital with multiple deep, painful necrotic wounds. Given this patient’s presentation on admission, the nurses kept expecting the physicians to initiate end-of-life discussions with her and were surprised when this did not happen. After five days, the patient was diagnosed with calciphylaxis in the unusual presentation of […]

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Guest Author2017-07-27T14:44:29-04:00October 10th, 2014|Nursing, Patients|3 Comments

How Do You Want to Be Cared For?

The patient in the next bed by mynameisharsha / Harsha K R, via Flickr

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

How do you want to be cared for?

Have you written your own personal nursing care plan? I’m not asking about your health care proxy or living will; most nurses have seen enough disastrous end-of-life scenarios to understand the need for formal advance directives. But if you become comatose or unable to communicate, what small pleasures would ease your suffering? What sights and sounds would promote healing for you, or ease your dying?

I’m often dismayed by the thoughtlessness of some staff regarding what their patients see and hear. Nurses will tune an unconscious patient’s television to the staff’s favorite soap opera, or blast the music of their own choice from the patient’s radio. I’ve witnessed staff talking on cell phones, and even arguing loudly with other staff, as though the person in the bed weren’t even there. When did we lose our attentiveness to patients as unique individuals? […]

Betsy Todd, MPH, RN2016-11-21T13:03:47-05:00October 8th, 2014|Nursing, nursing perspective, Patients|2 Comments

As Sepsis Awareness Increases and Guidelines Change, Timing Remains Crucial

By Amanda Anderson, a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City who is currently doing a graduate placement at AJN two days a week.

stopwatch/wikimedia commons

September was Sepsis Awareness Month, but the urgency of the issue didn’t disappear when the month ended. I still remember my first day in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) I’d soon call home. I was shadowing the charge nurse, and an admission had just come in from the ED.

“Here, we need a CVP setup.” A crinkly bag of normal saline and a matching package containing something evidently important were shoved into my hands—a medical football passed to the only open player.

Very quickly, I would learn what a CVP, or central venous pressure, was and to monitor it. I would learn all about sepsis, and septic shock, and the treatment of its devastating process. Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) was a primer for my care in this unit, and on my first day off of orientation, I was entrusted with one of its full-blown victims: Septic shock from pneumonia, causing respiratory, renal, and heart failure. Learning to spike a bag of saline for a CVP transducer was just my first step into the vast and complicated land of sepsis management.

This was 2007. Sometimes, as in all hospitals, care was delayed and septic patients sat without timely treatment for hours. Back then, we tubed people, snowed people, and flooded people. […]

Amanda Anderson, MPA, MSN, RN2016-11-21T13:03:47-05:00October 6th, 2014|Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments

10 Good Things About Being an Older Nurse

Alice Facente, MSN, RN, is a community health education nurse in Connecticut. Her Reflections essays, “At Her Mercy” and “The Dirtiest House in Town,” were published, respectively, in the August 2009 and January 2010 issues of AJN.

Puddle Reflection/by joiseyshowaa, via Flickr

I recently passed a professional career milestone: 40 years since I’d graduated from nursing school. When I began my career, nurses still wore white starched caps and white uniforms. I don’t know how we accomplished everything we did with those impractical caps perched on our heads. The shocking realization that four decades had so quickly passed forced me to think about all of the benefits of being a mature, experienced nurse. Right off the top of my head, I thought of 10 things (and yes, these are generalizations and exceptions exist).

1. Older nurses are often more empathetic. Chances are that in the last several decades every older nurse has been a patient, undergone surgery, become a parent and possibly a grandparent, encountered personal financial challenges, experienced the death of a close friend or family member, and much more.
2. Death is not so frightening. Nurses have cared for people at all stages of the life cycle and know that, with planning and preparation, […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:03:49-05:00October 3rd, 2014|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|11 Comments

Unbalanced: The Art of Changing Nursing Roles

Bull and Monkey/graphite, charcoal, acrylic on vellum/by julianna paradisi

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN, writes a monthly post for this blog and works as an infusion nurse in outpatient oncology.

The culture shock experienced by new nurses making the transition from student to professional is well documented. Less well documented is the culture shock seasoned nurses face when changing jobs. Not all nurses are the same. Neither are all nursing jobs.

Working in an unfamiliar setting means being the new guy. You may have been in the top 10 of your nursing class for grades and clinical excellence. Or you may have held a position of leadership in your previous unit. In your new job, you are unknown and unproven.

For nurses changing jobs from high-acuity areas—ICU or bone marrow transplant, say—to an ambulatory clinic, the stress is twofold.

First, there’s a period of grieving the loss of hard-won skills and certifications that are not applicable in the new role.

Then there’s the shock that your skills and experiences did not prepare you for the outpatient setting. Often, the first realization is that high-acuity patients have central lines, so a nurse migrating from such a practice area may not have strong peripheral IV […]

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN2016-11-21T13:03:49-05:00October 1st, 2014|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|10 Comments