Questions Dementia Patients Can’t Answer

by Ann Gordon, via Flickr Photo by Ann Gordon, via Flickr

By Amy M. Collins, editor

A few weeks ago I visited my grandmother, who suffers from dementia, at her assisted living home. In her room, my family and I noticed a complicated form with instructions for residents to get their flu vaccination. Residents had to fill it out, sign it, and bring it to the person administering the vaccine on a certain date. For my grandmother, this would be impossible—she can no longer remember what day it is, when or if she has eaten, who she’s spoken to within the last five minutes, or where her room is located.

When this concern was broached with the front desk of the facility, they seemed to be adamant that she needed to have the form with her on the day of vaccination. We could, of course, help her fill it out—but since it had been given directly to my grandmother, who was to say we would have ever learned of it except by chance? And who would make sure she brought it with her on the day of vaccination?

While the facility offers assisted living, they often remark that they are not a “dementia facility.” Looking around, however, one is hard-pressed to find a resident without […]

2016-11-21T13:05:26-05:00February 11th, 2014|patient engagement|14 Comments
Read More

The Hospital as Foreign Country

Capture“A Foreign Place,” the February Reflections essay by Barbara Sosman, delves into one patient’s experience of the sometimes inscrutable, sometimes terrifying, sometimes humorous events and encounters in one small corner of a hospital.

Below are the first two paragraphs, but as always, it’s worth clicking through and reading the entire essay (the PDF version is best). This one would be particularly hard to summarize; it takes us to unexpected places.—Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

The flow of life and death in a hospital is mysterious, like the sound of a foreign language, and the mysteries that bring us here are profound. Stretched out in an unfamiliar hospital bed, I suppress realities, aware that tomorrow a scalpel will remove an enlarged node for a biopsy. The biopsy will show what I sense, a cellular chaos that threatens my life. Soon my disease will be presented like an offering. What will I do with it?

A room can become a universe and time there an infinity. This room is inhabited by women, of whom I am the youngest by decades  . . .

As always, comments are welcome.

Bookmark and Share

2016-11-21T13:05:27-05:00February 7th, 2014|nursing perspective, patient engagement, patient experience|0 Comments
Read More

Not Compatible With Nursing

By Marcy Phipps, RN, a regular contributor to this blog. Her essay, “The Love Song of Frank,” was published in the May (2012) issue of AJN.

photo 1-1 Photo by the author

“His family knows this is not a survivable injury, right?”

This question, posed to me in the doorway of my patient’s room by a trauma surgeon I regard as brilliant, caught me off guard.

“No,” I said. “They don’t know that.”

He frowned at me, mumbled something about false hopes, then moved away to continue his rounds.

This wasn’t the only physician who’d expressed a strong opinion regarding my patient’s mortality—a consultant had deemed his injuries “not compatible with life.” But I’d been caring for this man, as a 1:1 assignment because of his high acuity, for every shift for weeks. It seemed obvious to me that my patient’s continued presence in the ICU—and his relative stability on that particular day—directly opposed the dire predictions. The man’s family did not see his situation as hopeless, and neither did I.

And yet days after the surgeon uttered those words, my patient suffered a complication and became so unstable that for hours he teetered between life and death. The resuscitation effort was massive—and no one mentioned survivability. No one behaved like there was even a shred of futility in bringing to […]

2016-11-21T13:05:28-05:00February 5th, 2014|career, nursing perspective|5 Comments
Read More

Take a Walk: American Heart Month, for Nurses and Everyone Else

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

By Eric Hunt/via Wikimedia Commons By Eric Hunt/via Wikimedia Commons

So we all know what we need to do to prevent heart disease: eat a healthy diet (such as the highly touted Mediterranean diet, which has been “consistently effective with regard to cardiovascular risk”), get regular exercise, and don’t smoke. But most of us—and I’m guilty—don’t quite follow the advice we may give our patients or family members. It’s difficult to carve out time for oneself in addition to working all day (and for most nurses, we’re not talking a nine to five day—many work 12-hour shifts, or at least a 10-hour day if in administrative positions), plus commuting and then spending time with family. If you have school-age children in activities, there are also car pools and homework.

We need to find 30 minutes—or even 20 minutes—daily to jump-start our own engines. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, heart disease kills one in four women and is the leading cause of death for both women and men in the United States. And while genetics certainly plays a part, cardiovascular health is mostly about prevention. So make a 30-minute appointment with yourself and stick to it.

The American Heart Association (AHA) initiative highlighting heart disease in February is a good reminder to us all, especially in the […]

2016-11-21T13:05:31-05:00February 3rd, 2014|nursing perspective, personal health practices|0 Comments
Read More

AJN’s February Issue: New Nurses, Children’s Posttonsillectomy Pain, Medication Errors, More

AJN0214.Cover.Online

AJN’s February issue is now available on our Web site. Here’s a selection of what not to miss, including two continuing education (CE) articles, which you can access for free.

With high hospital turnover rates, keeping newly licensed RNs (NLRNs) continues to be a priority for hospitals. This month’s original research article, “Changing Trends in Newly Licensed RNs,” found that new nurses considered themselves to have fewer job opportunities and to be less likely to work in hospitals and more likely to have a second job than new nurses who were surveyed six years earlier. Earn 2.5 CE credits by reading this article and taking the test that follows.

Tonsillectomy is effective at treating a variety of pediatric disorders, such as sleep apnea and frequent throat infection. But it often results in prolonged, moderate-to-severe pain. “Posttonsillectomy Pain in Children” reviews the causes of posttonsillectomy pain, the efficacy of various treatment interventions, and the recommendations for patient and family teaching regarding pain management. Earn 2.3 CE credits by reading this article and taking the test that follows. If you’re reading AJN on your iPad, you can listen to a podcast interview with the author by tapping on the podcast icon on the first page. The podcast is also available on our Web site.

According to an Institute of Medicine report, at least 1.5 million preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the U.S every […]

2016-11-21T13:05:32-05:00January 31st, 2014|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
Read More

Comment ground rules

1. Please be respectful.
2. We moderate all comments.

Content disclaimer

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.
Go to Top