How a Nurse Helped My Health Anxiety

IF Photo by Sheila Steele, via Flickr.

By Amy M. Collins, editor

As a person who suffers from health anxiety, going to the doctor is always an ordeal. While some hypochondriacs tend to seek medical care with fervor, I am of the variety that avoids it at all costs. Unless it’s necessary.

Recently I had a necessary diagnostic test that involved a contrast agent. Several things about the test worried me. I was told it might hurt; I’d never had a contrast agent before (and on House—a show I should never watch—patients are always allergic to it!); and I was afraid that during the exam I would panic, faint, or cry.

Some people might be thinking: “suck it up!”—and I wouldn’t blame them. But I promise you, this isn’t something I’m proud of. I’d love to be more stoic when it comes to medical procedures/visits. Unfortunately, anxiety is a real thing. It is illogical and it can sometimes take over one’s senses. I spent the days preceding the test sleepless and tense. […]

2016-11-21T13:04:21-05:00July 1st, 2014|Nursing|1 Comment
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A Child’s Story, or Why She Became a Nurse

Illustration by Anne Horst. All rights reserved. Illustration by Anne Horst. All rights reserved.

Day in and day out, a child lives in fear. Her stomach often twists in knots of pain for hours before the pain fades away. The doctors can find no medical reason for the pain. Her mother angrily accuses her of faking it, of being more trouble than she’s worth. The child is often told how stupid she is. Though her father sometimes protects her, at times his medication doesn’t work and he transforms from a caring protective father into a crazed abusive one. Even when the child is unharmed, she stays in a constant state of panic as soon as she walks in her front door.

That’s the opening paragraph of this month’s Reflections essay. “A Child’s Story” is a tough read. It’s about child abuse, helplessness, the will to endure, about those who help and those who don’t. In the end, it’s a hopeful story, despite everything. The story is also a reminder of just how much the decision to become a nurse means to some people. Here’s a brief excerpt, but we hope you’ll read the entire short essay (click on the article title above).—Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

 

 
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2016-11-21T13:04:25-05:00June 30th, 2014|career, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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AJN’s July Issue: Diabetes and Puberty, Getting Patient Input, Quality Measures, Professional Boundaries, More

AJN0714.Cover.OnlineAJN’s July issue is now available on our Web site. Here’s a selection of what not to miss.

Diabetes and puberty. On our cover this month, 17-year-old Trenton Jantzi tests his blood sugar before football practice. Trenton has type 1 diabetes and is one of a growing number of children and adolescents in the United States who have  been diagnosed with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The physical and psychological changes of puberty can add to the challenges of diabetes management. Nurses are well positioned to help patients and their families understand and meet these challenges.

To learn more more about the physical and behavioral changes experienced by adolescents with diabetes, see this month’s CE feature, “Diabetes and Puberty: A Glycemic Challenge,” and earn 2.6 CE credits by taking the test that follows the article. And don’t miss a podcast interview with the author, one of her […]

2016-11-21T13:04:26-05:00June 27th, 2014|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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Providing Culturally Sensitive Care: It Takes More Than Knowledge

By Karen Roush, AJN clinical managing editor. Photos by the author.

DSC_0136One Saturday a few weeks ago I grabbed my camera and headed out to spend the afternoon taking photographs around the city. I ended up wandering around the streets of Chinatown, photographing the street life—the rows of fresh fish on piles of ice, the colorful patterns of vegetables in crates outside shops, old women in variations of plaid and flowered housedresses lined up on a bench, children scattering clusters of pigeons.

Eventually I happened upon a vigorous and highly skilled game of handball in a park. The competitors were predominately young Asian men, though there were a few Hispanic men playing too. Standing next to me, a young man was telling his friend about a clever way a mutual friend had devised to get out of paying a parking ticket. If you live in New York, or almost any big city, you will earn yourself a parking ticket or two at some point. Intrigued by this man’s idea, I asked him if it actually worked and he assured me it did. Then he rolled his eyes and said, “Oh no, I shouldn’t have said anything. Once the white people know, that’s the end of it!” […]

2016-11-21T13:04:26-05:00June 25th, 2014|career, nursing perspective, nursing research|1 Comment
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Takeaways from 2014 ANA Membership Assembly

Pamela Cipriano, incoming ANA president Pamela Cipriano, incoming ANA president

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

So far, so good

In June, the American Nurses Association (ANA) convened its second membership assembly, which included representatives of constituent and state nurses associations, individual members groups and affiliated entities, plus the board of directors. (This is the structure that replaced the House of Delegates as the official governing body of the ANA, when ANA restructured in 2012. See our 2012 report on the restructuring.)

The assembly was preceded by ANA’s annual Lobby Day on June 12th, in which nurses visited legislators on Capitol Hill to talk up legislation important to nursing, like bills on staffing, safe patient handling, and one that would remove barriers to efficient home care services.

This membership assembly was subdued—perhaps a gift for Karen Daley, the outgoing two-term president who shepherded the organization through a turbulent period of change. There were no contentious resolutions to deal with this time—there were only three issues brought to the group through dialogue forums, to develop recommendations for the board of directors:

  • scope of practice (full practice authority for all RNs)
  • integrating palliative care into health care delivery
  • promoting interprofessional health care teams

While the scope of practice topic was ostensibly promoting full practice for ALL RNs, most of the discussion […]

2016-11-21T13:04:27-05:00June 23rd, 2014|career, 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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