Off the Charts

PPE’s Contribution to the Plastic Pandemic

“It’s estimated that it could take 450 years to completely decompose a surgical mask.”

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is critically important for health care workers; however, use of PPE is also contributing to environmental disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic and the monkeypox outbreak underscore how crucial protecting frontline workers is for their health and for public health at large. What is yet unclear are the environmental implications of our extensive PPE use during the pandemic. Nurses must have prominent voices at the table when discussing the future of PPE and how to deal with waste.

In the United Kingdom alone it was reported that over a period of just 53 days, 748 million PPE items were used in hospitals. In 2020, over 6.76 billion PPE items were distributed in England, three times the usual amount. Several countries reported over a 350% increase in medical waste during the height of the pandemic. During two years of the pandemic, it’s estimated that over 900 million tons of plastic waste was generated.

This ‘plastic pandemic,’ which is now a global threat that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, began in the 1850s when early forms of plastic began replacing natural materials. Despite recycling efforts, over 60% of plastics are estimated to remain […]

Guest Author2022-09-20T09:37:57-04:00September 20th, 2022|environmental health, environmental health, Public health|0 Comments

We Haven’t Made You Better: Orthopedic Trauma and Emotional Healing

Learning that healing the body isn’t always enough.

For much of my career as a trauma ICU nurse and orthopedic trauma nurse practitioner, I focused on building my knowledge of pathophysiology and mastering the assessment and procedural skills required to care for trauma survivors. After a decade of practice, I felt like I had entered the “expert” phase of clinical competence described by Dr. Patricia Benner in AJN in 1982.

But I was completely ignorant of a giant hole in my practice. A trauma survivor pointed out this gap during a routine clinic visit. Ms. H was six months removed from an ankle fracture she’d suffered in a motor vehicle collision on her way to work one morning. On exam, she had regained full strength and range of motion, the fracture was healed on radiographs, and her pain was limited to a minor ache after extended activity. She’d healed remarkably.

I told her that she had done an excellent job with her recovery and could resume her life, including going to work. I’ve come to believe that Ms. H’s response to this assertion changed my entire perspective on patient care. “I can’t go back to work,” she said. “Since the accident, I can’t get in a car without having panic attacks.”

I […]

Guest Author2022-09-16T11:39:37-04:00September 16th, 2022|Nursing, nursing research, Patients|0 Comments

Primary Nursing of Medically Complex Children in the ICU Increases Parental Trust

Differing views about quality of life.

Photo by Pat Smith/Pexels

As medical care has become increasingly advanced in its ability to prolong life in the face of serious, chronic illness, it has also presented complicated challenges for both the caregivers and care-receivers alike. This holds especially true when we venture into the thorny, subjective realm of “quality of life.”

Sam was a patient with serious chronic illness and severe developmental disability who had been in and out of our pediatric ICU for many years. His most recent nine-month hospitalization had been the most frightening and uncertain thus far, and the gap between the perspectives of the medical team and Sam’s mom had became more apparent. The medical team speculated whether Sam was approaching the end of his life, while his mom asked us to continue doing all we could to maximize Sam’s physical longevity.

Unspoken questions also involved our struggle to measure what exactly comprises “enough” quality of life to justify the continued offering of health care resources. It’s an inevitable struggle with scarce resources and the monetization of quality of life, particularly with a chronically ill, severely disabled child who can feel so “other” to those of us living “normal” lives.

Parents come to our unit seeking care […]

Hui-wen Sato, MSN, MPH, RN, CCRN2022-09-14T10:01:23-04:00September 14th, 2022|family experience, nursing roles, pediatrics|1 Comment

Nurse Salaries Rose Last Year—But Will They Hold?

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

Median RN salaries in the United States rose by $5,000 from 2020 to 2021, while median advanced practice RN salaries jumped $13,000, according to the Nurse.com’s 2022 Nurse Salary Research Report. The report was based on the responses of 2,516 nurses to an online survey conducted in November and December of 2021. This and other data on nurses’ salaries are reported on in an article in AJN’s September In the News column.

Some other highlights from the report include:

Nurses in all regions of the United States reported gains except in the region comprising Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington DC, where the RN median salary dropped by $4,000 in 2020.
The median salary across all three licensed groups was $89,590 for union nurses compared with $75,000 for nonunion nurses.
The report suggests that a gender pay gap among RNs widened in 2021, with male RNs earning $14,000 higher than the median salary for female RNs. (However, the sample size of male respondents was disproportionately small, and differences in clinical setting, higher acuity specialties, and certification levels—all of which influence pay—were not explored.)

[…]

Amy M. Collins, managing editor2022-09-08T08:18:13-04:00September 8th, 2022|Nursing|0 Comments

School Nurses Teaching Lifesaving Skills to Children

A scary moment in the home.

One weekend morning, my then-six-year-old son ran into the kitchen holding a half-eaten piece of fruit and looking panicked. He and his brothers had just finished eating breakfast before rushing off to play a game in the next room. Only a faint wheeze emerged when my son tried to breathe. He was choking.

Years earlier, my husband and I had taken a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid class for new parents taught by paramedics and nurses at our local community center. We immediately used techniques we’d practiced in that class to successfully dislodge the food, and our son recovered fully. That long-ago instruction had not only given us the knowledge needed to clear our son’s airway but also the confidence to do so calmly during a frightening moment.

A 4th-grader learns proper technique for chest compressions and how to use an AED. Photo by Dulce Rodriguez.

Collaborating with the community to empower students.

In our May issue In Our Community column, nurses in the Klein Independent School District in Harris County, Texas, describe how they have been instilling this combination of lifesaving […]

Corinne McSpedon, senior editor2022-09-01T08:29:18-04:00September 1st, 2022|Nursing, Public health, school nurses|0 Comments

PPE’s Contribution to the Plastic Pandemic

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We Haven’t Made You Better: Orthopedic Trauma and Emotional Healing

Learning that healing the body isn’t always enough.

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Primary Nursing of Medically Complex Children in the ICU Increases Parental Trust

Differing views about quality of life.

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Nurse Salaries Rose Last Year—But Will They Hold?

Some other highlights from the report include:

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School Nurses Teaching Lifesaving Skills to Children

A scary moment in the home.

Collaborating with the community to empower students.

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